Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 92. (Budapest 2000)

Éry, K.: Anthropological studies on a Late Roman Period population at Tác-Margittelep

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Volume 92 Budapest, 2000 pp. 347-453. Anthropological studies on a Late Roman Period population at Tác-Margittelep K. ERY H-}

031 Budapest, Amfiteátrum u. 29, Hungary ERY, K. (2000): Anthropological studies on a Late Roman Period population at Tác - Margittelep. Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 92: 347^t53. Abstract - Physical anthropological studies of the population represented in a cemetery of Tác Margittelep used between AD 380 and 430, yielded the following main results. The majority of children died between 5 to 14 years. 138 of the adult skeletons belonged to males and 151 to females. Daily activities of men and women markedly differed as is shown by the gender-related fractures and lethal injuries. The population belonged to the Europoid great race with a medium stature and a long (dolichocranic) skull. Although the majority of individuals derived from the basic inhabitants of Eastern Transdanubia during the Roman Period, a smaller part with a high and very high stature were most probably immigrants. Data permit the assumption that the people of Tác-Margittelep survived the fall of the Roman Empire and formed part of the Avar Period population in the same area. With 20 tables and 48 figures. INTRODUCTION During the course of excavations at Gorsium, a Roman town in the eastern section of Pannónia in Antiquity, one of its cemeteries was entirely recovered between 1954 and 1978. According to the archaeological dating, these burial grounds may have been in use between AD 380 and 430 (FlTZ 1982). The name of this site is denoted on the basis of modern geography as it lay in the outskirts, named Margittelep, of the village of Tác in Fejér County. Excavation work directed by JENŐ FlTZ, with the assistance of VERA LÁNYI, brought to light 440 graves including the usually well preserved skeletons of 420 individuals. However, the cemetery may be considered only 80% complete from a physical anthropologist's point of view, since skeletons and especially skulls in shallower graves were destroyed by tillage. The osteological remains are housed in the King St. Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár.