Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 95. (Budapest 2003)

Évinger, S.: Paleostomatological investigation of the anthropological findings from the Avar period cemeteries of Toponár and Fészerlak

both genders, but evaluating the number of teeth with enamel hypoplasia, we got data very similar to Toponár'

s, but in this case, the mature females had strikingly few hypoplastic teeth (Tables 6-7). In our opinion, the reasons for this result were the same as in the case of Toponár. DISCUSSION Comparison of the two series With the comparison of the two groups, our goal was to find out whether there were any differences in the examined paleostomatological characters (and in the way of life or in the way of nutrition) between the two socially different people, or not. The ADI, HDI and age index of the two series were very similar to each other. This was a great help from the aspect of the comparison. The basic oral pathological data of both cemeteries can be found in Tables 8-9. The statistical analyses were carried out between the two samples broken down into age groups and sexes in order to give exact information about the real relationship of the dental health of these people. It is very important to emphasize this, because only with the comparison of the data relating to the whole population (Tables 8-9), one would be able to come to wrong conclusions. The frequency of carious teeth, premortem lost teeth and cystae/abscessi relating to the whole population was higher in the sample of Toponár. However, in our opinion, the general dental status of the two populations is very similar to each other and the differences in the examined alterations are mainly originating from only one group, the adult females of Toponár. Namely, several of them had a very poor dental status. The values of the average number of alterations (carious teeth, premortem lost teeth or cystae/abscessi) per affected individual (Table 3), which were the highest with them, are verifying this. In addition, because of the small samples, this single group was able to change the results concerning the whole sample extensively, and this way they enlarged the originally insignificant differences between the two people. For example, differences in the number of cystae/ abscessi (Tables 3, 6) were very small between the same groups of the two cemeteries, and in every case, the people of Fészerlak had more cystae/abscessi with the exception of the adult females' group, where frequency was much higher with the ones from Toponár. This way, according to the aggregated data, the people of Toponár had significantly more cystae/abscessi, although it is true for the adult females of Toponár only.