Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 97. (Budapest 2005)

Évinger, S. ; Bernert, Zs.: Anthropological investigation of the Avar Period cemetery of Kaposvár Road 61, Site No. 26 (Hungary)

MATERIAL AND METHODS The anthropological material published in our paper was uncovered in Kaposvár (county Somogy in SW Hungary) (Fig. 1). The ancient cemetery was found during the archeological survey of the track of Road 61 - the by-passing motorway of Kaposvár - in the year 2000. The site got the serial number 26. The Avar Period cemetery dated to the 7th—8th centuries was excavated under the leadership of the archeologist Mr LÁSZLÓ KÖLTŐ. The cemetery was partially uncovered, only the section under the track of the future motorway was dug up, that is 285 graves. The human remains are kept in the Department of Anthropology of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, under inventory numbers 2004.3.1. to 2004.3.254. The bones' level of preservation could be classified medium. The majority of graves were robbed, the regions of skull and pelvis were mostly disturbed, this way the most informative parts of human remains suffered more or less damage. Exlusively one horse was buried in some of the graves (self-contained horse grave). Museological registration numbers (inventory numbers), sex and estimated age of the buried individuals, as well as the condition of the remains was published in Table 1. When scoring morphological sex 21 anatomic characteristics bearing sexual dimorphisms were taken into account (ÉRY et al. 1963, ÉRY 1992). For estimating biological age we examined the number and degree of development of teeth (SCHOUR & MASSLER 1941, UBELAKER 1989), and the length of limbal long bones (STLOUKAL & HANÁKOVÁ cit. ÉRY 1992). Biological age of adults was estimated on the basis of surface alterations of os pubis facies symphyseosa (TODD 1920), and the ossification of cranial sutures (NEMESKÉRI et al. 1960, MEINDL & LOVEJOY 1985). Alterations of ribs' sternal ends were also observed (ISCAN et al. 1984). Wear of permanent teeth was also utilized for the estimation of age be age groups (PERIZONIUS cit. ERY 1992, HUSZÁR & SCHRANZ 1952). Fig. 1. Geographical location of Kaposvár city