Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 102. (Budapest 2010)

Bernert, Zs.: Anthropological data from the Hungarian Scythian Period collected from the cemetery excavated at M0 Ring Road, Site No. 008, Akácos-dulo

Anthropological data from the Hungarian Scythian period 263 The population can be assessed from a demographic aspect only very carefully as the number of individuals examined is under one hundred and bad condition of the remains often resulted in uncertainties when establishing sex and estimating age. Table 3 shows the distribution according sex and age groups. We would like to point out two results based on this table. The rate of females is unusually high compared to that of males. This disparity cannot be attributed to uncertainties ol the identification of sex alone because all unidentifiable adults should be considered to be males to create gender balance. Unfortunately, we can only speculate about the cause of female surplus (lack of males). In addition to the usual explanations - partial excavation of the cemetery, uncertainties of the establishment of sex - two other options should be mentioned. The first is that scattered cremation might be more common in case of males. The other option is that this population indeed had more females. Table 3. Age group and sex distribution of the skeletons Age groups/Sex Males Females 5 Together Infans I 0 0 6 6 Infans II 0 0 7 7 Juvenile 1 1 0 2 Adult 7 19 1 27 Juv.-Ad. 1 5 2 8 Mature 3 3 0 6 Ad.-Mat. 5 3 0 8 Senile 0 0 0 0 15< 1 4 4 9 1< 0 0 11 11 Total 18 35 31 84 The other result that is transparent on the basis of the table is the higher mortality rate of females in a juvenile age. This can be observed at most cemeteries from historical periods and can be explained by higher risks relating to pregnancy and child-birth. Metric data are shown in Tables 4 and 5. As a consequence of the bad condition of bones, no detailed analysis can be performed because of lacking data. Based on the poor pool ot data it can be stated that the population can be characterised by medium length of neurocranium, moderately wide face and medium/tall-medium height. Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 102, 2010