Dr. T. Tóth szerk.: Etudes d'anthropologie historique concernant le bassin du Danube moyen (Anthropologia Hungarica 7/1-2. Budapest, 1966)

T. NAGY excavated thirty-eight graves near the parachutetower of Rákos. Among the graves originating from the Arpadian Age /the Magyar Conquest/

, three proved to refer to the late Avar Period. Despite the partially disturbed graves, the serial interment made in the area of the demolished oemetery of the Avar Period could still be established /T.NAGY, 1945/. R. SCHREIBER conducted excavations in 1958 in Rákospalota /„Honfoglalástelep"/, where the skeletal remains, acoompanied by a meagre archeological material, of two early Avar Period individuals were found /SCHREIBER, 1959/. Two oranial and skeletal fragments of the Vlllth century were exposed by T. NAGY at a factory site of the Soroksári road,in 1951. A fragmentary cranium and mandible from the VIth century, derived from the early Avar Period; were found in a garden in Békásmegyer /G.CSALLÁNY, 1956/. A complete skeleton, with rich archeological finds, was excavated by T. NAGY in the Szöllő road of Óbuda in 1950; the grave was that of a horseman of the early Avar Period* A faulty skeleton, deriving also from the Vlth oentury, was submitted by A. MOZSOLITS in 1950, found in the Törökbálinti road, it belonged to a horseman with a silver-mounted sword /K0VRIG, 1957/. As far as the source value of the findings exposed in the twenty-one graves of the above eight sites is concerned, it is a debatable point. These materials derive in their majority not from systematical excavations but rather from random or eventual expositions, and from a high number of disturbed graves. Concerning burials, the material refers to two kinds of funeral customs. The graves are either single or communal.lt is known that the Avars had a custom of »Clan or kinship" burial, concerning interments of flrty to fifty persons, but graves of even higher burial numbers were also exposed /Üllő I, by FETTICH and HORVÁTH, 1931-2; Szenteskaján, by CSALLANY, 1931-34; Artánd, by KRALOVANSZKY and ERY, 1955-57/. Even during the time of summer grazing, the Avars carried their dead back to their quarters, occasionally as far as a journey of four or five days, in keeping with their nomad way of life, - henoe single graves were rare indeed, except for those of the rich princes /ALFÖLDI, NAGY, UÍSZLÓ, 1942/. With respect to our material, the male horseman graves do not oome into this latter category, but were probably of a military charaoter, beoause, also indisputably, they do not represent quick interments but carefully prepared burials. The other sites refer to group-burials in spite of the fact that, from some of them, only one or two graves could be saved; R. SCHREIBER remarks, with respect to the excavations in Rákospalota, that, further away from the second grave, fragmentary vessels of the Avar Period were also found without successfully exposing also the graves of their origin /R.

SCHREIBER, 1959/. T. NAGY diatinguishes between two ohronologically different groups Early Avar: Vlth oentury and first Late Avar: second half of the VIIth half of the Vllth oentury. century and the Vlllth century. Accordingly, into the first group belong the five graves of the sites Békásmegyer, S«Ö11« road, Törökbálinti road, and Rákospalota, and into the second one, namely the late Avar group, the sixteen graves of the localities Soroksár, Rákosparaehute tower, Rákoshegy, Rákoskeresztúr. Owing to the small number of the material, I desist from analysing the two groups separately and will treat thorn as a whole, discussing the two units only in the tables /containing the individual measurement and index values/. No shall a segregation into localities be made, also with respect to the small number of graves.