Dr. T. Tóth szerk.: Studia historico-anthropologica (Anthropologia Hungarica 10. Budapest, 1971)

Some historical and social problems In the preceding chapters, the main anthropological characteristics of the population at Tengelic were briefly outlined. With recourse to historical, archeological, and histochemical data, a study of the historico-social position of the Tengelic population will now be attempted. As already mentioned in the introduction, the cemetery lies in the Comitat Tolna, about 15 km West of the Panube. This area had continuously been, as analysed in detail by Gy. Győrffy in his latest comprehensive monograph (1970), a part of the crown lands and quarters (beginning from the Conquest) of the Árpádian dynasty, and the Comitat Tolna itself formed the demesne of the prevailing crown prince himself, down to the twelfth century. This fact in itself gives a special emphasis to the population at Tengelic. Who could these people have been? The serial arrangement of the graves, the subject material, and the peculiarities of the burial rites unequivocally indicate that we are dealing with a population belonging to the Conquest Magyars. This archeological inference was substantiated by the taxonomic composition of the anthropological material and the results of the distance investigations. The fact, however, that the furniture of the graves is extremely poor, testifies that the Tengelic population cannot be considered the relatives of the ruling family but rather the common people surrounding it. There was no furniture found in 65 per cent of the graves, and nothing more distinguished than a bow, 6 arrows, a quiver, a saddle, a stirrup and a bit were found in Grave 24 (a male), and some pressed costume ornaments, simple hair rings, a shank button, and cauri shells in Grave 10 (a young girl). The beginning of burials in the cemetery may be dated in our