Dr. I. Pap szerk.: Studia historico-anthropologica (Anthropologia Hungarica 22. Budapest, 1992)

MATERIALAND METHOD Two populations deriving from Hungary were examined. One represented a historical population and the other comprised an extant group. A Historical material: Consisted of 283 skeletons 50 children and juveniles with undetermined sex, and 233 adults (113 male and 120 female). The remains were excavated in Karos-Eperjesszög (10th c), Tiszafüred (11th c), Budapest-Timur street (11th c), Rakacaszend (12th-17th a), Szakony (11th c), Tímár I. and II. (10th c). Most are in excellent state of preservation and are stored now in the Anthropological Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. The age and sex of each individual were recorded where possible. The vertebral column was reconstructed for demonstration of scoliosis, kyphosis, etc. Each vertebra and sacrum was examined macroscopically and under Zeiss-Bioplast stereomicroscope, as well as by X-ray with Medicor GT X-ray apparatus. B. Contemporaneous material was represented by a series of anteroposterior radiographs of adults (300 persons) showing the lumbosacral region. The radiographs comprises films taken following trauma. These films were stored in the X-ray films archive of the National Institute of Traumatology, Budapest. RESULTS The incidence of spina bifida occulta in Medieval groups was 4.2%. No instance was seen in the L1.5 sequence. Spina bifida occulta of S\.$ was the most common form (4 cases), non closure of S3.5 was found in 2 cases, of S4.5 in 4 cases and of S2.3 in one case, and Sj also in one case (Table 1). Lumbalisation of Sj segment was found in 2 cases and the S\.2 segments also in 2 cases. Sacralisation of L5 vertebra occurred in 4 cases (Table 1). The incidence of lumbalisation was 1.4% as well as the sacralisation (1.4%) of the L5 vertebra. The malformation of the spine was found exclusively in the adults. Combination of spina bifida and lumbalisation or sacralisation was seen in 4 cases. No other major malformation of spine was noted. In the contemporaneous material 7 (4 males and 3 females) cases of spina bifida (2.3%) occulta was found. Table 1 Incidence of spina bifida occulta in Hungarian populations of the 10th-16th centuries Male Female Infants Total Spina bifida 113 120 50 283 8 4 0 12 (7.1%) (3.3%) (4.2%) Lumbalis 4 0 0 4 (1.4%) Sacralis 3 1 0 4 (1.4%)