Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 4. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1976)
Matolcsi J.: Táltosló az Izsák-baláspusztai honfoglalás kori sírban
and 1 2 . On the I 3 the line of the cement mark can be comparatively well seen, and the yellowish brown spot of the dental star also appears. On the upper left I 3 a hock developed. The simultaneous evaluation of the above characteristics puts the age of the horse of Izsák-Balázspuszta at about seven years. After finishing the detailed study of the horse skull and extremity bones belonging to it, 1 came to the conclusion that the grave of horse-hide burial at Izsák-Balázspuszta had characteristics completely different from other graves of this type. The find of Izsák-Balázspuszta can be considered a unique one among thase of the Period of the Hungarian Conquest because of characteristics particularly important from the zoological viewpoint. We think that the horse buried in the grave was probably a shaman horse. The opinions of archeologists on this supposion were divided. So we could not reach full consensus on this problem. These differences of opinion did not concern, however, the peculiar anatomical structure and specific function of the horse. But individual characteristics found in several similar cases can be connected with certain cultural historical phenomena even where the burial rite of the circumstances of the unearthed grave do not entirely fit the picture developed about shamans on the basis of recent ethnographic studies. But before dealing with the detailed questions concerning the function of the horse let us review the specific results of the zoological study. 1. The si%e and main proportions of the skull The series of studies on the horses of the Period of the Hungarian Conquest began with Besskó's dissertation 4 and was then followed by the valuable articles * In order to determine the age of the horse described here I cross checked and used all the criteria which had been published in KOVÁCSY's and MONOSTORY's book „A ló és annak tenyésztése" („The horse and its breeding"), 1889, in DUERST's monograph „Vergleichende Untersuchungs- methoden am Skelett bei Säugern", 1926, and in SCHANDL's book „Lótenyésztés" („Horse breeding"), 1955. 4 BESSKÓ's dissertation published in 1906 is of outstanding importance also from craniometrical viewpoint. The author attempted to adapt A. TÖRÖK's craniometrical system worked out on human skulls to horse skulls, and in fact he used it with success in the course of his analyses. of Hankó 5 and Nagy. & Bökönyi's comprehensive book 7 was published after a thirty year gap. In this book the author gives the archaezoological analysis of all horses of the Period of the Hungarian Conquest found up to the date of publication. Each of these works contains data on early Hungarian horses of Bács-Kiskun County, and we would like to emphasize that their importance lay in the fact that through the enumeration of a number of data, they made visible the ranges of variation of the different skull measurements. In an eatlier publication we already had the opportunity to point to that specific situation where the skull measurements of early Hungarian horses varied within a wider range than for example, the same measurements of the Avar horses. 8 This phenomenon demonstrates the more mixed constitutional composition and wider age distribution of the early Hungarian horse population. From the viewpoint of our recent subject these general archaeozoological interrelationships are important, for only through them can we find the place of the horse of Izsák-Balázspuszta in the range of variation of horses of the Period of the Hungarian Conquest. The basilar length of the Izsák-Balázspuszta skull (Table 1.) is essentially of average size" its measurement being — according to the classification of Migration Period horse skulls, 10 — between 455 and 490 mm. It is also true that its basilar length of 463,3 mm is close to the lower limit of the group's variation and falls by 5,9 mm below the average measurement of early Hungarian horses. In this respect the skull has about the same position among the early Hungarian horse skulls of Bács-Kiskun County published before. Studying the other measurements of the skull in the percentage of the basilar length we shall see that the overall length comes 109,6% of the basilar length which is a low occipital index for early Hungarian horses. It is however a medium one among recent Arabs. The absolute and relative lengths of the brainskull have interesting proportions, for the horse of Izsák-Balázspuszta had the longest brain-skull among 5 HANKÓB.: 1935. 67-74. e NAGY D.: 1936, 991-1003. 7 BÖKÖNYI, S.: 1974, 528-530. 8 MATOLCS1, J., 1973, 298-299. 9 The measurements of the skull and also those of the extremity bones were taken on the basis of DUERST's measuring points. See in DUERST, J. U., 1926, 231-501. J0 MATOLCSI, J.: 1973, 298. 192
