A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve, 1969. 2. (Szeged, 1969)

Kiszely, István: Derivatographic Research of Subfossile Bones

A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve 1969/2 DERIVATOGRAPHIC RESEARCH OF SUBFOSSILE BONES by ISTVÁN KISZELY (Archaelogical Institut of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, BUDAPEST) Anthropology is „the natural history of the hominides in their conditions of time and space" (Martin); or „the scientific investigation of the natural history of hominides and that of the variations of their organism in time and space" (Bunak); or „understanding and explanation of the physical appearance of human groups and of their biological relations" (Fischer). This means: we have to do with a group science and a natural science. Anthropology cannot be restricted to the exterior research of some rarities, it has to investigate the physical structure of man having lived in different historical periods, achieving this according to the latest scientific development, with the help of all its means. Historical anthropology has been increasingly compelled by several factors (bad and fragmentary state of the bones, secondary deranging etc.) to extend its investigations to the final bases of physical appearance, i. e. to the chemism of the organism (in our case that of the bone), paralle with the exterior morphological (metric) researches. Since historical periods mostly deliver us only bone material, it seems to be necessary to clear its constituents, to compare this with their appearance and in cases when we do not have sufficient quantity, to do metrical research in order to draw conclusions from the bones themselves. Such investigations have been started recently and there is not much literature on this object though they are greatly demanded and bid fair prospects. Preliminary investigations in order to gain informations have been made upon these considerations by the author together with Peter DÁVID. We investigated the physical and chemical behaviour of the bone exposed to heat, and tried to draw conclusions useful to the archeology and historical anthropology. In compounds (in our case in the bone), when exposed to heat, chemical reactions ared physical transformations take place. Both chemical relations and changes of state or physical condition evoke smaller or greater changes in the inner amount of heat of the systhem. This transformation is accompanied by heat absorption (endothermic) and heat generation (exothermic) reaction. These calorific effects can be well demonstrated by the differential-thermic-analysis-method. The changes in weight accompanying these changes can be registered with the help of an instrument, applying a thermogravimetrical curve. We tried to find a method to define the age of bones coming from cemeteries of historical periods between 4000 ВС—

1800 AD. The isotopic C

14 method for time-determination is, on the one hand, very expensive, it cannot be done easily, on the other hand, it has a great dispersion within the half-period 5568, although this method is theoretically the best one. The method using the 217