A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Archaeologica 1. (Szeged, 1995)

SZALAI Ferenc: A Csanytelek-Palén feltárt középső bronzkori csontvázleletek antropológiai vizsgálata

ANTHROPOLOGICAL. EXAMINATION OF THE SKELETONS AND CREMATED REMAINS FROM THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE EXCA VATED A T THE FINDSPOT CSANYTELEK-PAXÉ (SOUTHEAST HUNGARY) Ferenc SZÁLAI During the rescue excavations skeletal remains of 52 and cremated remains of 42 individuals from the Middle Bronze Age ( 19th—

15th century B.C.) were unearthed between 1988 and 1990. The anthropological findings are stored at the Department of Anthropology, József Attila University of Szeged, Hungary

. The skeletons are mainly well-preserved but some of the crania are deformed due to the compression of the soil. The sample size of the measured data is not big enough for the use of Penrose's method in comparison with another skeletal series. But we performed the detailed metric and morphological analysis of the skeletons including observations of some non-metric traits, the data are presented in \he enclosed tables. As a result of classical taxonomical analysis we found that mainly Cromagnoid-A, Gracile Mediterranean and Alpine types were presented in males and mainly Cromagnoid B taxons were found among females. During the comparison with another skeletal series from the Bronze Age we found the Szőreg-C sample (Middle Bronze Age) as the most similar to the Csanytelek-Palé population. From the demographical point of view we observed extremely high mortality of children and young persons, 52% of the dead were below the age of 16! On the occasion of paleopathological examination we found mostly degenerative changes of the spine and joints. There were two cases of compression fractures of vertebral bodies and an interesting case of left femoral neck deformation. We found neither traumatic changes caused by weapons nor the traces of trephination. We observed nice „kneeling" and „squatting" facettes on the bones of feet as evidences of living and working conditions. On the teeth examination we showed moderate incidence of caries and enamel hypoplasia. The examination of cremated bones were performed by anatomical identification of fragments. In five cases we found remains of more than one person originated from the same cremated burial. In six cases we found cremated animal bones mixed up with cremated human bones. The presence of biritual burial rite, the heterogenity of the population and the lack of weapon-caused injuries show us the evidence of peaceful co-existence of populations of the Middle Bronze Age in Southeast Hungary. Further excavations may lead us to the better knowledge of life of the people from the Bronze Age. Translated by the author Szálai Ferenc POTE Neurológiai Klinika 7623 Pécs Rét u. 2.