Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 8.-9. 1967-1968 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1968)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Éry Kinga, K.: Reconstruction on the tenth Century Population of Sárbogárd on the Basis of Archaeoloogical and Anthropological Data. – A sárbogárdi X. századi közösség rekonstrukciója régészeti és embertani adatok alapján. VIII–IX, 1967–68. p. 93–147. t. XXVI–XLV.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE TENTH CENTURY POPULATION OF SÁRBOGÁRD ON THE BASIS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA Introduction The purpose of the present work is to introduce a tenth century population in Hungary through its rites, artifacts, demographic features, osteological characteristics and pathological state. I mainly use two scientific disciplines, archeology and physical anthropology, to approach this goal and to fit the results thus gained into a coherent picture. I performed the archaeological examination in the spirit of the research trend initiated by G y. László in Hungarian archaeology.

1 He attempts to reconstruct life in ancient times primarily by employing ethnographic parallels and thoroughly analyzing the cemeteries. In addition to this, the present study employed palaeo-sociographic analysis, a method evolved by А. Kralováns z к у

2

. The purpose of this latter is also the reconstruction of ancient life, but by using anthropological data, the numerical expression of results and their graphic representation. He improved this method together with the present author

3 and then made further modifications on it.

4 The anthropological analysis was performed in the spirit which J. Nemeskéri and his collaborators initiated and continue in Hungarian anthropology. According to their approach, the biological reconstruction of a population is not based merely on traditional physical anthropology, but on a comparative analysis of demographic, pathological, serological, histochemical etc., data. This research trend was the first in Hungary to employ the results of archaeology for biological reconstruction and it attempted to depict a population by simultaneously applying the different scientific disciplines.

5 Since thé purpose of my work was the reconstruction of a population, I made such analyses which primarily provided data on the population as a whole. I did not thoroughly treat individual objects and phenomena; only touched upon them for the sake of completeness. I. GENERAL DATA 1. The Excavation In 1961 during certain earthworks a cemetery was discovered on a hill by the Tringer farm located in Forrásdűlő approximately one kilometer northeast of the town of Sárbogárd in Fejér County. The earthwork destroyed nine graves but the incomplete bone remains could still be gathered from the surface. The immediately following excavation unearthed the complete ancient cemetery composed of 91 undisturbed human graves (totalling 100 with the 9 destroyed ones), 3 animal graves, a deep quadratic pit and at the edge of the cemetery were 12 cremation burials from the Early Iron Age. The excavation was conducted by A. Kralovánszky. T. Kovács 1 Gy. LÁSZLÓ : A honfoglaló magyar nép élete (Life of the Conquering Magyars) (Bp. 1944). 2 A. KRALOVÁNSZKY: Anthr. Közi. 3( 1959) 31-49. participated in the excavation of graves 1—3, G. Bandi in the excavation of 4—5, A. Kiss for 13—29, S. В ö к ö n у i and J. Nemeskéri in grave 63. The anthropological and archaeological finds were included in the collection of the King Stephen Museum of Székesfehérvár. 2. The Site The cemetery lies in the central portion of the Mezőföld plateau on the left bank of the Sárvíz on one of the 3 K. K. ÉRY-A. KRALOVÁNSZKY: AHN 52 (1960) 497-522. 4 A. KRALOVÁNSZKY: Embertani adatok és módszerek újabb alkalmazási lehetőségei a régészetben. (Latest Possibilities for the Application of Anthropological Data and Methods to Archaeology) (Doctoral dissertation, manuscript, 1964). s J. NEMESKÉRI-Gy. ACSÁDI: Arch. Ért. 79 (1952) 134-147; Gy. ACSÁDI-J. NEMESKÉRI: Homo 8 (1957) 133-148; id.: AHN 50 (1958) 359-415; 51 (1959) 493-564; 52 (1960) 481-495; J. NEMESKÉRI-К. К. ÉRY-A. KRALOVÁNSZKY-L. HARSÁNYI: Crania Hung. 4 (1961); Gy. DEZSŐ-K. K. ÉRY-L. HARSÁNYI-Gy. HUSZÁR-J. NEMESKÉRI-Sz. NOZDROVICZKY-A. THOMAT. TÓTH-S. WENGER: Anthr. Hung. 6 (1963); etc. 93