Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 30. 2000 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (2001)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Éry Kinga: A short anthropological description on a Late Roman Period population at Herculia (Tác-Margittelep). p. 21–35. t. XVIII–XXII.
Alba Regia, XXX, 2001 K.ERY A SHORT ANTHROPOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION ON A LATE ROMAN PERIOD POPULATION AT HERCULIA (TÁC - MARGITTELEP) 1 INTRODUCTION During the course of excavations at Gorsium, a Roman town in the eastern section of Pannónia in Antiquity, one of its cemeteries was entirely recovered between 1954 and 1978. According to the archaeological dating, these burial grounds may have been in use between AD 380 and 430 (Fitz 1982). The name of this site is denoted on the basis of modern geography as it lay in the outskirts, named Margittelep, of the village of Tác in Fejér County. Excavation work directed by Jenő Fitz, with the assistance of Vera Lányi, brought to light 440 graves including the usually well preserved skeletons of 420 individuals. However, the cemetery may be considered only 80% complete from a physical anthropological point of view, since skeletons and especially skulls in shallower graves were destroyed by tillage. The osteological remains are housed in the King St. Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár. The methods of research were the followings. Ageing: Ferembachet al. (1979), Nemeskéri et al. (1960). Sexing: Éry et al. (1963). Measuring: Martin & Saller (1957, 1959). Estimating of stature: Sj0vold (1990). Classifying the measurements, mean standard deviations: Alekseev-Debets (1964). Calculating generalized distance: Penrose (1954), its significance: Rahman (1962), standardizing the mean values: Thoma (1978). The manuscript on the detailed anthropological investigation of Herculia (Tác-Margittelep) Late Roman imperial period population was closed in 1995 and published five years later (Éry 2000). The present work is a shortened, partly refined, partly modified version as a result of the increase of evidence considered. The increase of the source material, however, did not diminish the validity of statements made by the previous study. RESULTS Demographic characteristics Distributions by age group and gender of the 420 individuals are presented in Tables 1-2. As far as children are concerned, first of all, it must be said that the number of children under one year is very small (9 individuals), although according to the West 4 level of a model life table by Coale & Demény (1966), calibrated to a mean life expectancy of 26.4 years, about 174 individuals may have been expected in this age category. The lack of newborns and young infants, however, is not a speciality of the Tác population. It is characteristic for almost every archaeological period since the skeletons of children buried in shallow graves are more easily destroyed by tillage. In addition, probably not all of them were given place within the burial ground of the community. On the other hand, it should be regarded as a special feature of the Tác population that mortality was very high (almost three times higher than expected) in the age interval between 5 to 14 years. Epidemic childhood diseases that usually strike this age group seem to be the only explanation for this phenomenon. According to the finds, these took their toll not only from the settlement's older children but also from young adults in the 15 to 19 years age bracket. 21
