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: Further anthropological investigations on an Early Avar Period population at Csákberény-Orondpuszta. p. 37–60.
Alba Regia, XXX, 2001 K.ERY FURTHER ANTHROPOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON AN EARLY AVAR PERIOD POPULATION AT CSÁKBERÉNY - ORONDPUSZTA INTRODUCTION Antecedents In honour of the memory of Professor Gyula László, a group of his former students and young scholars proposed to elaborate and publish the Avar period cemetery of Csákberény-Orondpuszta, excavated mainly by the supervision of Gyula László, between 1935-1939. The cemetery is dated between the last third of the 6th century and the first half of the 7 th A.D. Further investigation of the anthropological finds of this cemetery, in spite of a detailed study published by Tibor Tóth in 1962 can be justified for two reasons. First, some - mainly fragmented - skulls were omitted from the previous analysis. Second, there were some important aspects omitted like the study of the long bones, the possible pathological alterations and that of anatomical variations. Tibor Tóth presented altogether 29 cranial finds only, including that of an adolescent person, whereas the existing bone remains can be attributed to 74 individuals. It should be noted, however, that the new studies could only contribute to the quantitative aspects; the final conclusions practically coincide with those made by Tibor Tóth. From 1938 onwards, the Csákberény-Orondpuszta cemetery excavations were assisted by the presence of an anthropologist as well, notably János Nemeskéri. This work, therefore, aims at paying a tribute not only to my former professor in archaeology, Gyula László, but also my late professor in anthropology, János Nemeskéri as well. Material and method The Csákberény cemetery comprised approximately 460-480 graves. They were observed first in 1935 and excavated, in about two third of total amount, between 1936-1939. As it was previously mentioned, skeletal remains of only 74 individuals remained to us, mainly deficient and in bas state of preservation. The excavation diary gave an account of much more raised from the graves. The situation is engraved by rather loose first inventorying of the bones. Several skeletons received identical numbers and the grave number was registered on small paper discs stringed on the bones getting easily dislocated. Comparing grave descriptions with the actual bone remains we can often encounter inconsistencies. Therefore, by our days we cannot be absolutely sure if a certain skeleton used to belong to the given grave number. This way the anthropological sample can only offer an overall impression on the population, with relevance proportional to its actual ratio within the material. The determination of the age of the skeletons has been accomplished, in the case of children and young adults, using the "Recommendations" by Ferembach, Schwidetzky and Stloukal (1979). In the case of adults, four age-markers by Nemeskéri, Harsányi and Acsádi (1960) were used. Gender was determined in case of individuals over 15 years of age following the procedure described by Éry, Kralovánszky and Nemeskéri (1963), taking into consideration 22 sexual characteristics, as well as the sulcus praeauricularis. Measurement and description followed Martin and Sailer (1957). In respect of average divergence and class categories, values published by Alekseev and Debets (1964) were used. Calculation of body height was made using the procedure published by Sjovold (1990). Calculation of statistical distance followed the method of Penrose (1954), using standardised cranial data according to average scattering data by Thoma (1978). Calculation of significance of distance data has been accomplished according to Rahman (1962). Gender and age data on the 74 individuals are presented on Table 1. The finds are in the collection of the 37
