Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 33. 2003 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (2004)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Köhler, Kitti: Anthropological finds of the Lengyel culture from Csabdi-Télizöldes. XXXIII. p. 7–24.

taken into consideration as well. The situation is further complicated by the co-existence of various taxonomical nomenclatures as well. As a result, it seems that the populations of prehistoric cultures were taxonomically rather heterogeneous (Zoffmann 1983). Various biostatistic methods based on metric measurements were introduced in order to eliminate such problems. With the help of these, not taxons, but the likeness, in given cases the differences, between assemblages, could be established. During the analysis of the Bl burial group from Mórágy-Tűzkődomb, Zs. K. Zoffmann, based on facial height measurements, demonstrated - beside the typological heterogeneity - the dominance of a variant with low, narrow, eurymorph face in the series at Mórágy and generally in the Lengyel culture (Zoffmann 1991). With the help of the Penrose distance analysis, Zs K. Zoffmann distinguished four larger population groups through the analysis of more than 100 Neolithic and Copper Age series mainly from central and south-eastern Europe and the Near East. The Lengyel culture belongs to the so-called "Central European Group" , which includes mainly Neolithic series from the Carpathian Basin (the series of the Bohemian and Central European Linear Pottery culture, the Lengyel culture, the Tisza culture, furthermore the series of the Vinca culture from HrtkovciGomolava, etc.). As a member of the "Central European Group", easily distinguishable from the other three groups, at present the Lengyel culture cannot be shown to have southern, south-eastern genetic relationships. Among the above-mentioned cultures, it could have been the population of the Central European Linear culture, which could have formed the basis of the Late Neolithic populations of the Carpathian Basin - so the biological basis of the the Lengyel and Tisza populations. We may also assume that the population of the Lengyel culture can be traced back to the earliest phase of the Neolithic and had not been disturbed by any significant external ethnic influence - migration or infiltration. Thus, the southern, south-eastern influences reaching the Lengyel culture could only have been of an economic or cultural nature (Zoffmann 1985; Zoffmann 1992; Zoffmann 2000; Zoffmann 2001). SUMMARY The results of the physical anthropological analysis of the burials excavated at Csabdi-Télizöldes can be summed up as follows. The skeletons of 11 children, 3 juveniles and 20 adults (6 men and 14 women) came to light. The sex distribution of adults shows a larger proportion of women, which, however, is not a unique phenomenon, similar observations have already been made about other, larger cemeteries of the culture - excluding ritual burials or those connected to physical violence. The pathological deformities observed on the bones provide insights into the way of life of the Late Neolithic population. On the basis of the disorders outlined above, we might conclude that the finds showed osteological deformities common in prehistory, their number was not too high, and thus the health status of the population living here could not have been exceptionally low. Wounds connected to warfare and violence, caused by cuts or hits, so often observed on skeletal remains of historical periods, did not occur. The fragmentary state of the material put serious constraints on typological analysis; it is, however, beyond doubt that the population buried at Csabdi-Télizöldes was dominated by gracile and robust Mediterranean types with dolichocranic skulls. At the same time, in the case of certain finds, the presence of Nordic and Cromagnoid elements was detected as well. The brachycranic anthropological component was completely missing from the series. The typological diversity experienced here fits the taxonomical heterogeneity previously established for the population of this culture. A further direction in the physical anthropological research on the Lengyel culture, on the genetic relationships and origins of its population, could be the expansion of our - still meagre - knowledge about the Early and Middle Neolithic populations of Transdanubia and the population of western Transdanubia in the Lengyel period.

5 5 I would like to express my gratitude to Judit Antoni for access to the material and the archaeological documentation. 1 owe thanks to Zsuzsanna К. Zoffmann and Balázs Gusztáv Mende for their generous help in the analysis and the writing of this study. I thank Róbert Fenyvesi, Zsolt Réti, Csaba Peterdi for the photos and Vajk Szeverényi for the English translation. 11