Tárnoki Judit szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 19. (2009)

Természettudomány és régészet - Zsuzsanna K. Zoffmann - Biostatistical data on the origin of Bronze Age ethnic groups in the Carpathian Basin

Természettudomány és régészet Zsuzsanna K

. ZOFFMANN Biostatistical data on the origin of Bronze Age ethnic groups in the Carpathian Basin I. Introduction From among the known palaeoanthropological, or more exactly biostatistical methods, Penrose's distance analysis (PENROSE 1954) examines the combined size and shape distances between cranial series representing various ethnic groups. The lower the result of the analysis i.e. the C

R

2 value we get, the smaller the distance is between the series, so that under a given value limit, the two series can be regarded biostatistically significantly identical since the random occurrence of identity is reduced to the minimum (C

r

2< 0,166, that is P > 99,5%, C

R

2< 0,114, that is P > 99,9%). Supposedly, a significant identity means a biological kinship between ethnic groups represented with skull series, or it implies that one ethnic group descended from the other or that they had a common origin. It became evident from the results of the Penrose-analyses carried out thus far especially with regard to the Neolithic and the Copper Age cultures of the Carpathian Basin (ZOFFMANN 1986, 2004, 2005), that a biologically more-or-less uniform population lived forming various archaeological cultures (Lengyel culture, Late Neolithic of the Northern Alföld, Tisza culture, Vinca culture in Vojvodina) in the Carpathian Basin in the late Neolithic, the roots of which can be traced back to the population of the Transdanubian Linear Pottery culture, and which led a life, undisturbed by foreign ethnic influences, until the Middle Copper Age. If anyhow, a foreign ethnic groups appeared in this period, the autochthonous population most likely quickly assimilated them. - At the same time, no connection could be demonstrated with this method between the basic population and the bearers of the early Neolithic (Starcevo and Körös cultures) of the region, and the people of the Early Alföld Linear Pottery culture could also be biologically different. - The population groups of the Boleraz-Baden culture, who arrived from territories SE of the Carpathian Basin (ZOFFMANN 2004), were the first immigrants at the end of the Middle Copper Age that could be demonstrated with the analysis. According to the significant identities, the newcomers most probably mixed with the autochthonous population, in this case represented by the people of the Bodrogkeresztúr culture to such a degree that a significant identity can be demonstrated between the people of the Maros-Perjámos culture and the Boleraz-Baden and even the Bodrogkeresztúr ethnic groups. (ZOFFMANN 1997) Thus according to Penrose's distance analysis, the biological continuity of the original autochthonous population of the Neolithic can partly be followed until the middle of the Bronze Age. Despite the fact that the frequently practised custom of cremation often makes the Penrose-analysis of Bronze Age populations impossible, more and more skull series can be included in the analyses owing to the growing number of anthropological material from the inhumation burials uncovered by archaeologists. (ZOFFMANN 2006) This study mainly intends to shed light on the Penrose connections of these ethnic groups including into the analysis the available Neolithic, the Copper Age series of three territorial units outside the Carpathian Basin (Central Europe, Eastern Europe and SE Europe & Anatolia). Four tables illustrate the results, in which the connections that show significant identities were marked. The attached tables 1 and 2 show the series included in the analysis.

1 II. Results According to the significant connections marked in the illustrations, the Bronze Age series of the Carpathian Basin that could be included in the Penrose analysis seem to form three groups. Group 1: The population of the Hurbanovo culture (series from the site Bajc-Ragona) is not connected to the local autochthonous population, while it could belong to the circle that can be followed through the Ztota, Tripolje and Gumelnifa cultures until the Greek Neolithic populations, circumventing the Carpathian Basin along the outer side of the Carpathians. Group 2: The bearers of the Vatya and the Füzesabony cultures belong here from among the populations represented by the series of the Carpathian Basin just like the ethnic group that used the younger part of the Ostojicevo cemetery of the Maros-Perjámos culture (Ostojicevo II). The results of a still unpublished Penrose analyses results evidently connect all of them to the Bell Beaker population, to its Moravian group and the Gáta-Wieselburg culture, which is significantly linked with the Bell Beaker population (ZOFFMANN 2006, ZOFFMANN unpublished). There was not a single significant connection between these and the autochthonous populations of the Carpathian basin. Group 3: Most of the series included in the analysis can be grouped here, and nearly all of them came from the MarosPerjámos culture. According to the significant Penrose results, these ethnic groups from the Southern Alföld are linked with the Copper Age autochthonous populations and 1 I would like to express my special thanks to M. Giric archaeologist for affording me to use his unpublished data in my work. 493