A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 43. (Nyíregyháza, 2001)

Természettudomány - Zsuzsanna Guba–László Szathmáry: Adaptation of the Hungarian conquerors

Guba Zsuzsanna - Szathmáry László Adaptation of the Hungarian conquerors In the 10

th century the seminomadic Hungarian conquerors and other contemporary populations may have adapted themselves to the environmental complex in the Carpathian Basin thoroughly. This is indicated by the fact that the regional zones of the distribution of the face-factor, which is considered to be the most discriminant component of the anatomic profile, coincide with the geographical zones of fauna and vegetation. These zones take the shape of concentric circles with the centre in the Middle Tisza region and spread as far as the peripheries of the Great Hungarian Plain. Their rhythm is mostly broken by the north-south direction of the course of the River Danube, which might have constituted a significant dividing line between historical populations. The middle region of the River Tisza, on the other hand, may have formed connections between the populations developing under the same environmental conditions in the 10

th century. This pattern of anatomical and ecological coincidence may refer to an adaptation system which may have had its preliminaries in the 7

th-9

th century population history of the steppe east of the Carpathians. Translated by the authors László SZATHMÁRY Zsuzsanna GUBA Vasvári Pál Múzeum Jósa András Múzeum Tiszavasvári Nyíregyháza H-4440 Pf. 56 H-4401 Pf. 57. Debrecen University Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology Debrecen H-4010 Pf. 6. e-mail: szathmary@tigris.klte.hu e-mail: zsguba®.

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