Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 24/3. (1997) (Szombathely, 1997)

Zoffmann Zsuzsanna: A Dunántől őskori népességének embertani vázlata

SAVARIA A VAS MEGYEI MÚZEUMOK ÉRTESÍTŐJE SZOMBATHELY 24/3 (1998-1999) PARS ARCHAEOLOGICA 1999 ANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA OF THE TRANSDANUBIAN PREHISTORIC POPULATIONS IN THE NEOLITHIC, THE COPPER, THE BRONZE AND THE IRON AGES K. ZOFFMANN ZSUZSANNA Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Budapest INTRODUCTION REGISTER OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL MATERIAL The partial data, the actual state of palaeoanthropological research are to be summed up from time to time for the sake of archaeological and historical reconstruction of Prehistory in the Carpathian Basin even if these data are, to date, ignored by archaeologists. The anthropological analysis of the prehistoric population in the eastern part of the Carpathian basin has been described several times, but no similar study has been published with regard to Transdanubia. Its primary reason is the scarcity of anthropological finds which is mainly due to the prehistoric burial customs in the region. Namely, after the scattered burials of the early times, which are difficult to locate, cremation was often practised, especially during the Bronze Age. It certainly hinders continuous taxonomic analysis and the anthropological demonstration of a possible biological continuity of populational groups or immigration of new populations. The present paper, beside confirming the lack of palaeoanthropological data, gives a sketch of the Transdanubian anthropological finds more than one hundred years after the publication of the first anthropological find in Transdanubia in 1890 (VTRHOW 1890). It will discuss the finds, in somewhat more details than the earlier published catalogues (ZOFFMANN 1980, 1984a, 1994b, 1995a), according to archaeological cultures (MAKKAY 1982; KALICZ 1970; ECSEDY 1995; KOVÁCS 1995; KEMENCZEI 1995; SZABÓ 1971). Neolithic Contrary to the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, the bearers of the earliest Neolithic cultures in Transdanubia are practically unknown. The only adult find of the Starcevo culture from the southern part of Transdanubia and the two similar finds of the Transdanubian Linear Pottery (TLP) are far not sufficient for the anthropological characterisation of the given populational groups. There are no anthropological finds unearthed as yet from the late groups of the TLP, the Notenkopf culture and the Zseliz culture. From the SopotBicske culture, chronologically next in the line, burials have been unearthed at only two sites and the number of anthropological finds is very low. The Late Neolithic Lengyel culture is certainly the best studied one in Transdanubia both from anthropological and archaeological points of view. The anthropological finds partly came from scattered graves (Lebeny, Szentgál, Tevel), partly from larger cemetery fragments (Csabdi, Lengyel, Pari, Villánykövesd, Zengővárkony). In the case of Mórágy-B.l. we can speak of a totally excavated cemetery or burial group. The also completely unearthed Aszód cemetery, which, although lies east of the Danube but definitely belonged to the Transdanubian culture and is, consequently, closely related to the prehistory of Transdanubia, yielded a rep33