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

Zoffmann Zsuzsanna: A Dunántől őskori népességének embertani vázlata

К. ZOFFMANN ZSUZSANNA: ANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA OF THE TRANSDANUBIAN PREHISTORIC POPULATIONS. .. data suggest that the populations of the Central European Linear Pottery and the Transdanubian Lengyel culture must have had a decisive role in the formation of the Central European Unetice culture. The Baden culture in Transdanubia is only represented with a few finds, but the series from the Carpathian Basin certainly displays connections towards south (its significant contact to the Körös-Starcevo-Cris, series is and indirect reflection of the same contact ZOFFMANN 1992). Accordingly, the anthropological data imply the arrival of new populational groups in the Carpathian Basin in the late phase of the Copper Age, which, together with the populational groups of the Bodrogkeresztúr culture survived locally and took part in the formation of the Bronze Age Maros-Perjámos culture in the Hungarian Plain (ZOFFMANN 1997). The population of the Tumulus culture usually cremated its dead at the end of the Bronze Age in Transdanubia, however, passing over to the Hungarian Plain, they set up skeletal cemeteries as well. The skeletal cemetery of Tápé-Széntéglaégető site was used by a population, according to the Penrose analysis, that shows a biological continuity from the Maros-Perjámos population which had been its chronological predecessor in the region (ZOFFMANN 1997). Concerning the Early Iron Age, there are no information from Transdanubia, the basic metric data of the Szentlőrinc cemetery have not yet been published. The significant Penrose values of the series composed of the stray finds of the Celts in Transdanubia point to two directions. The strong connection with the Maros-Perjámos series in the Hungarian Plain suggests the survival of local Bronze Age popuational groups (ZOFFMANN 1997), while the southern connections (ZOFFMANN ms), in harmony with the earlier mentioned large taxonomic heterogeneity of the Celts, certainly indicate mixtures in the course of the movement of the Celts. The significant connection with the Etruscans in the south goes back to similar southern components, while the connection with the Celts in the present area of Bohemia seems evident (ZOFFMANN ms). At the same time, the lack of such connections with the Celtic series from the present area of Slovakia can be explained with the absence of the southern components in Slovakia, and the strong autochtonous traits by the Celts in Slovakia (ZOFFMANN ms). Summing up the results of the Penrose analyses, it can be supposed about the Prehistoric population of Transdanubia that 1. The populations of the Lengyel culture together with those of the earlier Central European Linear Pottery and other Neolithic and Copper Age cultures from the Hungarian Plain go back to autochtonous, pre-Neolithic (?) predecessors, which, free from foreign influence from the south or anywhere else, lived a practically isolated life in the region. 2. The immigration of foreign populational groups can be expected no earlier than the Late Copper Age Baden culture. Its southern connections probably also indicate the direction of the immigration. 3. The biological survival of the „Central-European group" represented by the Lengyel culture can be expected in the vicinity of the Carpathian Basin within the population of the Unetice culture flourishing in the Bronze Age. The base population of this culture must have been composed of surviving local Neolithic populational groups. 4. The population of the Bodrogkeresztúr culture in the Copper Age of the Hungarian Plain, also connected with the „Central European group", and the population of the Baden culture occupying the whole of the Carpathian Basin survived in the Hungarian Plain as a bearer of the Bronze Age MarosPerjámos culture. This was the basic population that mixed with the new population arriving with the Tumulus culture from the west in the next phase of the Bronze Age and that, together with some eastern elements, formed the basic population of the Tumulus culture in the Hungarian Plain. 5. Although it cannot as yet fully be interpreted for lack of finds from Transdanubia, the Penrose data suggest a biological continuity between the MarosPerjámos population in the Hungarian Plain and the Transdanubian Celtic population beside the detectable southern contacts of the Celts. 6. The Penrose analysis implies that a significant immigration that could influence the anthropological picture of the population can only be attested to in the late Copper Age. Other immigrations, as of the Ochre-grave culture from the east (ZOFFMANN 1992) or the one from the direction of the Late Bronze Age Monteruoru and Noua cultures, or the appearance of southern populational groups in the Celtic period must have been less significant both in their dimensions and their impact. Thus, the life of the autochtonous population in the Carpathian Basin seems to be uninterrupted from the Copper Age to the Celts. 37