A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 16. (Veszprém, 1982)

Éry Kinga: Embertani adatok Veszprém középkori népességéhez

KINGA ÉRY ANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA ON THE MEDIEVAL POPULATION OF VESZPRÉM It is known from historical sources that Szent Miklós-szeg was one of the medieval suburbs of Veszprém. Its former parish church stood on the hill known today as Kálváriadomb. The excavation of the basement wall of the church took place in 1929—30 and information on the skull finds was published by ACSÂDI and NEMESKÉRI in 1957. Another excavation of the building was made in 1978, when further skeletons were found. The present paper deals with the former already published finds which have been remeasured and completed by the finds of 1978. As regards the estimated chronological position of the finds, the following are to be borne in mind. According to the results of the excavations, in the middle of the 11th century there was already a cemetery there; however, no church was attached to it at that time. The Szent Miklós church was erected partly above the former graves only in the first half of the 13th century and was enlarged in the middle of the 15th century. It was destroyed in the 16th century when it fell into Turkish hands. Since the position of the graves failed to be recorded during the digging of 1929—30, the skulls found then could be ranged only within wide time limits. So they may be dated between the 11th and the 16th centuries. The series was therefore erroneously dated by ACSADI and NEMESKÉRI in the 10th — 11th centuries. The bulk of the finds excavated in 1978 dates from the 13th and 16th century, however, in their totality they also belong to the period between the 11th and 16th century. Within the finds it was possible to determine their chronological order in a few cases only. The skull from the earlier excavation with a symbolical trepanation on it was dated to the 11th — 12th centuries, since this custom ended at the end of the 12th century. On the basis of archaeological data the 6 sporadic skulls from the recently excavated find were similarly dated to the 11th — 12th centuries. One of them also has a symbolical trepanation on it. The three skulls from the earlier finds presenting a lesion originating from a sword cut were dated to the 13th — 16th centuries. Such battle lesions were observable in the Hungarian finds only on skulls originating from the late Middle Ages. 13 graves from the recently excavated finds were dated to the 13th — 16th century. The male skulls show strong sex features; the skeletal bones in general express poor masculinity. Feminine characteristics are poor on the female skulls; they are, however, very strong on their skeletal remains. Compared to the values of two other series, among the individual characteristics of the population worthy of mention there is only a high cheekbone with a strong profile among the males and the poorly developed glabellar region for the females. As regards the cranial characteristics, the following could be stated. The skull was medium long, wide, medium high, brachycran, orthocran and metrio-tapeinocran. Viewed from above the skull has various shapes; viewed from the back, it is house-shaped. The forehead is medium broad — broad, metriometop, either moderately or strongly sloped. The obelion region is mildly flattened. The occiput is arched or planoccipital. The skull capacity is either medium or large. The facial skull is low or medium high, medium broad, eury — mesoprosop, mesen. The nose is medium high, medium broad, mesorrhin; the nasal bone is moderately protruding, the profile is concavo

—convex. The orbit is medium broad, low and mesoconch; its form is subrectangular. The upper set of teeth arches inwards; a torus palatinus can be observed to a moderate degree in the males. Alveolar prognathism is frequent. The canine fossa is medium deep. Compared to the data of other series, the constitutional characteristics may be outlined as follows. The clavicle of the males is very short and moderately robust. The shaft of the humerus is slender, the elbow joint is moderately broad. The shaft of the femur is very slender; the head of the femur at the same time is large; the end of the kneejoint is broad and robust. The shaft of the tibia is moderately robust; the kneejoint is moderately broad. According to the PEARSON method the length of the upper limb bones indicate a medium stature, while the length of the lower limb shows a medium tall stature. The female clavicula is medium long and slender. The shaft of the humerus is slender, the elbow joint is medium broad. The shaft of the femur is slender; its head is medium large; the knee joint is medium broad. Both the lower and upper limbs indicate medium stature. As regards the taxonomical characteristics, the proportion of brachycranials is greater; they consist first of all of individuals with pamiroid features. The dolichocranials are first of all nordoids, secondly with mediterranoid features. Cromagnoid features may be observed both in the pamiroids and the nordo-mediterranoids. No mongoloid features could be observed in these skeletal remains. On the basis of the differences shown by the shape of the skull from the earlier and later finds, it seems that the population was characterized in the 11th and 12th centuries by a dolichocrany, and between the 13th and 16th centuries by a brachycrany. Because of the small number of the finds it is not possible to know whether the change was due to a modification in the composition of the population or to a late medieval acceleration of the course of brachycranisation. However, the fact that the proportion of individuals having a short head was almost 30 percent in the early finds indicates that, with respect of the shape of the skull, the population of Veszprém — Kálváriadomb was already mixed in the 11th — 12th centuries. The distance between this population and other medieval domestic series was investigated according to the PENROSE method. According to the measurements based on 12 skull measures, a significant similarity is discernible only between the Veszprém — Kálváriadomb and Fonyód-Vár populations; however, it should be noted that the values of the post-cranial remains of these two series show at the same time some difference in build. Similarity between the skull shape of the two mentioned series deserves mention first of all as regards microregional interest since Veszprém lies on the north shore of Lake Balaton while Fonyód lies on its south shore. However, considering the values of the distances, it is also to be noted that the population of Veszprém — Kálváriadomb is nearer to the population of the Transdanubian sites (Fonyód, Dombóvár, Taliándörögd, Mohács) than to those east of the Danube (Baja, Zenta, Zombor). Only after studies of further series will it be possible to decide to what extent this is expressed by the difference of the medieval population of the two districts. 118