Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 59. (Budapest 1967)

Tóth, T.: On the diagnostic significance of morphological characters I. (A methodological study)

Table 2. (cont. ) Calculated by the author of the present paper, T. T i Calculated by S. Wenger (1966). of the fact that in the findings of the Bronze Age (Andronovo) culture of the above territories the bizygomatic breadth agrees with the data of the Neolithic series from the Baikal region (Vercholensk), there is a concurrently significant difference observable between them with respect to the primary morphological characters of the splanchnocranium (cf. Tables and Figures cited). It is known that the wide zygomaxillary, characteristic of the Protoeuropoide population of the Andronovo culture, became a constituent part, during the metisation of the Neometallic Age, of the character complex of the evolving South Siberian race (DEBETS 1948; LEVEN 1958; GINZBTJRG 1964). Considering the mean values of the bizygomatic breadth of the series deriving from the Central Danubian Basin of the Avar Period, it can be established that, on the male skeletal findings of, for instance, Budapest-People's Stadium, Mosonszentjános, Kiskőrös-Vágóhíd, the bizygomatic breadth is also high, in conformity with the primary morphological data of the facial skeleton. At the same time, the relatively great bizygomatic breadth is not concurrent with the small rate profilization, characteristic of the Mongoloids, in some other findings of the Avar Period (Alattyán, Dunaszekcső, Szebény I; cf. also cited Table and Figures, and TÓTH 1963). On the basis of the examples discussed above, there can be no doubt that the bizygomatic breadth in itself is no proof that there occured a mass transmigration of some ethnic groups from Northern and Innermost Asia to the Central Danubian Basin at the time of the great migrations in general or during the Avar Period in particular. The taxonomical value of the fossa canina In the comparative evaluation of the anthropological series of the great migrations in the Central Danubian Basin, our home literature analyses the morphoscopic data of the fossa canina as an argument for the Mongolide influence. The racial diagnostic significance of this morphological characteristic of the splanchnocranium had been analysed in the last decade, not only morphoscopically but also morphometrically, on 26 Avar Period series originating from the area of the Central Danubian Basin (Table 3). It is known that, according to earlier investigations, the lack or shallow state of the fossa canina had been considered as characteristic for the Mongoloids, and its other values for the Europoids (DEBETS 1934, 1935, 1948; ROGINSKIY 1934, 1937; GINSBTJRG 1963). Though DEBETS had formerly (1951) used ballic units for evaluating the depth of the fossa canina, he had later published (1961 a, b) alsoSeries Sex N ó* N Dunaszekcső (Tóth, 1963) 12 136, 6 4 120. 2 o >> ^ Szellő (Tóth, 1963) 10. 131.3 4 125. 2 "S o Ú) Ellend II. (Tóth, 1963) 12 132. 1 4 126. 7 & C 3 Alattyán (Wenger, 1952, 1957) 68 136.4 59 126.7 U jánoshida (Wenger, 1953) 9 135.6 5 129. 0 > G •i-i Szentes-Kaján (Wenger, 1955) 20 133.9 10 124.6 Előszállás (Wenger, 1966) 10 131.4 4 121. 8