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

Éry, K.: An anthropological study of the Late Avar Period population of Ártánd

probably a girl (MAKKAY, 1966). A single evidence cannot be decisive proof in this problem, but it rather supports our hypothesis. Since the possibility (and probability) of finding solitary child graves is very low, also this problem might sooner be solved by the histochemical method of identifying sexes. If, namely, there is a high sexual disproportion among the dead children, e.g., the number of girls is strikingly low, it might imply that the girls, having a lesser value both economically and socially, had been buried after their death also in a less valued place. Against the unburial in the cemeteries, however, one can bring up the problem of the symbolic graves frequent in Avar Period cemeteries. There are namely no human remains in these graves,, except some object, and that mostly a clay vessel. One of the alleged causes of the symbolic burial might have been the keeping of the memory of a relative who died or was lost in a far away place (KOVRIG, 1963). And this rather emphasizes the need to commemorate the dead in the cemetery of the community. The entire problem is still open and needs further investigation. The demographic data of the Ártánd population are illustrated by the abridged life table (Table 4). The average life expectancy at birth of 35 years cannot be considered real by reason of the above discussion ; it must probably have been lower. Twenty years old men might have expected to live another 29 years, the women 26. These numbers are identical with the mortality values found for the Árpádian Age populations. The mortality rates of Ártánd are seemingly more favourable than those of the Árpádian Age, with respect to the normal life span. The normal life span, that is, the period which the majority of the population had lived, lies between 55—59 years; or, on the other hand, 50—54 in the Árpád Age. By a separation into sexes, however, the respective values approach those of the Árpádian Age. The normal age of men is between 50—54 years, those of women between 45—49, and 55—59 years. As for the reconstruction of the individual numbers and the number of families within one generation of the Ártánd population, only estimations can be made (Table 5), owing to the lack of information on the exact chronological limits of the cemetery. If the cemetery was in use for 260 years, there could have lived about 90 individuals simultaneously in the settlement, and this corresponds to about 12—13 families (if a family consists of 7 members). For a burying period of 200 years, the settlement might have comprised 120 individuals, equalling 16 families. And if the cemetery had been in use for 140 years, about 160 individuals might have lived within one generation in the village, and this would make about 23 families. If these values are compared to the average numbers of the villein households of our villages in the Árpádian Age, Ártánd can be regarded as a settlement of about corresponding size with the former ones (GYŐRFFY, 1963). * In the course of studying the sexual dimorphism of the metric characters taken from the adult population, I have calculated, for a correct interpretation of the Ártánd values, the dimorphic differences of the cranial messurements of eleven series from the Avar Period (Table 6). They lie between the extreme limits 17.2—48.9. Within these, Ártánd displays a medium dimorphism with its 28.3 mean. The greater sexual differences appear in the facial height readings, followed by the facial length and breadth measurements. There is a relatively small dimorphism in the measurements of the maximum cranial breadth and the orbital height. However, these values are characteristic of not only Ártánd, but the majority of the examined series (Table 7).