Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 60. (Budapest 1968)

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

On the Diagnostic Significance of Morphological Characters. II. (A Methodological Study) By T. TÓTH, Budapest As was pointed out in an earlier paper (TÓTH, 1967), the diagnostic significance of certain morphological characters cannot be disregarded in the analysis of osteological series deriving from the area of the Central Hanubian Basin. Some characteristics have already been investigated (TÓTH, 1958, 1963, 1967) ; in the present paper we propose to discuss the diagnostic significance of the os malare. This important morphological section of the facial skeleton was first analysed from an anthropological point of view by Miss TING LIANG Woo three decades ago, pubHshing the morphometric values in 1937, but having, however, already reported the results of her studies to the First International Anthropological and Ethnographic Congress in London in 1934, by the title "Racial differences in Man estimated from measurements of the malar bones" (COMAS, 1956). The present author studied in the years 1961—1967 the morphometric characters of the os malare on 27 male and 27 female series (a total of 552 skulls for both sexes) deriving from various archeological periods. Previously, however, investigations were restricted to merely the Hegykő and Bágyog findings in the Transdanubia (TÓTH, 1964). In the followings, the os malare values of the male group of 24 further series are submitted (Table I), viz. : 1. The male group (5 skulls) of the aeneolithic period in the Central Danubian Basin, already studied by the author with reference to another methodological aspect (TÓTH, 1958). The respective findings (Alsónémedi, Budapest, Palotabozsok) are deposited in the Anthropological Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. 2. The Middle Bronze Age material (2 male skulls) from Tiszafüred in the Middle Tisza region; the findings are deposited in the Anthropological Department. 3. The Bronze Age series (10 male skulls) originating from the Sea of Azov region, deposited in the collection of the Chair of Anthropology of the University of Moscow, studied there by the author in 1961. 4. The Early Iron Age remains of 19 males (Saka Period) from the Eastern Pamir region, examined by the author in 1965 in the Archeological Institute of the Tadzhik Academy of Sciences, Dusanbe. 5. The findings (6 males) of the Scythian Period originating from Szabadszállás in the region between the Danube and the Tisza recently examined by DEZSŐ (1966); the remains are deposited in the Anthropological Department. 6. The male series (6 skulls) of the Late Roman Period deriving from the SE Transdanubia, recently studied by WENGER (1967). The findings are preserved in the Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs. 7. The quantitatively significant series (33 males) of the Late Roman Period from Gorsiurn, deposited in the King Stephan Museum, Székesfehérvár. 8. The Late Roman Period findings (9 males) from Mursella in the Transdanubia, deposited in the Janos Xantus Museum, Győr.