Kovács I. (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 78. (Budapest 1986)

Pap, I.: Oral pathology and social stratification in the Hungarian Middle Ages

Results In the series from Szabolcs 69.8% of the specimens had caries and 59.4% of the individuals did so in Tiszafüred. The individuals from Szabolcs lost more teeth intra vitam (60.5% and 56.3% respectively) and had more abscessi or cystae (Table 2). HUSZÁR & SCHRANZ as well as TÓTH several times called the attention to the fact that the number of carious and especially the pre-mortem lost teeth produces large-scale differences in the various age groups. It means that afnection of a given sample greatly depends on the average of the group analysed, more precisely on the distribution of individuals according to age groups. As the age indices and the distribution of our two series are almost the same, the average values may be used for the analysis. The rate of carious teeth within all the teeth examined also indicates the more favourable situation of the population of Tiszafüred. In the series from Szabolcs 9,1% of the analysed teeth were carious while Tiszafüred produced the lower value of 7.9%. From the aspect of intra vitam lost teeth and of teeth afflected by abscessus, the population of Szabolcs was in a worse conditions (Table 3). What can be concluded from the caries intensity values? In the Szabolcs series 2.07 teeth with caries, 2.67 pre mortem loss of teeth and 0,37 abscessus can be found per cranium. In the series from Tiszafüred the same numbers for a given specimen are 1.84 caries, 2.53 intravital loss of teeth and 0.22 abscessus (Table 4). Calculating the intensity values only for afflicted individuals naturally we arrive at higher figures. Concerning abscessus, the values of the Tiszafüred series are lower, but the cases are quite different, as far as carious teeth and teeth lost in life-time are concerned. The specimens from Szabolcs had 2.97 carious teeth and 4.42 teeth lost intra vitam on average. On the contrary those from Tiszafüred had 3.11 carious teeth and 4.50 pre-mortem lost teeth (Table 4). From these it follows that the complete Tiszafüred population (afflicted and non-afflicted altogether) contained a smaller number of individuals with bad (and missing) teeth but the ones who were afflicted by diseases had a higher number of decayed teeth. Comparative analysis First of all let me treat the problem of comparability in some words ! There are some basic methodological problems — such as differences in the classification of missing teeth, differences accruing from the issue whether wisdom-teeth are examined or not, and differences in the determination of the optimal number of teeth. A further

— though probably lesser — problem results from the analysis of intravitally lost teeth ratio. A number of authors compare these to all the teeth examined while others compare them to the so-called optimal number of teeth. Beyond the errors appearing as outcomes of the comparison of results gained by different methodology, comparison of samples with differing ADI and with differing age distribution could serve as a further source of error. The most appropriate method would be a comparison of the same age groups from each sample analysed, instead of comparing averages, as it has already been stated by Huszár and Schranz and Tóth several times. HUSZÁR & SCHRANZ (1952) and TÓTH (1966) wrote up a very impressing quantity of material with most admirable accuracy from the epidemiologic aspect of caries (Table 1). Based on their work, we may obtain a general image of the dental conditions characteristic for the Arpadian Age population. However, as the objectives of the above mentioned authors necessiated that as large as samples as possible be collected, they had to pool the series of cemeteries with more or less similar archaeological dating in one large entity, and for this reason it is not possible to analyse them according to their special individual social stratification. This way the combined mass of data referring to this enormous sample excludes the comparison of cemeteries to each other. HUSZÁR & SCHRANZ (1952) experienced some differences within the Arpadian Age. For example, they noticed that the CER index (caries + radix + extracted) of the 11th century inhabitants of Kérpuszta was higher than the general average of the Arpadian period. TÓTH (1966) stated that no author published similar data on this period. In his opinion, it is anyway noticable that differences occur in