Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 94. (Budapest 2002)
Bernert, Zs., Csapó, J. ; Eszterhás, I.: Analysis of the anthropological material of Balatonederics Döme Cave
Macroscopic examination of the animal bones taken to the Hungarian National History Museum was carried out by the mammalogist GÁBOR CSORBA (Department of Zoology, HNHM). According to his verbal statement mixed, fragmentary bone material (j aws > li mD bones) of several specimens was uncovered. These were all mammals, a wild cat {Felis silvestris) and a domesticated dog (Canis familiáris) among them. Detailed analysis did not take place. We wanted to make the age estimation of the sediment layer, that contained the human remains, more accurate, but the bones of these animals provided no usable information in this respect. We were also interested in the pollen contents of soil-samples taken from the cavities of human and animal bones. It is a well-known fact, that the pollen composition of cave deposits is a good age-marker, but it can produce accurate chronological data for the last few thousand years only in certain cases. In the last few millenia no significant changes by natural succession processes took place in the species composition of the flora in the territory of present-day Hungary, however, man has introduced several new plants into the Carpathian Basin. If we find the pollen of a man-introduced plant in a deposit, that is a certain indicator for the layer not being older, than the date of the plant's introduction. According to the verbal statement of the paleobotanist ZSÓFIA MEDZIHRADSZKY (Department of Botany, HNHM) the deposit-sample from the Döme Cave contained elder and blood-wort in large concentration, but no pollen of any plant introduced by man into the Carpathian Basin could be found in it. We selected samples for amino acid analysis from the cranium and humerus. The raw protein content of the humerus was 9.4%, that of the cranial tissue was 6.9%. D and L aspartic acid, and D and L glutamic acid could be detected in comfortably measurable concentrations. The D/L-Asp ratio calculated for the humerus was 0.101, the D/L-Glu ratio 0.031. The same values for the the cranium were 0.111 and 0.033. The analysis ot the two bones produced results that concurred within the limit of error, and this supported our view of the human bones: they must have made up the skeleton of one individual. The time elapsed since death was estimated for 4500 years according to the humerus' D/L aspartic acid ratio, and for 4680 years according to the value calculated for the skull. Glutamic acid content, and glutamin acid ratios could not be utilized for chronological estimations, because of their low concentrations. Amino acid racemisation is not independent of the environment's pH-values. The pH of the soil scraped out of skeletal cavities was measured at 7.27. In an alkaline environment racemisation proceeds faster, therefore age is a bit to be underestimated. According to our calculations the human remains originated in the late neolithic period, approximately from 2100-2500 BC.
