Szarmata sebészi trepanációk a Kárpát-medencében

Despite the abundance of written resources and bioarcheological remains from the era, very few trephined skulls have been unearthed so far from the territory of the Roman Empire. In the territory of today Hungary, more than 130 surgically trephined skulls have come to light, with the earliest evidence deriving from the Neolithic period. However, the Hungarian literature does not mention any unequivocal Roman finds from the province of Pannonia (today Western Hungary). Earlier publications and osteological researches of the last fifteen years, however, have already yielded 6 possible cases of trepanation from Barbaricum, the Sarmatian territory partly enclosed by Roman provinces (today Eastern Hungary). The authors wish to re-examine these 6 cases, evaluate and justify their inclusion as Sarmatian trepanations, and put forward a possible explanation of the controversy between the written resources and the osteological evidence.

Bioarchaeological Analysis of the Mounted Archers from the Hungarian Conquest Period (10th Century): Horse Riding and Activity-Related Skeletal Changes

Archaeological and historical sources attest that tribes of semi-nomadic populations conquered the Carpathian Basin with powerful armies of mounted archers at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, which led to the foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary a hundred years later. Cemeteries from that period often provide cases of deposits of archery and horse riding equipment, as well as horse bones associated with the individuals in the graves. The close association between these items and the skeletons, together with the well-known historical context, allows postulating that the concerned individuals practiced horse riding during their life. The doctoral research had two main objectives. The first one was to contribute to the research on activity reconstructions in past populations with the identification of skeletal changes that could more reliably be associated with the practice of horse riding, in particular. The second objective was to bring an ethnoarchaeological contribution by possibly improving our understanding of the societies from the Hungarian Conquest period and their funerary practices. We selected a sample of 67 individuals from the 10th-century Hungarian cemetery of Sárrétudvari-Hízóföld, which was divided into two groups of individuals, according to the presence or absence of riding deposit in their graves. We also selected a modern (19–20th century) comparison group of 47 presumed non-rider individuals from the documented collection of Lisbon. We analysed different types of skeletal changes commonly used as indicators of activity and behaviour in past populations. Various direct measurements of the lower limb bones were also used to calculate indices of shape and robusticity. Statistical analyses mostly revealed significant differences between the Hungarian groups and the comparison group from Lisbon. They concerned some skeletal changes that can be linked to the riding practice and seem to be promising indicators for this activity. Comparisons between groups also revealed that the Hungarian individuals without riding deposit in their grave were likely riders as well. Both objectives of this research have thus been achieved. We took into consideration most of the pitfalls inherent to research on activity-related skeletal changes, leading to several limitations, such as relatively restricted sample sizes in the archaeological groups, which should be improved in the future. In addition, the multifactorial aetiology of the skeletal changes represented one of the main difficulties for their interpretation in terms of activity. In that regard, we performed an exploratory analysis of the microarchitecture of a muscle insertion site, of which promising results will need to be confirmed with further research with the aim of improving the reconstruction of activities in past populations.

A Rákóczifalva-Kastélydombon feltárt bronzkori embertani leletek vizsgálatának eredményei

In 1962, a bi-ritual Bronze Age cemetery (cremation and inhumation burials) were excavated by Zsolt Csalog at Rákóczifalva-Kastélydomb (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, Hungary). The Early Bronze Age skeletons and cremains belonged to the Nagyrév culture. The Late Bronze Age individuals were the bearers of the so-called Rákóczifalva cultural group of the Tumulus culture. The study provides the results of the biological anthropological analysis of human remains buried at Rákóczifalva-Kastélydomb Bronze Age cemetery. Both the inhumated and the cremated remains were very poorly preserved and fragmented. The low number of the investigable skeletons that belonged to the Nagyrév culture did not allow us to make any conclusions about the Early Bronze Age populations lived at Rákóczifalva. However, the publication of the basic anthropological results is relevant because these metric data are the first published data of the populations of the Nagyrév culture. The age distribution of the Late Bronze Age community shows a high percentage of sub-adults in the cemetery, similar to Jánoshida-Berek Tumulus culture community. In Rákóczifalva material the sex distribution was balanced. The pathological alterations that are usually frequent in almost every prehistoric material were observable in this series too (e.g. degenerative alterations of the spine and joints, porotic hyperostosis and entheseal changes). Keywords: Bronze Age; Nagyrév culture; Tumulus culture; Biological anthropology; Bioarchaeology.

Egy Felső-Tisza-vidéki, rangos, honfoglaló férfi szobrászi arcrekonstrukciója a tuzséri temetőből

The mature age individual excavated from the Tomb 6 of Tuzsér-Boszorkány-hegy cemetery, was a member of the prestigious Hungarian conquering communities in the Upper Tisza region. He was a taxonomically mixed European and Mongolian type. On the top of his predominantly Europid Pamirian skull, two symbolic trepanations were also visible. His paternal genetic line links him to the “Yakut subgroup”, within it was classified in the Turkic-conquering cluster, whose origin dates back to the Asian Hun era. The facial reconstruction of the Tuzsér conqueror was done at the Hungarian Natural History Museum on a 3D plastic skull copy of the original skull. Using the sculptural anatomical method the thickness of the soft parts of the face was estimated based on a scientific data table. Each detail of the face was shaped according to the morphological correlations of the skull bones and soft tissues. The reconstructed facial features have a predominantly Europid appearance, but also faithfully reflect the mixed, Europid and Mongolian characteristics of the skull.

Boncolás nyomai egy XVIII. századi gyermek mumifikálódott testén

In 1994–1995, in the Church of the Whites, the corpses of 265 individuals dressed in funeral clothes, mummified to varying degrees, were unearthed from coffins excavated by the ethnographic museologists of the Ignác Tragor Museum, Vác (Hungary). The individuals were preserved by spontaneous mummification due to the crypt’s unique microclimate and burial pattern. Signs of an autopsy were found on the body of a 10-year old girl, Maria Theresa of Swartz, who died on the 26th January 1784. Two incisions were seen on her body: the longitudinal incision extends from the manubrium sterni to the symphysis, the second one is perpendicular to it, and connects the two hip paddles. The wound edges were later sutured, and the suture was partially retained. Since there was no sign of any other opening in the body, the autopsy was apparently aimed at finding out the cause of death and was limited to the area of the suspected disease. Rapid miliary tuberculosis and extrapulmonary bone tuberculosis must have contributed to the child's death; this was demonstrated by radiological examinations and confirmed by paleomicrobiological examination (residues of Mycobacterium tuberculosis detected in pulmonary and extrapulmonary samples as well). Another hypothesis is that appendicitis might have caused the death of a child with advanced tuberculosis. In the case of appendicitis, the intestinal function may stop. Suspected abdominal complaints may also have been caused by extrapulmonary gastrointestinal tuberculosis.

A nazomaláris szög és szimotikus húr alkalmazása metrikus alapú taxonómiai osztályozási feladatokban

Ancestry can be estimated in a probabilistic framework using facial morphological signatures of the different population histories. While the assessment of qualitative traits requires more experience, the measurement of the most distinctive quantitative characters usually demands anthropological tools seldom available. However, some of the facial measurements related to ancestry can be easily recorded with a caliper. The study aims to present the efficiency of simotic chord (SC) and nasomalar angle (M77) in ancestry estimation by applying supervised and unsupervised algorithms to classify skulls with European and Asian ancestry. Linear discriminant analysis and Gaussian Mixture models were applied to a subset of the Howells’ craniometric dataset comprised of individuals with European and Asian ancestry. Prediction of ancestry was carried out on a set of craniometric traits describing height, length and width parameters of the crania and then repeated on this set supplemented with M77 and SC measurements. An increased percentage of true positive prediction of ancestry was achieved by involving the M77 and SC measurements.

Az emberi test kültéri hőterhelésének a humán állapothatározóktól való függése

A new clothing resistance model for estimating outdoor thermal load of a walking individual has been proposed by our research team. The model is used as a tool to analyse the relationship between clothing resistance (estimated by this new model) and body structural parameters in different weather conditions. More than 3000 children’s and adults’ body structural – BMI, relative fat mass (fatBMI) and relative muscle mass (muscleBMI) data, as well as simulated data of weather conditions having influence on thermal perception were used in the analysis. The relationship between BMI, fatBMI, muscleBMI and clothing resistance showed very strong relations both in simulated winter and summer conditions, in both sexes in almost every age-group. The bigger the BMI, fatBMI, muscleBMI, the smaller clothing resistance (smaller heating demand) was estimated in winter weather conditions, while the bigger clothing resistance (smaller cooling demand) was estimated in summer weather conditions. Females’ clothing resistance was higher in winter weather conditions, while was smaller in summer conditions than the clothing resistance of their male age-peers having the same relative body mass, fat mass or muscle mass. BMI showed the strongest relations with clothing resistance both in summer and winter thermal stresses. The preliminary results of the project confirmed that age, gender, BMI and presumably relative fat and muscle mass should be built in the procedure of parameterization of clothing resistance. Keywords: Weather conditions; Thermal load; Clothing resistance; Body structural parameters; Body mass index.