A török hódoltság kori idegen etnikumok összehasonlító embertani vizsgálata

Abstract

It is well known from historical sources that in the Ottoman Era a large number of Southern Slavs and Vlachs settled down mainly in the southern parts of that-time Hungary. This study tried to answer the questions whether (1) it is possible to differentiate between these immigrant and resident populations based on metrical traits of skulls, and (2) it is possible to determine their origin. The other, larger research objective focused on the lifestyle of the examined populations: the investigation was supposed to determine differences and similarities in the lifestyles and health conditions of the two largest immigrant populations of Bacska (Bacsalmas-Oalmas and Zombor-Repulőter sites). According to the results of distance calculation, almost all remains of the immigrant males from the time of the Turkish occupation in the territory of Hungary tendentiously belonged to one group and strongly differed from the Hungarian findings of the Arpad Age and the Late Middle Ages. The presumed common origin is thus verified with biological methods and on the basis of burial customs and grave goods as well. As for the origins of the examined populations, the foreign parallels clearly point out a connection to the territory of the Balkan, more specifically to the area populated by the Vlachs. The results of the examination of pathological changes have pointed out the dissimilarity of health conditions and lifestyle among the immigrant populations. Moreover, the material from both the Bacsalmas and the Zombor cemeteries belong to the first series to have undergone examination of early-stage/atypical lesions of tuberculosis. On one hand, these results indicate a much higher prevalence of tuberculosis infection in that period, than it is shown by the frequency of classic lesions. On the other hand, they also demonstrate how much manifestations of the disease in individual series can differ.