Germanic Origin Research Articles

English is (still) a West Germanic language

In their recent book,English: The Language of the Vikings, Joseph Embley Emonds and Jan Terje Faarlund attempt to make the case that from its Middle period onwards, English is a North Germanic language, descended from the Norse varieties spoken in Medieval England, rather than a West Germanic language, as traditionally assumed. In this review article we critique Emonds & Faarlund's proposal, focusing particularly on the syntactic evidence that forms the basis of their argumentation. A closer look at a number of constructions for which the authors suggest a Norse origin reveals that the situation is not as they present it: in many cases, the syntactic properties of Old and Middle English are not given careful enough consideration, and/or the chronology of the developments is not compatible with a Norse origin. Moreover, the authors do not engage with the large body of sound changes that constitute the strongest evidence for a West Germanic origin. We conclude that Emonds & Faarlund fail to make a convincing case either for a North Germanic origin or against a West Germanic origin.

The Probable Old Germanic Origin Of Romanian iele ‘(evil) fairies’

Abstract Iele (or ielele, with a definite article) is the name of the “evil fairies” (zânele rele) of the Romanian mythology. They are mentioned in old Romanian folktales and legends and they have been a constant source of inspiration for many Romanian writers, who transformed them into literary characters in their works.1 Also, they have been a controversial subject of many folkloric studies, whose authors have tried to explain the origin and meaning of these supernatural female creatures. The present author aims to discuss the most significant (however divergent) opinions about the Romanian iele and to point out similarities with Germanic (and possibly Celtic) traditions, in which special categories of fairies have functions and names that resemble those of the Romanian iele. Under such circumstances, the idea of a probable Old Germanic origin of the Romanian term iele should not be regarded as out-of-place.

Middle English: English or Frenglish?

The article focuses on a general description of Middle English considering the impact ofthe French language on its development during this period. Despite an extensive number of Frenchborrowings in different layers of the English language, the language remained English and itspredominant features were still those of Germanic origin

What is West Germanic today?

Most work devoted to the delineation and development of West Germanic focuses on its prehistory and early history as a branch of Germanic. The present contribution rather wishes to draw attention to certain characteristic differences between the present-day (High) German, Dutch, (West) Frisian and English standard languages which may appear interesting in view of their presumably common West Germanic origin. The discussion is based on a number of morphosyntactic phenomena that have proved useful in current studies of linguistic typology, including in particular word order and case-marking as well as certain characteristic features of verb constructions and verb morphology.

Politische Inszenierung und Instrumentalisierung von Reformationsjubiläen im 20. Jahrhundert in Schweden

As far back as the Early Modern period, Swedish Reformation centenaries were exploited politically. Instead of Martin Luther, the liberation from Denmark (1521) and the Declaration of the Swedish Reformation (1593) were celebrated. From 1817 and 1830, Reformation centenaries were celebrated in a more continental form, but the Confessio Augustana-Celebration was combined with the clebration of Sweden's 'apostle' St.Ansgar. Because many of Luther's writings were not translated into Swedish until the 19th century, this became the century of reading Luther in Sweden. The Reformation centenary 1917 was celebrated throughout Sweden but simultaneously, a new Bible translation was introduced that departed significantly from the traidtions of the Luther Bible. Tow years later, Luther's Small Catechism was abandoned as the foundation of Religious Education in schools. The construction of a Swedish 'Special Path' for the interpretation of the Reformation continued into the 1920s and onwards. The most important commemoration of the Reformation was celebrated in German Lutzen, where a Gustav-Adolf-Chapel had been consecrated on November 6th, 1907. On November 6, 1942, in the heart of the Second World War, Archbishop Erling Eidem preached in the chapel, saying that the celebration should not be autonomous or arrogant, as if the people of Swedish, Nordic, or Germanic origin were superior to any other people or race in the world. Two days later, Dr. Eidem introduced the new Swedish rector in Berlin with a sermon on Romans 1:16 ('...to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.'). In Sweden, the celebrations were used to demonstrate the Swedish consensus on the Christian and the Swedish way (1941), which was understood in Swedish Reformation history as a middle course, 'to be interpreted' as the middle coruse between National Socialism and Communism (1943). Thus, Swedish Church history was exploited for both ecumenical and political purposes. it was not democracy, but religious and cultural unity that was being emphasized. A result of the 1993 Swedish Reformation Centenary was that the Church of Sweden portrayed itself as being on a particular ecumenical 'Special Path', as being Lutheran without Luther. In contrast to the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, which has been able to combine ecumencial openness with conefessional lutheranism, the Church of Sweden has emphasized its uniqueness in such a way that could risk ecclesiastical isolation on an international level. Although lacking the old national rhetoric, the emphasis on the Swedish 'Special Path' has achieved the same result as the old antional glorification within both the peace initiatives as well as in ecumenical work. As an interpretation of the German Reformation, this pathway is highly questionable. (Less)

Einige indogermanistische Anmerkungen zur mutmaßlichen Ableitungsgrundlage des Ortsnamens Leipzig

The oldest forms of the place-name Leipzig, i.e. Libzi, Libiz vel sim., are now generally assumed to be Slavic, i.e. Old Sorabian derivatives of an older river-name, probably of Germanic origin. At the basis of this river-name is thought to be an enlarged root PIE *lei̯‑bh‑ ‘to flow, drip’. As the concept of root enlargement is somewhat problematic and should thus better be abandoned, it is claimed here – based on a recently published idea for the etymologization of the name of the river Elbe – that this assumed Germanic river-name is a derivative of an unenlarged root with the suffix PIE *‑bho‑. This suffix was used to form colour adjectives on the one hand and action nouns vel sim. on the other. Theoretical proto-forms of the river-name are PIE *h2lei̯H‑bho‑ or *h2liH‑bho‑ ‘making/being dirty/filthy’, PIE *lei̯H‑bho‑ or *liH‑bho‑ ‘nestling up against, winding itself’, PIE *lei̯H‑bho‑ or *liH‑bho‑ ‘pouring out’ (→ ‘flowing’?), PIE *lei̯h2‑bho‑ or *lih2‑bho‑ ‘dwindling, disappearing’, PIE *(s)lei̯H‑bho‑ or *(s)liH‑bho‑ ‘blue(ish)’, and PIE *(s)lei̯‑bho‑ ‘slippery, slimy’. A further theoretical possibility is the reconstruction as PIE *lei̯p-o‑ ‘sticky’ vel sim. (> ‘muddy’?). And finally, a reconstruction seems possible regarding the whole name not as a derivative, but as a compound with PIE *‑h2p-o‑ (the zero-grade of PIE *h2ep- ‘water’) as the second member. In this case, the same roots which form the bases of the derivatives are used as the first members of these compounds. All proposals show semantics acceptable for the formation of river-names. Thus no final decision between these proposals is possible.

Sin and Redemption in the Hours of François I (1539–40) by the Master of François de Rohan

Sin and Redemption in the <i>Hours of François I</i> (1539–40) by the Master of François de Rohan

Strontium isotopes of human remains from the San Martín de Dulantzi graveyard (Alegría-Dulantzi, Álava) and population mobility in the Early Middle Ages

Strontium isotope analysis of human remains from San Martín de Dulantzi (Alegría-Dulantzi, Álava, Spain) graveyard has been used to establish mobility patterns during the Early Middle Ages. Some archaeological human remains had Germanic grave goods. Through radiogenic strontium isotope analysis, local origin individuals and immigrants were differentiated. Archaeological human bone samples exhibit 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70779–0.70802 values similar to domestic fauna isotope composition, indicating local origin of individuals or long residence time in the region. Comparing these data with tooth enamel values, two groups of immigrants from distinctive geological environment were established. The Dulantzi population constituted mainly a local society with influxes of immigrants. The foreign individuals are distributed through the studied period of time, suggesting that migration movements were limited in number. Isotopic signatures indicating mainly local individuals, linked to grave goods with archaeological attribution to Germanic origin, question the previous ethnic paradigm.

Marturii arheologice din epoca timpurie a migratiilor in Banat – Etapa D2 / Archaologische Belege aus der fruhen Volkerwanderungszeit im Banat – die Stufe D2

e D2 Phase of the early migrations period coincides with the culmination of the Hun rule. In D2 stage one can observe a confinement of habitatation in the Banat Plain (Map 2) compared with the earlier period – Phase D1 (Map 1). In the present stage of research we can affirm that in the Banat region no single settlement was archaeologically investigated that could be assigned with certainty to the D2 chronological horizon. is situation is not a particular phenomenon, for a more intense inhabitation in D1 than in D2 phase was remarked for the entire territory of present day Romania.Artefacts from Banat one can date in D2 Phase come mostly from graves accidentally discovered in the 19thcentury. Only one necropolis from Timișoara-Freidorf was systematically investigated during 1988 – 2006. e discovery of luxury items in Banat (the graves from Izvin and Periam, the grave? from Denta) indicate the presence of a tribal elite that gravitated around a Hun power centre situated most probably west to the confluence area of the Mureş and Tisa rivers. From the perspective of funeral discoveries, the Banat Plain seem to have been populated mostly by tribes of Alanic and Germanic origin, probably Gepids. e archaeological landscape of Banat in Phase D2 is extremely modest, the region being sparely inhabited. e goal of future researche will be clarify aspects related to habitatation during the height of the Hun Empire.

Etnolingvistiniai santykiai priešistorinėje Šiaurės rytų Europoje

ETHNOLINGUISTIC SITUATION IN THE PREHISTORIC NORTH-EAST EUROPE Summary The hitherto known facts allow to state that in the period between the disintegration of Indo-European community and the expansion of Mongolian-Turkic peoples four groups of langua­ges: Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Finno-Ugrian and Iranian, connected with one another, existed in the North-East Europe. With the exception of Germanic-Iranian, the existence of contacts between all the remaining groups is assumed, where only the Baltic-Iranian contacts have not been proved to this day. As to Baltic-Slavic connections, apart from similarities resulting from common he­ritage, they are very late and they go beyond the epoch which comes into question. No certain Baltic borrowings in common Slavic and vice versa no Slavic borrowings in common Baltic have as yet been stated. There are only Polish loan-words in Old Prussian as well as East Slavic and Polish terms in Lithuanian and Latvian. Moreover, some local Baltic influences in the neighbour­ing Slavic languages have been found. The prehistoric Baltic-Germanic contacts were rather scarce and late and, as it seems, mainly Scandinavian languages were the direct source of Germanic borrowings in Baltic (in the case of Old Prussian it was also Gothic). The Baltic-Finno-Ugrian contacts embraced West Finnic and Volga Finnic languages only, but they were close and prolong­ed. The Baltic loan-words in West Finnic are numerous (about two hundred), whereas to the un­questionable borrowings in Volga Finnic belong only five words in Mordvian. The Finno-Ugrian borrowings in Baltic are less frequent (about forty words). Most of them come from West Fin­nic and here also a few words of Iranian and Germanic origin occur. Some of them are known in Slavic languages which allow us to state that they may have dated back to Balto-Slavic epoch.

Separated by a common translation? How the british and the dutch communicate

The British and Dutch share a long naval-, war- and medical history, in good times as well as bad. Their language has a common Germanic origin, but the English people may use special ways to express values or opinions, from which the sometimes paradoxical meaning is not always clear to the other party. Particularly with the Dutch, renowned for their directness, this may cause confusion. We provide a comprehensive set of expressions, each with paired interpretations, to foster Anglo-Dutch cooperation.

The Not-Yet-Fully-Welcome ‘Guests in the House’

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 Translation from the Swedish original – Gäster I huset. Kulturell överföring mellem slaver och skandinaver 900 till 1300, Lund 2001. 2 Skre, ‘Exploring Skiringssal’, 42. 3 Cf. Schachtmann, Strobel, and Widera, Politik und Wissenschaft. 4 E.g. the conference ‘Scandinavia, the Baltic Sea and Poland: Cultural and Material Exchanges’, Gdańsk, 28–30 September 2008, co-organized by the Nordic Centre for Medieval Studies (Bergen) and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology (Warsaw). 5 E.g. Naum, Homelands Lost and Gained. 6 Besides my serious reservation against the use of this collective name, its Germanic origin suggests the English translation Vends (like in Blomkvist, The Discovery of the Baltic) rather than Wends. 7 Blomkvist, The Discovery of the Baltic, 134. 8 The old-Slavic terms: ‘liutyj’ (Sreznevskii, Materialy dla slovaria drevne-russkogo iazyka po pis'miennym pamiatnikam, 96) and ‘luty’ (Słownik języka polskiego, 235) leave no doubt about the Slavic origin of this collective name. They allow a guess that this ethnonym was created by contrasting the inhabitants of the lands located on both sides of the Oder. The Liutici were supposed to represent a ‘wild/severe/cruel’ people (Lübke, Qui sint vel unde huc venerint; Urbańczyk, Trudne począkti Polski, chapter 12). 9 Blomkvist, The Discovery of the Baltic, 133. 10 Brather, ‘The Beginnings of Slavic Settlement’, 329. 11 Snorre Sturluson claimed that Olav firstly married Geira, a daughter of Mieszko I, whom Snorre typically mistook for his son Boleslaw Chrobry – ‘Saga om Olav Tryggvason’, chapter 22 (p. 136), chapter 29 (p. 141). 12 Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Keiserzeit, 196f; Duczko, ‘Real and Imaginary Contributions’, 131f; Wood, The Missionary Life, 238. 13 Nilsson, ‘Kring några bortglömda tankar om Suigi och Olof Skötkonungs dop’, 212. 14 Housted, Stednavne af slavisk oprindelse på Lolland, 89. 15 Skre, ‘Dark Age Towns’, 27. 16 Blomkvist, The Discovery of the Baltic, 136. 17 Cf. also Indruszewski, Man. Ship, Landscape. 18 Jensen, ‘Saxos graenser’, 9. 19 Blomkvist, The Discovery of the Baltic, 140. 20 Housted, Stednavne af slavisk oprindelse på Lolland, 88. 21 Cf. analysis in Labuda, ‘Słowianie w wizjach historiografii’. Quite understandably, that intellectual atmosphere provoked the emergence of a counter-ideology, which glorified past achievements of the Slavs and promoted pan-Slavic solidarity; Urbańczyk, ‘Mediaeval Archaeology in Polish Historic-Political Discourse’. 22 E.g. Svanberg, Decolonizing the Viking Age 1; Svanberg, Death Rituals in South-East Scandinavia. 23 Cf. discussion in Urbańczyk, ‘Deconstructing the “Nordic Civilization”’. 24 Roslund, Gäster I huset, 322. 25 I want to express my thanks to Maciej Trzeciecki for his comments regarding specialist ceramological aspects. 26 Texts in non-Germanic languages make less than 5% of Roslund's ‘Literature’ (pp. 331–50). 27 Several names of the eminent Slavic scholars are seriously misspelled at p. xii and p. xiii, and at p. 229. Such nonchalance is not rare in Scandinavian literature – e.g. Nils Blomkvist in his book published also by Brill in 2005 consequently calls eminent Polish professor Lechiewicz instead of Leciejewicz. 28 I have to admit that similar tendency dominates also among archaeologists working south of the Baltic Sea, and exclusions from this bad tradition are still rare despite obviously positive results (e.g. Dulinicz, Frühe Slawen im Gebiet zwischen unterer Weichsel und Elbe). 29 What Mats Roslund calls ‘eastern Denmark’ today is south-western Sweden. 30 To my surprise, the index does not even contain ‘Bornholm’, which means that this key island placed half way between the south-Scandinavian and west-Slavic lands has not deserved the author's interest. The most probable reason is that the island belongs today to Denmark. 31 Cf. valuable reviews by Jones (The Archaeology of Ethnicity) and Jenkins (Rethinking Ethnicity).

Romania Continua, Romania Submersa, and the Field of Romance Studies

Understanding future of Romance studies would be an act of prophecy, rather than a forecasting. Since I am completely unable to become suddenly a prophet, mine will be some sort of Augustinian-driven consideration of past and future of present things. I received my formation as a very canonical Romanist. It was a very intense, almost skill-based training in history of literatures and languages, in textual scholarship, paleography, classical languages, and other strict disciplines: hard core of philology. For better or for worse, rest, I had to do it by myself. I spent ten years of my life teaching Romance literatures of Middle Ages in Salamanca and at some other European institutions. Looking back to that period after seven years in American academia requires a sort of a critical archaeology of that formation and its conditions of possibility. The field of Romance studies could be perceived as a sort of academic battlefield in form of a jigsaw puzzle. Different pieces have to be fit together to form original, historical picture of a mythical Romania, a picture that includes not only current Romance languages and cultures, Romania continua, but also different expressions of Romania submersa, that is Romance expressions of those other languages (of Celtic, Germanic or Berber origin, for instance) that, although located at outskirts of Romania, still claim their historical and underlying romanization as one of signs of their being higher cultures. The field became a battle from moment that jigsaw was puzzled by nineteenth-century national borderlines and by classification of Romance languages within those borderlines. All this could not be more obvious, but, at same time, it bas very evident consequences as well: Occitan cultures are studied, if at all, within French departments, as if Occitan were a part of monde de la francophonie; Catalan language is studied, if at all, in Spanish departments and has even become a part of Hispanic studies; we could go on ad nauseam trying to fit pieces of what Walther von Wartburg certified as La Fragmentation linguistique de la Romania within disciplinary boundaries of academic departments as they have been constituted in last decades as a result of complex interplay between linguistic geography, linguistic politics, and political geography. It does not come as a surprise that program in Romance philology at Columbia University is owned, as it were, by French department, and, in fact, it would not be a surprise either, if it were owned by department of Germanic studies, since they established foundation for Romance studies in Romania continua as well as concept of Romania submersa, to which nowadays they refer as die verlorene Romanitat, the lost Romanity. By same token, but from a completely different perspective, it is not a surprise either that same program at UC Berkeley is co-owned by several departments, sort of floating among or on top of them and resistant to change despite fact that those departments have changed their undergraduate and graduate programs radically over course of last few years. In other places I am aware of, such a program does not even exist, or it is result of a process of exhumation and resuscitation, as at University of Salamanca or University of Alcala de Henares, both in Spain. To primitive jigsaw puzzle formed by archetypal picture of Romania, it is necessary to add another one formed by ways in which we conceive relationships between disciplines and academic programs. Romance studies and Romance philology are an exceptional academic space, and it is because of this exceptionality that it is uncomfortably located. In many instances, it is only a name used by university to bring together colleagues from various smaller fields into a bigger structure in order to ease administrative work. …

The legacy of diglossia in English vocabulary: what learners need to know

In the past two decades, vocabulary researchers have determined the number of word families that an undergraduate needs to know in order to read effectively in English, and further work has examined vocabulary size among Indonesian university students. What this research has so far not considered, however, is the distinction in the learner's vocabulary knowledge between words of Germanic origin and words of Graeco-Latin origin, despite the importance of the latter in academic study. The question of the relative importance of the two vocabularies arose from a study of vocabulary size in the United Arab Emirates, a country in which English is a major lingua franca. Although the Emirati students knew many more word families than did their Indonesian counterparts, an examination of their test results revealed that they knew proportionately fewer of the important Graeco-Latin words than had been expected and were thus less well prepared for academic reading than their overall vocabulary size might have suggested. This paper describes the background to the study and presents the test results, and discusses the implications of the apparent bias towards words of Germanic origin.

Academy of RV Tucker Study Clubs RV Tucker Award

Academy of RV Tucker Study Clubs RV Tucker Award

Behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella Typhimurium in teewurst, a raw spreadable sausage

The fate of Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, or Escherichia coli O157:H7 were separately monitored both in and on teewurst, a traditional raw and spreadable sausage of Germanic origin. Multi-strain cocktails of each pathogen (ca. 5.0 log CFU/g) were used to separately inoculate teewurst that was subsequently stored at 1.5, 4, 10, and 21 °C. When inoculated into commercially-prepared batter just prior to stuffing, in general, the higher the storage temperature, the greater the lethality. Depending on the storage temperature, pathogen levels in the batter decreased by 2.3 to 3.4, ca. 3.8, and 2.2 to 3.6 log CFU/g for E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes, respectively, during storage for 30 days. When inoculated onto both the top and bottom faces of sliced commercially-prepared finished product, the results for all four temperatures showed a decrease of 0.9 to 1.4, 1.4 to 1.8, and 2.2 to 3.0 log CFU/g for E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes, respectively, over the course of 21 days. With the possible exceptions for salt and carbohydrate levels, chemical analyses of teewurst purchased from five commercial manufacturers revealed only subtle differences in proximate composition for this product type. Our data establish that teewurst does not provide a favourable environment for the survival of E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, or L. monocytogenes inoculated either into or onto the product.

Linguistic-Historical Implications of an Old Germanic Loan – Romanian gard ‘fence, enclosure, weir, garden’

The author of this article aims to clarify the etymology of the much discussed Romanian term gard. Three main etymological explanations have so far been proposed for that term: (1) earliest of all, Diez considered that Gothic gards (‘house, homestead, household enclosure, court, courtyard, praetorium, household, family’) could account for both Romanian gard and Albanian gardh (‘fence, hedge, palisade, dam’); about one century later Gamillscheg also sustained the Old Germanic origin of Romanian gard; (2) most other scholars joined Miklosich’s authoritative opinion according to which Romanian gard simply derived from Old Slavic grad? (‘city’); (3) in more recent times, several specialists considered Romanian gard to be a substratal (Thraco-Dacian) term closely related to Albanian gardh. The present author puts forward his own arguments (linguistic, as well as historical, archaeological and ethnological) in favor of the Old Germanic origin of Romanian gard.

Per un approfondimento dei germanismi dell’Epistula Anthimi de observatione ciborum: bridum / spiss, sodinga / prue

Anthimus De observatione ciborum, a letter on dietetics written during the 6 th century AD and addressed to Theuderic king of the Franks, has been debated for many years because of its particular language. Anthimus was a Byzantine physician who wrote his letter in Vulgar Latin, but he also used and adopted many foreign loanwords in his treatise. In particular, words which may be considered of Germanic origin (brado, bridum, fartalia, fenea, gavata, medus, melca, sodinga) have caused translators and commentators many difficulties, because of their nonunivocal interpretation. The aim of this article is to offer a short contribution to the explanation of two of these Germanic loanwords (bridum and sodinga) by means of a comparison made between the Latin text by Anthimus and its translation in Early New High German, which, of course, can not be considered as the definite solution to their problematical interpretation, but nevertheless can show how these words were understood during the 15 th century in German area.

History of the Peoples of the Great Hungarian Plain in the First Millennium: A Craniometric Point of View

We carried out an examination relying on six dimensions of 1,573 crania coming from the Great Hungarian Plain. The crania represent seven archeological periods: Sarmatian age (1-4th century), the period of transition (about 400-420), Hun and Gepidic epochs (about 420-455 and 455-567, respectively), early Avar age (about 568-670), late Avar period (about 670-895), the epoch of the Hungarian conquest and settlement (about 895-1000), and the Arpadian age (about 1000-1301). We were curious about the anatomical background behind cultural changes of the various populations that inhabited this area. After having noticed some discontinuities between the populations, as revealed by univariate analysis of single dimensions, we performed a principal-components analysis to see whether or not the diverse components showed eventual breaks in the sequence of the populations. Knowing that all the dominant populations had Asian roots, except for the Gepids of Germanic origin, we expected a considerable difference between the Gepidic population and all the other inhabitants. We also assumed that a conquest itself with a large-scale assimilation was unlikely to leave breaklike traits in anatomical patterns, except for aggressive conquests. We found that the second principal component (which correlated with cranial breadth and partly with height) showed a remarkable hiatus in both sexes between Gepids and early Avars. Having done a statistical proof (simultaneous tests for general linear hypotheses) of the observed phenomenon, we found that the gap referring to subsequent populations was significant only in males. A possible reason for this result is that the Avar conquest was much more radical than has been thought. In addition, considering that men were more likely to die in wars, women survived and were assimilated into the conquerors' populations with higher probability, so it is not surprising that the results of multicomparison tests are significant only in men.

History of the Peoples of the Great Hungarian Plain in the First Millennium: A Craniometric Point of View

We carried out an examination relying on six dimensions of 1,573 crania coming from the Great Hungarian Plain. The crania represent seven archeological periods: Sarmatian age (1–4th century), the period of transition (about 400–420), Hun and Gepidic epochs (about 420–455 and 455–567, respectively), early Avar age (about 568–670), late Avar period (about 670–895), the epoch of the Hungarian conquest and settlement (about 895–1000), and the Arpadian age (about 1000–1301). We were curious about the anatomical background behind cultural changes of the various populations that inhabited this area. After having noticed some discontinuities between the populations, as revealed by univariate analysis of single dimensions, we performed a principal-components analysis to see whether or not the diverse components showed eventual breaks in the sequence of the populations. Knowing that all the dominant populations had Asian roots, except for the Gepids of Germanic origin, we expected a considerable difference between the Gepidic population and all the other inhabitants. We also assumed that a conquest itself with a large-scale assimilation was unlikely to leave breaklike traits in anatomical patterns, except for aggressive conquests. We found that the second principal component (which correlated with cranial breadth and partly with height) showed a remarkable hiatus in both sexes between Gepids and early Avars. Having done a statistical proof (simultaneous tests for general linear hypotheses) of the observed phenomenon, we found that the gap referring to subsequent populations was significant only in males. A possible reason for this result is that the Avar conquest was much more radical than has been thought. In addition, considering that men were more likely to die in wars, women survived and were assimilated into the conquerors’ populations with higher probability, so it is not surprising that the results of multicomparison tests are significant only in men.