Zsófia Rácz

This is the first conference volume focused on the history, archaeology, onomatology, coinage, craftsmanship, and settlements of the Gepidic Kingdom in the Tisza Region, Sirmium, and Transylvania. The heritage of the Gepidic period is presented through the most recent archaeological discoveries. Various aspects of the cultural contacts of the Gepids, as discussed in the book, shed light on their connections to European and Byzantine cultures, their relationship with the Langobards, as well as their beliefs and religion.

Tivadar Vida – Dieter Quast – Zsófia Rácz – István Koncz (Hrsg./Eds.), Gepiden nach dem Untergang des Hunnenreiches, Kollaps – Neuordnung – Kontinuität / Gepids after the Fall of the Hun Empire Collapse - Reorganization – Continuity. Tagungsakten  der Internationalen Konferenz
an der Eötvös Loránd Universität, Budapest, 14. - 15. Dezember 2015 / Proceedings of the International Conference at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 14th - 15th December 2015. Budapest, 2019.

The Avars were a mysterious population that settled the Carpathian Basin in 567/
68 CE, and their origins have remained enigmatic. Genomic analyses of 66 pre-
Avar and Avar-period individuals, integrated with archaeological and
historical data, suggest that Avar elites underwent a long-distance, trans-
Eurasian migration from the East Asian steppe.

The 5th century AD in the Carpathian Basin was a time of successive political and social shifts arising from the fall of the Roman and the Hunnic Empire, together with significant changes in the anthropological profile of the population. Besides, the consecutive waves of migrations contributed to these developments, which resulted in a remarkable heterogeneity of the population in the Carpathian Basin. In this study,
we provide an up-to-date revision of the biological anthropological research on this 5th-century population, focusing on the published data.

During 2009–2011, a burial ground and a part of a settlement have been excavated within the confines of the Nyíregyháza municipality, which had been used by the same population in the middle and second half of the 5th century AD based on archaeological data. The 24-grave burial ground established near the dispersed settlement represents a previously unknown cemetery type in Northeast Hungary. Representative artefact types from the Hun period and subsequent decades appear in its find assemblage, including a variety of costume items, glass drinking cups, and a 5th-century silver coin.

Nyíregyháza határában 2009-2011 során egy temető és egy településrészlet került feltárásra, melyeket a régészeti adatok alapján egyazon népesség használt az 5. század közepén-második felében. A szórt szerkezetű település közelében létesített, 24 síros temetkezőhely olyan temetőtípust képvisel, amely eddig nem volt ismert Északkelet-Magyarországról. Leletanyagában megjelennek a hun korszak és az azt követő évtizedek reprezentatív tárgytípusai, köztük változatos viseleti elemek, üvegpoharak és egy 5. századi ezüstpénz is.

In: Rácz, Zs., Szenthe, G. (eds): Attila's Europe? Structural transformation and strategies of succes in the European Hun period.
Extended, annotated proceedings of the international conference organised by the Hungarian National Museum and the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, June 6–8, 2019.

The decline of the Roman rule caused significant political instability and led to the emergence of various 'Barbarian' powers. While the names of the involved groups appeared in written sources, it is largely unknown how these changes affected the daily lives of the people during the 5 th century AD. Did late Roman traditions persist, did new customs emerge, and did both amalgamate into new cultural expressions? A prime area to investigate these population and settlement historical changes is the Carpathian Basin (Hungary). Particularly , we studied archaeological and anthropological evidence, as well as radiogenic and stable isotope ratios of strontium, carbon, and nitrogen of human remains from 96 graves at the cemetery of Mö zs-Icsei dűlő. Integrated data analysis suggests that most members of the founder generation at the site exhibited burial practises of late Antique traditions, even though they were heterogeneous regarding their places of origin and dietary habits. Furthermore , the isotope data disclosed a nonlocal group of people with similar dietary habits. According to the archaeological evidence, they joined the community a few decades after the founder generation and followed mainly foreign traditions with artificial skull modification as their most prominent characteristic. Moreover, individuals with modified skulls and late Antique grave attributes attest to deliberate cultural amalgamation, whereas burials of largely different isotope ratios underline the recipient habitus of the community. The integration of archaeological and bioarchaeological information at the individual level discloses the complex coalescence of people and traditions during the 5 th century.

This paper describes a solitary burial found in Szilvásvárad (NE Hungary) in 2016 and discusses its wider archaeological significance. From the last decades of the 4th century onwards the Carpathian Basin witnessed significant population movements from the East, associated with political and social transformations. However, while the burial practices and some of the grave goods found with this grave fit perfectly into the archaeological phenomena of the 5th century Carpathian Basin, other features are rare or unique in this region and, at the same time, reveal strong connections with the western Roman Empire. Therefore, while the wider archaeological picture may indicate sweeping changes driven from the East, this particular burial provides an intriguing and intimate insight into how individuals may have responded to the complex readjustments of that time.

Objective: The prevalence of hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI) was examined in different periods of the Carpathian Basin from 4900 BCE to 17th century AD. The study seeks to evaluate temporal changes in HFI and the possible impact of lifestyle on it.
Materials: The studied material consisted of 4668 crania from Hungary and Serbia.
Methods: The crania were analyzed employing macroscopic and endoscopic examination.
Results: In historic periods, sex and age played a pivotal role in HFI development. Among predominantly pastoralist populations of the 5th-8th and 10th centuries, prevalence of HFI was considerably higher than in the medieval populations of the 9th-17th centuries.
Conclusions: In addition to age and sex, other factors could be implicated in HFI development. The physiological effects of the pastoralist lifestyle and diet on insulin regulation could explain the increased risk of developing HFI in the 5th-8th and 10th-century populations.
Significance: The study provides the first comprehensive dataset of HFI from different archaeological periods from the Carpathian Basin. It has implications for lifestyle and risk of HFI development in past populations.
Limitations: The archaeological periods are not equally represented.
Suggestions for Further Research: In order to better understand the etiology of HFI, lifestyle factors can be used to elucidate the risk of developing HFI in ancient populations.

Anthropological examination of the 5-6th c. human remains from Pusztataskony-Ledence 1-2

During the excavation near Pusztataskony several archaeological objects and burials were unearthed dated back to the 5-6th centuries. In
this study 16 human remains from the Gepidic period and one skeleton
from the Hunnic Period were analysed from the sites Pusztataskony-
Ledence 1-2. Due to the low case number, the demographic studies were
not possible, however the sex ratio could have been balanced within the
Gepidic period population. The pathological alterations have been found
to correspond with the age at death. Most of the males and females are
characterized by long and high skull with moderately wide face. Based
on the craniofacial examination, it appears that Europid morphological
traits were dominant in this population, but in 4 cases slight mongoloid
features were also noticed. Three skulls from the Gepidic period show
clear traces of cranial deformation and the Hunnic period skull is also
modified. Two of the deformed Gepidic- and the Hunnic period skulls
had moderate mongoloid features. The craniometrical and taxonomical
results fits into the Gepidic period anthropological picture of the region.
The deformed skulls with mongolid traits may indicate the eastern originated transmission of this tradition.