http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
Avar kori torzított koponyás temetkezések a Tiszántúlon
In the course of my research I analyzed Avar Age burial sites in the area east of the Tisza river (Tiszántúl region) that contained artificially deformed skulls. My work is mainly intended to raise questions about this topic and to clarify the sometimes arguable data in the literature. The aim of the research was to revise all the published Avar Age graves with artificially deformed skulls and to process the unpublished cases from the viewpoint of both archaeology and anthropology. The sites presented in my paper clearly indicate that the custom of the artificial cranial deformation (ACD), which was widespread in the earlier phase (5lh-6th century) did not disappear entirely after the fall of the Hun Empire and the Gepidian Kingdom, as it was usually considered in the past. Based on the research of the anthropological and the archaeological data we can assume the survival of the previous communities in the Avar Age at some of the sites. At other sites, survival can definitely be excluded. Based on the comparison of sites with and without ACD, we can state that artificial cranial deformation was rarely practiced in the Avar Age. Due to the small number of the examined cases at this moment we can not make any far-reaching conclusions. In my work I presented 25 burials from 13 sites from the Avar Age - apart from the 32 female graves from Szegvár-Oromdűlő. From these I had to exclude 12 uncertain cases from 8 sites, so all in all I found 13 certain cases from 6 sites appropriate for further research. We had to differentiate 2 groups, the heavily deformed (4 cases) and the slightly deformed (9 cases) skulls. Within these groups I considered the cases from the viewpoint of sex, age at death, burial rite, finds, dating of the material, and the relation of the graves with ACD to the whole cemetery. We can add that the determination of the social status of the people with artificially deformed skull is very problematic.