Anthropology  

Pererva E.V., Dyachenko A.N.

A STRESS OR MIGRATION MARKER (A STUDY OF THE AUDITORY CANAL EXOSTOSIS IN THE SKELETON MATERIAL OF THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE POPULATION FROM THE LOWER VOLGA REGION BURIAL GROUNDS)

The paper attempts to analyze the incidences of ear exostoses revealed in the skeletal remains of the Middle Bronze Age population of the Lower Volga region. In total, we have revealed 4 incidences of bone (skeletal) formations in the ear canal. The pathologies were observed predominantly in men over 20 years old. The paper presents a description of paleoanthropological material and provides a detailed interpretation of archaeological sites the skeletal remains originated from. We have examined hypothesis of ear exostosis occurrence in the Middle Bronze Age people of the Lower Volga region. The condition may be caused by stress arising from exposure to climatic factors, a specific lifestyle and regular natural inflammatory ear processes. However, the appearance of ear exostoses in the Middle Bronze Age population in the Lower Volga region is most likely to be explained by relocation of some groups from the Trans-Caucasian, Northern Caucasian or Northern Black sea regions. This assumption corresponds to the results of the paleoecological, archaeological and craniological analysis confirming the likely migration of the population of the Trans-Caucasian, Northern Caucasian and the Northern Black sea regions as a result of an ecological crisis at the end of the III — the beginning of the II millennium BC to the territory of the Lower Volga region.

Key words: auditory exostosis, the Middle Bronze Age, paleopathology, skull.

Zubova A.V., Batanina O.V., Panov V.S., Stepanov A.D., Kishkurno M.S.

MATTA, A NEOLITHIC BURIAL IN CENTRAL YAKUTIA. RESULTS OF AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

The article is dedicated to the results of a complex anthropological investigation of the Late Neolithic Matta burial complex. The burial was found in Megino-Kangalas district of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in 1996. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the human bones fall to the second half of the III millennium BC, the time when two Late Neolithic archaeological cultures — Ymyjakhtakh and Belkachi — existed in the region. Burial customs described in the Matta complex differ from both cultures because no grave goods and unusual position of the skeleton were found. The left arm was missing and a hare leg was put in the grave instead. The fragments of the scull, bones and teeth found in the grave were investigated using a complex research program. That included standard protocols of dental anthropological analysis, used in Russia and abroad (ASUDAS), cranial measurements using Martin’s program, and osteological analysis including measurements of bones and registration of enthesopathies, using Mariotti’s method. The results of analysis reveal that morphological features of the women buried in Matta’s grave were closer to Ymyjakhtakh population than to the Belcachi. The isotopic analysis of bone collagen (δ15N and δ13C) was also made. The results allow a suggestion about the prevalence of animal proteins in the Matta women’s diet, low level of fish proteins, and using local C4 plants for food.  

Key words: Yakutia, the Neolithic, the Ymyjakhtakh culture, the Belkachi culture, Matta, osteology enthesopathies, dental anthropology, stable isotopic analysis, paleodiet research.

Poshekhonova O.E., Sleptsova A.V.

THE POPULATION OF THE LOWER TOBOL RIVER IN THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM THE EARLY IRON AGE TO THE MIDDLE AGES ACCORDING TO CRANIOLOGY

Up to the present time, a few craniological samples of the migration period from the Early Iron Age to the Middle Ages from the Lower Tobol river have been introduced in scientific circulation [Zolotareva, 1957; Bagashev, 2000; Poshekhonova et al., 2016]. In addition, there was no acces for observation of the morphology of the cranium of the buried, due to a widespread practice of artificial cranial deformation in that period. Accumulation of materials of the III–VI centuries AD from this region became necessary to form a general sample that would allow investigating its anthropological specificity. Some important conclusions were a result of an extensive comparison of the series with groups of Western Siberia and adjacent territories of the Early Iron Age — the Middle Ages. No doubt, the population that left the burial grounds in the Lower Tobol river basin in the III–VI centuries AD was multicomponent. Those characteristics, which related to the medieval inhabitants of the taiga regions of Western Siberia, and to the Mongoloid part of the population of the previous period predominate during the morphological stage of the study of the group [Bagashev, 2000, 2017]. The population characterized by low facial and cranial length, a minimal nasal protrusion angle and a medium profiled transference. The migration of the groups from the taiga zone to the south in the III–VI centuries AD is not excluded. The Caucasian component in the ge-neral sample from the Lower Tobol river, which is already registered as a minor impurity, is not clearly observed. As a result, it was established, as well as the Sargatka paleopopulation, which became a basis for the formation of the Early Medieval tribes. However, a biological mixing has led to a leveling of the features inherent in various components, they can no longer be correlated with any morphotype of the Early Iron Age. Also we cannot make a conclusion about the migration of the population in the III–VI centuries AD from Western Siberia to the Urals, although this assumption has been repeatedly described in archaeological literature [Matveeva, 2015; Rafikova, 2011]. There is no reason to assume large-scale advancement of groups from the south or east to the territory of the Tobol river during that period, despite the fact that it was demonstrated by an artefact (appearance of a superstratum nomadic component) [Matveeva, 2016].

Key words: Western Siberia, Lower Tobol river, the Early Middle Ages, the Sargatka, Bacal, Karym, Kushnarenkovo cultures, paleoanthropology, anthropological type.