Vasilyev S.V., Borutskaya S.B. (Moscow, Russian Federation)

                      page 78–90

Tam Hang was opened in 1934 by Jacques Fromaget who worked at the Geological survey of Indochina. 17 skulls were discovered by Fromage, but the Museum has only 10 whole skulls. Six skulls and postcranial skeletons belonged to six individuals. And in total 3 male and 4 female postcranial skeletons was studied osteologically. The obtained date of one skeleton from burial was 15,7±0,8 ka. The population Tam Hang from was morphologically uniform according the angular morphometry of skulls. Craniologically men from Tam Hang were heterogeneous. One of them was similar to the sample from the Combe Capelle, another was close to the group of skulls from Pzedmosti. Characteristics of people from the Tam Hang were: a small body length, relatively elongated lower leg in male individuals and the elongated forearm in women that could be associated with adaptations to hot climatic conditions. The group was noted of the frequent occurrence of sacralization of last lumbar vertebra and so increasing of sacrum strength. Main pathologies associated with diseases of the teeth-jaw apparatus.

Key words: Laos, Paleolithic, angular morphometry of the skull, craniology, osteology, paleopathology.