Anthropology  

A craniological finding from a shrine at Bolshoy Log fortified settlement of the Kulay culture in Omsk

Bagashev A.N., Slepchenko S.M., Alekseeva E.A., Sleptsova A.V. (Tyumen, Russian Federation)

The paleoanthropological material discovered at a shrine in Bolshoy Log fortified settlement of the Kulay culture is of a big interest regarding the formation of the morphological type of the Kulay population. Despite the wide area of distribution (the Middle and Lower Ob River basin and adjacent territories of Western Siberia) and a long historical period of functioning (in the middle of the 1st millennium BC — the middle of the 1st millennium AD), there are only small data which would help to determine the morphological type of the Kulay population. These are materials from the burial grounds of Kamenny Mys, Aldygan and single skulls from Ust-Poluy and Kulayskaya Gora shrines. Investigation of a skull from Bolshoy Log shrine showed that morphological features of the individual (a male of mature age) completely fits into the variability, typical of the very Kulay population, despite of high individual variability. The morphological type of this male includes both Caucasoid and Mongoloid components. There are two trepanation holes on the skull, they were made after the skull had been separated from the body and after it had been cleaned off of soft tissues. The nature of holes location does not exclude a possibility of using it in ritual-magical actions. Facial reconstruction clearly demonstrates features of his appearance, which do not contradict a conclusion about the similarity of this male to a female from Ust-Poluy.

Key words: craniology, dental anthropology, facial reconstruction, trepanation, Kulay cultural-and-historical community, Bolshoy Log hillfort, Ust-Poluy, Kulayskaya Gora, West Siberia, the Early Iron Age.

DOI: 10.20874/2071-0437-2017-37-2-057-071

07.06.2017

A.N. Bagashev

Institute of the Problems of Northern Development, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Malygina st., 86, 625026, Tyumen, Russian Federation

E-mail: bagashev@mail.ru

S.M. Slepchenko

Institute of the Problems of Northern Development, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Malygina st., 86, 625026, Tyumen, Russian Federation

E-mail: s_slepchenko@list.ru

E.A. Alekseeva

Institute of the Problems of Northern Development, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Malygina st., 86, 625026, Tyumen, Russian Federation

E-mail: alekseeva.elena.ae@gmail.com

A.V. Sleptsova

Institute of the Problems of Northern Development, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Malygina st., 86, 625026, Tyumen, Russian Federation

E-mail: sleptsova_1993@mail.ru