Anthropology  

Kufterin V.V.

PALEOPATHOLOGY OF BACTRIA-MARGIANA ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX AND SOME ADJACENT TERRITORIES. A SHORT OVERVIEW

The article provides a brief overview of the paleopathological data on the population of the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex (BMAC) and some adjacent regions (sites from the territory of Iran and Pakistan). In addition to the literature review, the results of a formalized comparison of some ancient groups according to the frequency of occurrence of several stress markers using correspondence analysis are presented. Based on this results, groups from the Margiana (Gonur-depe) and Bactria oases (Buston VI), are the closest to each other, as well as to the series from the territory of Iran and the Harappian sample. The mechanisms of adaptation to the influencial environmental biological and social factors, judging from the paleopathological data, differed significantly from the agricultural and pastoral population (Andronovo culture). At the same time, the Central Asian oases population (BMAC), samples from the territory of the Iranian plateau and the Indus valley demonstrate an obvious similarity of the pathological status. Local specificity can be considered as a result of the peculiarities of the course of adaptive processes in different environmental conditions, on the one hand, and as a fact caused by inter-researchers errors, on the other. In general, the given data correspond to those in the «idealized model of subsistence systems correlates with demography and health» for agricultural populations proposed by J. Lukacs. However, high frequency of infectious diseases does not find a clear «osteological» reflection in the material from most of the BMAC sites and sites from adjacent territories.

Key words: paleopathology, stress markers, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex, Central Asia, Iran, Indus Valley.

Poshekhonova O.E.

NEW DATA ON SELKUP CRANIOLOGY FROM THE UPPER TAZ RIVER BASIN

Some researchers pointed out that the anthropological originality of some native groups of Western Siberia was formed as a result of late metisation processes that occurred in modern times. Judging by historical and ethnolinguistic data, one of such peoples is the Northern Selkups, who moved to the Upper Taz River basin in the XVII century for political, economic and, possibly, environmental reasons. Paleoontropological data can be an important source for solving the issue of their origin. The article is dedicated to the analysis of the craniological collection from Kikki-Akki burial, received in 2013 and replenished in 2016. The cranial characteristic of this group is reduced to a combination of the following features: a low subdolichocranial skull, a slightly flattened medium-wide and medium-high mesoprozopic face, a flat nose and a very small nasal protrusion angle. The intra-group variability of the male part of the series was studied. In terms of the degree of internal morphological similarity, two groups were singled out in the population under consideration. The first were mesocranial skulls with a mo-derate protrusion medium-high face (8 individuals), the second were subdolichocranial skulls with a flattened low face (5 individuals). It has been established that the Selkups from the Narym River area are indeed the ancestors of the Selkups from the Upper Taz River region, but their physical appearance changed over a short period of time (200–300 years) because of migration to the north. According to its anthropological type, male population of the Upper Taz River region in the XVIII–XIX centuries became as close as possible to the Eastern Khanty. However, it was possible to find in their anthropological structure features of the morphotype associated in genesis with the Selkups from the Narym River region. Formation of the anthropological originality of the Selkups from the Upper Taz River region proceeded with an active metisation of these two components belonging to one West Siberian formation. However, biological connections of the Northern Selkups with the ancestral group from the Narym River region apparently weakened by the XVIII-XIX centuries, and the Ugric component became dominant. A different situation is observed in the female population from the Upper Taz River region. They clearly have both basic components, with a slight predominance of the Southern Samoyedic.

Key words: Western Siberia, Late Middle Ages, Northern Selkup, paleoanthropology, anthropological type, craniology.