Morgunova N.L., Faizullin A.A., Mustafin H.H., Alborova I.E., Kiseleva D.V., Chechetkina O.Yu., Mednikova M.B.

On the status and selectivity of the infant burials of the Yamnaya Archaeological Culture of the Southern Urals (based on the excavation materials of the burial mound No. 1 of the Boldyrevo-4 group)

Bioarchaeology is an important field of interdisciplinary research based upon the contextual study of anthropological materials. In particular, bioarchaeology of childhood appears to be the most specialised area of research, addressing quality of life and social patterns of ancient groups. In this paper, we continue the study of the infant remains from the burial mound No. 1 of the Boldyrevo-4 burial ground — one of the elite and largest burial mounds of the Yamnaya (Pit Grave) Culture in the northern part of the Volga-Urals. It was located on the left bank of the Irtek River, a tributary of the Ural, and had a diameter of 62 m and a reconstructed height of 8 m. The earliest horizon was represented by mounds Nos. 1 and 2 with close parameters. They contained one burial each (burials Nos. 3 and 4, respectively), located in the centers of the mound platforms, which belonged to children. Based on the results of our preliminary study, the child from burial No. 3 died of metastatic cancer (the most probable diagnosis is lymphocytic leukaemia). Burial No. 4 contained remains of two children. Child No. 1 from burial No. 4, represented only by the cranium, had possibly suffered from scurvy. Here we publish the results of the analysis of ancient DNA aimed at identifying the sex of the interred, as well as the results of the Sr isotope analysis, which allows determination of their ‘local’ or ‘distant’ origin. The quality of the ancient DNA was evaluated by targeted sequencing carried out using a specially designed panel of probes that allowed the selection of target sections of the genome for subsequent enrichment using the method of hybridisation, followed by the target NGS. The genetic data confirm that all three individuals belonged to the female sex. On the basis of Sr isotope ratios, the girls from burials Nos. 3 and 4 (No. 2) were born in the territories with different geochemical signals. Unfortunately, for the child No. 1 from burial No. 4 such observations could not be obtained. The biological age (around 6 years old), female sex attributes, and the presence of serious health conditions allows one to pose the question on the selective nature of the children burials in this mound of the Yamnaya Culture. Moreover, they could have received a special hereditary social status, which influenced the further erection of the burial mound for members of the elite.

Keywords: Bronze Age, Yamnaya Culture, ancient DNA, strontium isotope analysis, paleopathology, bioarchaeology of childhood.

Shirobokov I.G.

On the use of collections with unreliably determined sex and age characteristics in model training for sex determination by traits of the standard craniometric program

The study is concerned with the feasibility of applying machine-learning methods to determine the sex from craniometric features when working with materials from archaeological excavations. A specific feature of such materials is subjectively estimated sex and age characteristics of individuals. The main object of the analysis was a sample measured by V.P. Alekseev and comprised of 258 crania (137 male and 121 female) characterising Russian population of the European part of Russia in the 17th–18th cc. As a test sample, a group of crania of the Russians with documented sex and age, registered within several collections of the Kunstkamera’s repository, also measured by V.P. Alekseev, was used. The series includes 89 male and 10 female skulls, which came to the museum from the Military Medical Academy in 1911–1914 by the effort of the Russian anatomist K.Z. Yatsuta. The models were trained, validated, and tested using four different methods, including discriminant analysis, logistic regression, random forest, and support vector machine. Thirty-three craniometric traits were included in the analysis, from which a group of five features with the highest differentiating ability (Nos. by Martin) — 1, 40, 43, 45, 75(1) — was chosen. When both sets of traits were used for the models commensurable performance indicators were obtained. According to the results of the cross-validation, in 85–88 % of cases, on average, all four models accurately predicted the sex estimates given by V.P. Alekseev. When the models were applied to the test sample, the proportion of accurate classifications did not change and stood at 87–88 %. At the same time, the machine-learning methods did not reveal any noticeable advantages in the level of the classification accuracy over the linear discriminant analysis. In general, the efficiency of the obtained models corresponds to the average value of the indicators calculated from the materials of 80 publications (86 %). It is likely that the crania, whose sex cannot be correctly classified neither by the models nor by visual assessment, constitute overlapping sets, which have some common morphological features assimilating them to individuals of the opposite sex. Application of the models to the skulls of the test sample, re-measured by the author, revealed some deterioration of the model performance indicators in all four cases. The decrease in the proportion of accurate classifications is caused mainly by discrepancies in the estimation of the nasal protrusion angle, as well as subjective errors in the size estimation under insufficient preservation of the crania and partial atrophy of the alveolar process.

Keywords: sex estimation, craniometrics traits, discriminant analysis, support vector machine, logistic regression, random forest, machine learning methods.

Kitov Ye.P.

The population of the middle course of the Ural River in the Early Iron Age (by the data from the Industrialnaya Zona cemetery)

Presented in the publication are the craniological data on a series of early nomads of the Sarmatian type from the Industrialnaya Zona (Poyma) cemetery in the territory of Terekti District of Western Kazakhstan Oblast. Age and sex determinations were given for 61 burials of the Early Iron Age and five of the Bronze Age. The craniological series is represented by 32 crania, of which 20 are male and 12 are female. They are characterized by similar morphological features characteristic of the population of the Ural River Basin. As of today, this series is one of the largest, and it dates to a rather narrow chronological period of the 4th–3rd cс. BC. The ‘Sauromato-Sarmatian’ population across the whole territory of its settlement demonstrates biological unity, which is also confirmed by the palaeogenetic data. It is likely that the Volga-Ural and Cisaral regions constituted the hearth of the racial genesis, which is associated with the origin of the early nomads of the arid zones from the Urals to Ancient Khwarazm and from the Turgay to the Lower Don regions and the formation of the specific craniological complex, with large latitudinal characteristics of the cranium and facial region. The angles of the horizontal profiling feature significant flattening at the upper level, while at the lower level it is at the borderline between the Caucasoid and Mongoloid types with the nasal bones protruding prominently in profile. Also presented in the publication is the graphic reconstruction of the face from the cranium from burial No. 3, mound No. 10. The features presented in the physical appearance of the reconstruction reflect what the ancient nomads of the Ural River Basin looked like. The comparison of the craniological characteristics of the Industrialnaya Zone cemetery against a broad background of the comparative materials, generalised from the cultures of the Early Iron Age, showed that the craniological features of the group do not differ from the surrounding population with similar cultural characteristics of the Volga-Ural region, Western Kazakhstan, and the Lower Don region at the end of the 6th — 3rd c. BC.

Keywords: Sarmatians, Early Iron Age, craniology, early nomads, anthropology, Western Kazakhstan, Volga-Ural region.