Anthropology  

Moiseyev V.G., Zubova A.V.

The Sakhalin Ainu: origin and population contacts according to cranial-metric data

The study is focused on recent population history of the Sakhalin Ainu people, which remains rebated over the last 70 years. Albeit it is generally accepted that the Sakhalin Ainu are decedents of Ainu migrants from Hokkaido, significant cranial differences has been revealed between these two related populations. Thus, while M. Levin argued in favor of the Nivkh component in the Sakhalin Ainu population, A. Kozintsev, based on the analysis of cranial non-metric characteristics, assumed the admixture of the Ainu with the Ulchi people, and we in our earlier studies assumed that the Sakhalin Ainu included the descendants of the Okhotsk culture people. The influence of interregional contacts between the Sakhalin Ainu and Kuril-Kamchatka populations has not been previously considered. We analyzed individual cranial metric data on the Sakhalin Ainu, the Hokkaido Ainu, and several ancient and historical samples from the Far East region using canonical variate analysis with subsequent clustering of the CVs scores with K-means algorithm. The results revealed high level of morphological diversity of the Sakhalin Ainu sample. The analysis supports that the Sakhalin Ainu are decedents of the Hokkaido Ainu migrants, which admixed with a number of populations of different origin. In addition to the previously assumed Nivkh, Ulch and ancient Okhotsk components in the Sakhalin Ainu, we assume a rather strong influence of the Itelmens, who, according to the results of our study, may be descendants of the population of the Old Bering Sea culture people.

Keywords: Sakhalin, Ainu, Nivkh, Orok, Epi-jomon, cranial metrics, multivariate statistical analysis.

Karapetian M.K.

Dental wear in non-adults of Late Bronze Age pastoralists from Middle Volga and Southern Ural regions

This study analyses dental wear of children and adolescents from the Late Bronze Age kurgans of the Middle Volga and Southern Ural regions (N = 97). The rate of wear in this sample was compared with a Post-Medieval rural sample from Netherlands. A modified Smith’s scale was used, adapted for two sets of teeth. Wear scores were strongly correlated with age, both when analyzing groups of teeth separately and when scores were averaged for each individual. The studied Volga-Ural sample had a significantly higher rate of dental wear compared to the rural sample from the Netherlands, due to higher average scores between 7–14 years of age and lower scores below 7 years of age. The observed intersection of regression lines may be either due to biological or methodological causes. In general, there is some trend towards lower level of wear of deciduous teeth in the Volga-Ural sample compared to a few samples from the literature, which is consistent with the hypothesis of lower attrition rates in pastoralists. It is essential to expand comparative data using the same scoring technique, as well as to address a number of methodological issues related to the simultaneous analysis of two sets of teeth.

Keywords: Volga-Ural region, Pre-Urals, Trans-Urals, srubnaya culture, srubnaya-alakul cultural type, diet, dental pathologies.

Kuznetsova O.A.

Trans-epochal variations in body length in different regions of Europe from the Upper Paleolithic to Middle Ages (from paleoanthropological data)

In the present work, the study of variation in height in different periods (from the Upper Paleolithic to medieval period) in the territory of Europe was carried out. The aim was to identify patterns of height variability in Europe over time, both in general and in individual regions, especially in the early periods. The materials for this work consisted of data on heights or lengths of long bones, which were taken from various literary sources. The data were selected on bone remains from Europe dated to 38000 BC — 1200 AD. The main focus of the analysis was the Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic materials. In cases when measurements of long bones were available, a calculation method developed on materials from Europe was used. When the measurements were absent, the figures for calculated body height were used, and most often the same methodology for reconstruction was used in these publications. It has been shown that in the territory of Europe the body length was smaller in the Neolithic as compared to the Upper Paleolithic (p < 0.05), no significant differences have been recorded in the mean values of height between the Neolithic materials and later populations in general for Europe. For the Neolithic, a statistically significant decrease in body length was detected in Central and South-Eastern Europe. As such, during the Upper Paleolithic, a continuous trans-epochal tendency of height reduction has been observed in Europe, which lost its global character in the Neolithic.

Keywords: biological anthropology, paleoanthropology, body length, human morphology, epochal changes.