The article presents the results of preliminary study of eight male crania from the Early Muslim burials excavated at the necropolis near Tura Khan Mausoleum (Chishminsky District, Republic of Bashkortostan). The analysed crania are characterised by the predominance of a hypermorphic component of European ancestry. A possible slight admixture of Asian ancestry is indicated by the lowered nasal protrusion angle, large width and rather large height of the facial skeleton, as well as weakened horizontal profiling on some crania. Differences between fifteen samples are compared with Mahalanobis’ generalized distance by fourteen craniometric variables. The studied sample shows the greatest morphological similarity to that from the nearby Syntashtamak kurgan cemetery, the pooled sample of the Middle Volga region nomads, as well as two Chiyalik groups from the east of Tatarstan. The studied crania reveal less phenetic affinities with cranial samples from the Golden Horde Bolgar and its surrounding territory. To almost the same extent, this applies to the pre-modern samples of the southwestern Bashkirs and thus, the studied crania could represent a nomadic group or belong to semi-nomadic people of the Chiyalik culture. Facial reconstructions were performed for two of the crania.

Keywords: Middle Ages, archaeology, biological anthropology, cranial morphometrics, Mahalanobis’ generalized distance, facial approximation.

 

Funding. The article has been written in accordance with the research plans of the N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS (Theme No. 5. Human ultrasociality: Biosocial and cross-cultural aspects — R & D No. 124112200079-1).

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Accepted: 25.06.2025

Article is published: 15.12.2025