The paper is devoted to the analysis of anthropological skeletal materials related to the Srubnaya culture and excavated in 2010 and 2018 in the mounds near the village of Krasnosamarskoye, Kinelsky District of the Samara Region. One hundred and three skeletal remains were studied. In the course of the examination, a standard program for fixing pathological conditions on human bones was applied. As a result of the work, it was possible to establish that the population of the Late Bronze Age buried in the mounds near the village of Krasnosamarskoe had a high infant mortality rate and a relatively short mens life expectancy. In the studied skeletal series, a specific pathological complex in the dental system is found. It indicates that the diet consisted mainly of meat and dairy. Widespread markers of micronutrient deficiencies in the body were observed on the children bones which is also an indicator of negative environmental and social factors such as famines or parasitic infestations. High frequency of discrete-varying characters on the bones of the postcranial skeleton indicates that a closely related population is buried in the mounds of the Krasnosamarsky IV burial ground. Specific traumatic injuries presence in buried skeletal remains as well as their positive correlation with diseases of the joints and spine allows us to assume its association with domestic or professional economic activity.

This article discusses the paleopathological peculiarities of nomadic population of Sauromates, which originated from the kurgan burials of the Lower Volga region. The skeletal remains of 20 individuals were examined. In the process of work with anthropological material, was applied a standard program for assessing the instance of pathological conditions on skeleton developed by A. P. Buzhilova (1995, 1998). The national scholars of Soviet and post-Soviet period (B. N. Grakov, K. F. Smirnov, D. A. Machinsky, V. E. Maksimenko, M. G. Moshkova) dealt with the problems of genesis, periodization and evolution of the culture of the Lower Volga Sauromates. The history of anthropological examination of the nomads of the Lower Volga region of the VI – V centuries BC is scarce. This research is the first attempt for analyzing the pathological conditions on skeletal remains of the Lower Volga Sauromates. Paleopathological studies of skeletal remains of the nomads of the VI – V centuries BC from the territory of Lower Volga have not been conducted prior to that. Paleoanthropological materials are introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time. Some sculls of Sauromatian period have traces of unnatural deformation. The revealed pathologies on the anthropological materials of population of the VI – IV centuries BC from the territory of Lower Volga allow including it into the group of nomadic cultures of the Early Iron Age. The anthropological materials of the VI – IV centuries BC show evidence of using the skills of primitive medicine, as well as the knowledge of military field surgery.