Anthropological Composition of the Population of the Early Iron Age from the Lower Volga Region (According to the Materials of the Kurgan Group of Krivaya Luka)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the craniological materials of the early Iron Age from the kurgans of Krivaya Luka tract in the Astrakhan region, which were excavated during ten field seasons. The rich anthropological material was obtained as a result of the excavations studied by A.V. Shevchenko, A.A. Kazarnitskiy, M.A. Balabanova, L.T. Yablonskiy. The anthropological materials of the Early Iron Age consisted of 85 skulls are studied in the current article using the traditional method of simple and multivariate statistics. As a result of the study, it was found out that the morphological appearance of cultural-chronological groups is similar to the rest of the synchronous population both from other burials grounds of the Lower Volga region and from adjacent territories. The Sarmatian type or the type of the ancient Eastern Caucasian is inherent for a small group of the pre-Savromatian period, as well as for the groups of the Savromatian and Early Sarmatian period. A small Middle Sarmatian male group demonstrates the combinations that characterize the subsequent Late Sarmatian population – the type of long-headed Caucasians. Whereas the female craniological type of the Late Sarmatian time is characterized by a set of features that define it as a Mongoloid-Caucasian mestizo. Both the total group of skulls and individual cultural-chronological groups turned out to be heterogeneous in terms of the intragroup structure. The anthropological type of the Early Iron Age population who left burials in the Krivaya Luka tract demonstrates diachronic variability, which was apparently associated with migrations. However, in the pre-Savromatian period, in comparison with the Late Bronze Age, this territory was occupied mostly by the type of ancient Eastern Caucasians which combines a mesobrachicranial lowvaulted cerebral box with a wide face, the horizontal profiling of which at the upper level is weakened, and the nose protruding sharply towards the profile line. The latter type remained there until the start of the Common era, and starting from the Middle Sarmatian time it changed to the type of long-headed Caucasians, which is associated with the penetration of alien groups. Among these migrants, apparently, there were also found carriers of the mixed Mongoloid-Caucasian complex.