Revisiting the Issue of Connections Among the Nomads Social Elite From the Southern Urals According to Craniology Data From the Filippovka Kurgans

Abstract

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the relations of the nomads‘ social elite from the Southern Urals buried in the cemetries of the kurgans Filippovka 1, 2. The total craniological series of these monuments consists of 22 skulls (9 male and 13 female) representing brachycranial broad-faced Caucasoids. The aim of the study is to determine the historical roots of this group including their migration patterns, as well as their contacts with the surrounding population. The study is based on a comparative analysis of 35 craniological series of the Early Iron Age sites in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia. The comparison was carried out according to the canonical analysis method using the Multican and Statistica 12 programs. In terms of morphological features, the individuals buried in the Filippovka kurgans are as close as possible to the nomads of the Southern Urals and the Lower Volga region of the Sauromatian (6th – 5th/4th centuries BC) and early Sarmatian (4th – 3rd centuries BC) time. They probably come from the local nomadic population who resided in this territory in early Sauromatian time. Representatives of the Filippovka group are also morphologically close to the Saka of the Aral Sea region and to the bearers of the Tasmolà culture from Central Kazakhstan. The formation of the pastoral population of the Early Iron Age (5th – 4th centuries BC) of two regions – the Southern Urals and the Aral Sea – might have taken place on a single anthropological basis, which is associated with the nomadic tribes of Central Kazakhstan including the bearers of the Tasmolà culture who had contacts with the Southern Siberia settled groups. As a result of mestizo processes on the contact territory, a special type of population the so-called Eastern Caucasoids with a small Mongoloid admixture was formed, which then spread in the southern Aral and western Ural directions. The spatial connections of the population that left the Filippovka kurgans are geographically wide. Judging by the archaeological data, they were grounded primarily on the basis of trade and economic relations. The craniological source shows some heterogeneity of the Ural nomads, but it is difficult to speak confidently about the time and mixing forms of their constituent components; the recorded phenomenon is also relevant among other synchronous groups of mobile pastoralists from Central Asia.