CC BY
10
Section HUMAN DIVERSITY
83
Bulgaria is an area of predominance of the Dinaric type (in combination with Alpine and East Baltic types), which is characteristic of Central Europe. Southern Bulgaria is the area of Atlanto-Pontian (Atlanto-Mediter-ranean) type. There are few areas of intrusion of Dinaric forms in southern Bulgaria - in the eastern part of Sofia region, in the Rhodopes, and in Eastern Thrace. There are also areas of Atlanto-Pontian intrusions in North Bulgaria - along the Black sea coast and along the Danube. However, the Atlanto-Pontian type (which is the most frequent anthropologic type in Bulgarians) is concentrated mostly in southeastern, not northeastern Bulgaria, as in the text published by G. Markov. This confirms the opinion of anthropologists such as J. Czekanowski, C. Coon, A. Poulianos, V. Alekseyev, etc., that modern Bulgarians descend mainly from ancient populations living in the Balkans before the Great Barbarian Migration. This conclusion is confirmed by dermatoglyphic and genetic studies.
Key words: bulgarians, ethnic anthropology, Dinaric type, Atlanto-Pontic type, political misuse of anthropology
Contact information: Stoev Racho, e-mail: rastesto@abv.bg.
ANGULAR MORPHOMETRY OF SKULLS OF THE ABORIGINES
OF LOYALTY ISLANDS, MELANESIA
Sviridov Alexey, Vasilyev Sergey
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
The purpose of this work was to study a series of 67 crania from Loyalty Islands, Northern Melanesia, housed at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. The main tasks are to reveal specific features of morphogenetic parameters of male and female crania and to calculate primary statistical characteristics. This series was collected mainly in the first half of the 19th century, after the islands had been colonized by the French. Other specimens come from archaeological excavations in the mid-20th century. The series was measured according to the cranio-trigonometric program elaborated by the authors and tested for homogeneity using standard deviations and coefficients of variation. Crania from Loyalty Islands are generally dolichocranic and often higher than wide. The face is relatively low and wide with alveolar prognathism, very wide nose, low orbits, sharp horizontal profile, and flat nasalia. This combination is observed among both males and females. Based on the principal component analysis of the angular parameters of the braincase, we can conclude that males from Lifou and Maré islands are distinguished by sagittaly curved parietal bones. Brain-cases of females are less variable. When females and males are analyzed simultaneously, their braincase shapes show few differences, though absolute dimensions reveal some sexual dimorphism. In terms of facial angles, males fall into two groups regardless of the islands. Facial skeletons of females are more uniform. Their simultaneous analysis with the principal component method revealed no sexual dimorphism in angular parameters.
Key words: craniometry, Melanesia, Loyalty Islands
Contact information: Sviridov Alexey, e-mail: sviridovarh@rambler.ru.
19 Конгресс Европейской Антропологической Ассоциации МГУ имени М.В.Ломоносова, Москва, 25-29 августа, 2014
Вестник Московского университета. Серия XXIII АНТРОПОЛОГИЯ — 3/2014
