Научная статья на тему 'Early medieval Copts of the Fayoum Oasis, Egypt: an anthropological study'

Early medieval Copts of the Fayoum Oasis, Egypt: an anthropological study Текст научной статьи по специальности «Биологические науки»

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PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY / CRANIOLOGY / OSTEOLOGY / COPTS / EGYPT

Аннотация научной статьи по биологическим наукам, автор научной работы — Vasilyev Sergey

This study deals with skeletal remains of the early medieval Copts from the necropolis of Deir el-Naqlun, the Fayoum Oasis, Egypt. That these skeletons and mummified bodies are indeed Coptic follows from the fact that they were found during excavations at the territory of a Coptic monastery and there were some elements of Coptic monastic garments on many of them. The study was performed together with the Center of Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2002. We studied 30 skulls using the standard craniological program. Twenty of them belonged to males and ten to females. The cranial index is average and most male skulls tend to mesocrany. Height indices of the braincase suggest that male skulls are medium high. The facial skeleton of males is relatively narrow (lepten). The orbital index is average and so are nasal dimensions. The horizontal facial profile in males is very sharp, especially at the middle level. Such profiles are characteristic of Caucasoids. The cephalic index characterizes female skulls as mesocranic with a tendency to dolichocrany. According to height indices, they are relatively high. The facial indices suggest that females had relatively narrow faces, high orbits, and average nasal dimensions. Their faces are more sharply profiled than those of males. Postcrania are represented by skeletons of six males and two females and by more than fifty isolated long bones from collective graves. Preliminary studies showed that the average stature of males, calculated after V.V. Bunak’s formula, equaled 164.8 cm and that of females, 156.2 cm.

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Текст научной работы на тему «Early medieval Copts of the Fayoum Oasis, Egypt: an anthropological study»

Section HUMAN DIVERSITY

85

megalopolises - Byelorussians of Minsk (N=370), Russians of Moscow (N=205), and Ukrainians of Kharkov (N=115) - comparative analysis was carried out using the frequency distribution of 18 autosomal forensic STR loci (vWA, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D5S818, D7S820, D13S317, D16S539, F13B, D18S51, D8S1179, D21S11, FGA, PentaE, PentaD, D2S1338, D19S433, D3S1758). Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was demonstrated in all three samples. No significant differentiation was observed in the total loci set, indicating close genetic relationship between the three Eastern Slavic peoples in forensic autosomal STR loci. The three samples demonstrate a low level of genetic differentiation: estimates of genetic distance (Nei, 1978) between the samples lie in the 0.9968-0.9990 interval, and average Fst equals 0.0240 for the 18 loci. The estimates of expected and observed heterozygosity by 18 STR loci are as follows: Byelorussians (Minsk) - He = 0.7942, Ho = 0.7730; Russians (Moscow) - He = 0.7926, Ho = 0.7719 and Ukrainians (Kharkov) - He = 0.7895, Ho = 0.7761. Lower values of observed heterozygosity compared to expected heterozygosity are caused by migration flow within the main ethnic group to the population of the megalopolis from other subdivided populations, demonstrating the Wahlund effect. Peculiarities of genetic and demographic parameters of the three megalopolises are discussed in the context of the problem of forensic genetic databases formation (autosomal STR, mitochondrial and Y chromosome markers) for mixed populations. A more intense male migration suggests more significant dynamics of genetic markers of Y-chromosome, compared to mitochondrial DNA markers. For the forensic genetic database of Minsk it is important that the main migration flow comes from the territory of Belarus and consists of ethnic Byelorussians with low migration from Russia or Ukraine.

Key words: forensic genetic database, STR loci, megalopolis, mixed population, genetic-demographic parameters, migration, gene flow

Contact information: Udina Irina, e-mail: [email protected].

EARLY MEDIEVAL COPTS OF THE FAYOUM OASIS, EGYPT:

AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY

Vasilyev Sergey

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

This study deals with skeletal remains of the early medieval Copts from the necropolis of Deir el-Naqlun, the Fayoum Oasis, Egypt. That these skeletons and mummified bodies are indeed Coptic follows from the fact that they were found during excavations at the territory of a Coptic monastery and there were some elements of Coptic monastic garments on many of them. The study was performed together with the Center of Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2002. We studied 30 skulls using the standard craniological program. Twenty of them belonged to males and ten to females. The cranial index is average and most male skulls tend to mesocrany. Height indices of the braincase suggest that male skulls are medium high. The facial skeleton of males is relatively narrow (lepten). The orbital index is average and so are nasal dimensions. The horizontal facial profile in males is very sharp, especially at the middle level. Such profiles are characteristic of Caucasoids. The cephalic index characterizes female skulls as mesocranic with a tendency to dolichocrany. According to height indices, they are relatively high. The facial indices suggest that females had relatively narrow faces, high orbits, and average nasal dimensions. Their faces are more sharply profiled than those of males. Postcrania are represented by skeletons of six males and two females and by more than fifty isolated long bones from collective graves. Preliminary studies showed that the average stature of males, calculated after V.V. Bunak's formula, equaled 164.8 cm and that of females, 156.2 cm.

Key word: physical anthropology, craniology, osteology, Copts, Egypt

Contact information: Vasilyev Sergey, e-mail: [email protected].

19 Конгресс Европейской Антропологической Ассоциации МГУ имени М.В.Ломоносова, Москва, 25-29 августа, 2014

Вестник Московского университета. Серия XXIII АНТРОПОЛОГИЯ — 3/2014

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