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DERMATOGLYPHICS OF KAZAN TATARS
Makeeva Anna
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Kazan Tatars are the largest group of the Volga-Ural Tatars. They reside in the Republic of Tatarstan and other parts of the Volga-Ural region. The report deals only with Tatars living in Tatarstan. New archival and field dermatoglyphics materials were used (six samples). For the first time in Russia, dermatoglyphic data were analyzed in the diachronic aspect. Four samples were collected during the expedition of the Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology MSU in 1937-38 headed by S.A. Shluger, V.M. Shapkin, and I.N. El-istratov. The total sample size is 1147 (845 males, 302 females). The sample was divided with regard to four districts (northern, eastern, southern and western). Two samples were collected by the author during the 2012 expedition in Zelenodolsk district (northwest) and Elabuga district (northeast) of the Republic of Tatarstan (83 males, 80 females). Altogether 928 males and 382 females were investigated. Dermatoglyphic data suggest that Kazan Tatars are a heterogeneous Eastern European population which includes southern European and hybrid Caucasoid-Mongoloid components. The 1937-38 samples (males and females) are more Mongoloid than those collected in 2012, and the tendency is more prominent in males.The decrease of the Mongoloid component over the last 70 years can be related to extensive population immigration of Slavic people to the region caused by its industrial and agricultural development. All female samples were more heterogeneous already in 1937-38. There is also a pronounced Southern European component in one of the modern samples (Tatars of northwestern Tatarstan).
Key words: Tatars, dermatoglyphics, Volga-Ural region, ethnic history
Contact information: Makeeva Anna, e-mail: [email protected].
THE ANCIENT POPULATION OF LCHASHEN AS A REPRESENTATIVE
OF THE BRONZE AGE ARMENIAN POPULATION
Mkrtchyan Ruzan
Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
The settlement and cemetery of Lchashen are located on the southwestern shore of Lake Sevan. Lchashen is one of the most significant sites representing the Middle and Late Bronze Age culture of Armenia. The excavations of the cemetery were started by H. Mnatsakanyan in the 1950s and continued by L. Petrossyan until the 2000s. The skeletal collection at the State Historical Museum of Armenia totals over 300 cranial samples and over 100 postcranial skeletons representing people associated with the Middle and Late Bronze Age Sevan-Artsakh and Lchashen-Metsamor cultures. The Bronze Age sample from Lchashen is the most representative among the published contemporaneous samples from Caucasus. Cranial measurements of this sample were published by V. Alekseev. Those people were dolichocranic and had broad faces and robust skeletons. The precise dating of the funerary complexes, conducted by P. Avetisyan and A. Piliposyan has made it possible to subdivide the sample into three main periods of the Middle and Late Bronze Age (MBA--17th-16th/15th centuries BC; LBA I - 15th-13th centuries BC, LBA II - 13th-12th centuries BC) and to evaluate the changes of physical type over several centuries. Late Bronze Age crania turned out to be more gracile. This transformation was assessed in the cultural context and interpreted as resulting from the consolidation of the Late Bronze Age Lchashen-Metsamor culture and gracilization caused by admixture and other microevolutionary processes. Sex and age data on the Lchashen sample are representative and can be used for the reconstruction of demographic patterns. Mortality indexes indicate relative longevity of the Middle and Late Bronze Age people of Lchashen relative to other contemporaneous populations of Eurasia. The distinctive feature of this longevity is the predominance of elderly males in
Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Series 23 ANTHROPOLOGIYA — 3/2014
19th Congress of the European Anthropological Association Lomonosov MSU, Moscow, Russia, 25th - 29th August, 2014
relation to females of the same age. This disproportion is likely related to the high social rank of patriarchs. Another demographic feature is the high mortality of females in the reproductive age. Owing to the large size of the Lchashen sample, its average craniometric and osteometric parameters can in some sense be regarded as standard. The Late Bronze Age Lchashen-Metsamor culture was also named after the Etiuni ethnonym uncovered in the Urartian cuneiform inscriptions (P. Avetisyan, H. Avetisyan). If so, the Etiuni people were moderately robust, tall, and quite long-lived.
Key words: Bronze Age, Sevan-Artsakh culture, Lchashen-Metsamor culture, robusticity, gracilization, microevolution, longevity
Contact information: Mkrtchyan Ruzan, e-mail: [email protected].
ON THE ORIGIN OF MEDIEVAL EAST SLAVIC TRIBES
Movsesian Alla
Department of Anthropology, Biological Faculty, LLomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Nonmetric cranial trait frequencies in medieval East Slavic tribes and comparative samples from unrelated groups were examined. The aims of the study were as follows: (1) to assess the degree of biological affinity in medieval East Slavic tribes and to test the hypothesis that East Slavic peoples have a common origin; (2) to reveal their genetic affinities with the autochthonous (Baltic and Finno-Ugric) populations of northeastern Europe; and (3) to see if a genetic continuity existed between people of the Chernyakhov culture and medieval Eastern Slavs. Analyses of phenotypic differentiation were based on Nei's standard genetic distance and hierarchical GST statistics. The results suggest that the genetic affinity of the East Slavic tribes is due not only to inter-tribal gene flow but, more importantly, to their common population history. Evidence of gene flow between the Baltic and Finno-Ugric groups was revealed in the gene pool of Eastern Slavs, as was genetic continuity between medieval East Slavic tribes and the preceding Chernyakhov population. These findings support a "generalizing" hypothesis of East Slavic origin whereby the Slavonic community was formed in a particular ancestral area and subsequently spread throughout Eastern Europe.
Key words: East Slavs, Balts, Finno-Ugrians, Chernyakhov culture, cranial nonmetric traits
Contact information: Movsesian Alla, 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
