CC BY
10
Section HUMAN DIVERSITY
81
distribution area has been established. A marked difference between the gene pools of modern populations of northern Eurasia living west and east of the Urals, reflected in both genetic and morphological traits and prevailing over most part of ancient history (two chronological stages - 26-16 and 15-12 thousand years ago), is unrelated to recent changes in ethnic structure. The results are presented as distribution maps of single traits and of the first principal component.
Key words: Northern Eurasia, genetic polymorphisms, principal component analysis
Contact information: Sheremetyeva Valentina, e-mail: sheremetyeva_v@mail.ru.
TO THE QUESTION OF DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIFIC INFECTIONS AMONG
RURAL MEDIEVAL POPULATION IN RUSSIA: THE CASE OF ROZHDESTVENO
CEMETERY (15TH-16TH CENT. AD)
Shvedchikova Tatiana1, Berezina Natalia2
11nstitute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
2Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, LLomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Our study was based on the osteological material from a rural cemetery of the settlement Rozhdestveno I (Odintsovo, Moscow region). The material was obtained due to salvage excavations in 2006-2007 under the direction of Mikhail Gonyanyi. The burial site could be dated by the 15th-16th centuries AD according to the mass material and specific artefacts. Totally, 152 burials have been studied. Most of them were rede-posited. This fact argues for the prolonged use of the same cemetery clusters partly due to the limitation of the dwellings existing on the border. High percentage of children's mortality (42%) and the analysis of the stress markers on the skeletons of adult individuals permit to suppose the unfavorable living conditions in the community. Both among males and females (totally in 12.6% of cases), there is a complex of features which allows us to speak about a specific infection (treponemal). The most remarkable manifestations were found on the female skeleton (20-29 years old, burial 122). In spite of partial preservation and in some cases taphonomical destruction of the compact bone layer, we found substantial changes of the bone tissue on the long bones of extremities, scapulae and ribs. Proliferate changes of the surface are noted on almost all preserved bones. Acromial processes of the scapulas and outer surface of the 12th rib are covered by porous layers. Also on the upper and lower extremities the regions of periosteal inflammation are marked. On the tibial and femoral bones the process is more manifested. Deep lesion focus (12.6 mm) in the distal part of the left tibia involves the medullar canal and differs from the gummatous destructions on the right tibia. Probably it is a complication of the syphilitic gumma by secondary pyogenic infection, which led to syphilitic osteomyelitis. The presented case is the most expressed and typical for the tertiary syphilis among the investigated material of the Rozhdestveno I site. Written sources testify to the extensive expansion of this disease on the territory of Europe at the end of 15th-16th centuries. It can be confirmed by synchronous findings in Rostov Velikyi, Vologda, Mozhaisk and serves as an evidence of the appearance of venereal syphilis on the territory of Eastern-European lowland.
Key words: paleopathology, 15th-16th centuries, treponemal infection, medieval Russia
Contact information: Shvedchikova Tatiana, e-mail: tashved@gmail.com, Berezina Natalia, e-mail: berezina.natalia@gmail.com.
19 Конгресс Европейской Антропологической Ассоциации МГУ имени М.В.Ломоносова, Москва, 25-29 августа, 2014
Вестник Московского университета. Серия XXIII АНТРОПОЛОГИЯ — 3/2014
