Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (4) 2009

Annotation:  Paleolithic Site Biryuchya Balka-2: Geology, Chronology, and Paleoecology Tolbaga: Upper Paleolithic Settlement Patterns in the Trans-Baikal Region Paleogeography of Kostenki-14 (Markina Gora) Triquestrums of the Scythian Period in the Northern Altai Woven Belts from Sargat Mound 7 at Chepkul-9 Early and Middle Bronze Age Portable Art Pieces from the Forest-Steppe Zone of the Ob-Irtysh Region Anthropomorphic, Zoomorphic, and Solar Symbolisms on Bronze Age Ceramics from the Western Baikal Re Petroglyphs on the Poperechnaya Krasnoyarka River Images of Eurasian Ethnicity in Works of Renaissance Polish Historians The Pleiades as Openings, the Milky Way as the Path of Birds, and the Girl in the Moon: Northern Eur Felt Boot Rollers of the Altai Craniometric Evidence of the Early Caucasoid Migrations to Siberia and Eastern Central Asia, with R Principal Findings of the 20th-Century Population Studies in Tuva On the Origin of the Ryukyu Islanders: The Integration of Craniometric and Cranial Nonmetric Data   

On the Origin of the Ryukyu Islanders: The Integration of Craniometric and Cranial Nonmetric Data

V.G. Moiseyev.

To test various hypotheses concerning the origin of the Ryukyu Islanders, data on two systems of traits – craniometric and cranial non-metric – were integrated using multivariate statistical methods. The results indicate that the Ryukyuans are a hybrid group which formed from at least three components. The fi rst two, associated with the Jomon and Yayoi cultures, are also ancestral for other modern Japanese groups. The specifi city of Ryukyuans may be due to Southern Mongoloid admixture.

Keywords: Japan, Ryukyu, Jomon, Yayoi, craniometry, cranial nonmetrics.