Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 38 (4) 2010

Annotation:  Three Scenarios of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition. Scenario 1: The Middle to Upper Paleo Kalavan-2 (North of Lake Sevan, Armenia): A New Late Middle Paleolithic Site in the Lesser Caucasus The Role of Science-Based Methods in the Study of Ancient Pottery as a Source of Historical Informa Physical and Chemical Properties of Ceramics from the Chronologically Transitional (Late Bronze – E The Utinka Burial Peat-Bog Sites in the Eastern Urals The Origin and Development of the Wucheng Culture (in the Context of Intercultural Contacts between Circle Dance Festival “Gorka”: Traditions and Innovations The Open Letters of Sergei Borisov: From the History of Photography in the Altai The Origins of the Andronovo (Fedorovka) Population of Southwestern Siberia, Based on a Middle Bron Models of Man’s Biosocial Adaptation in an Industrial Society   

The Origins of the Andronovo (Fedorovka) Population of Southwestern Siberia, Based on a Middle Bronze Age Cranial Series from the Altai Forest-Steppe Zone

Yu.F. Kiryushin and K.N. Solodovnikov.

A multivariate analysis of measurements taken from Andronovo (Fedorovka) cranial samples from the forest-steppe part of the Altai has revealed certain components that are likely to have contributed to the origins of this population. One component, resembling the robust (Cro-Magnon) variety observed in many Andronovo groups, would appear to have been introduced by migrants from the Kazakhstan steppes. Another component – Mediterranean, i.e., characterized by dolichocrany and narrow face, stemmed from the pre-Andronovo Bronze Age populations of southwestern Siberia, being especially noticeable in Andronovo (Fedorovka) groups of Rudny Altai and decreasing in the eastern and northern directions. The third component, on the contrary, becomes more and more prominent as one moves northward. This component was evidently associated with the Western Siberian native peoples. Its proportion in the forest-steppe zone of the Altai was minor, while being larger in the sub-taiga regions situated to the north.

Keywords: Craniometry, Western Siberia, Bronze Age, Andronovo (Fedorovka) culture.