Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 42 (1) 2014

Annotation:  The Pleistocene Peopling of the North: Paleolithic Milestones and Thresholds Horizons in Northern Eu The Levallois Mousterian Assemblages of Sindh (Pakistan) and Their Relations with the Middle Paleol Chronology of the Uralian Neolithic The Late Krotovo (Cherno-Ozerye) Culture in the Irtysh Forest-Steppe, Western Siberia An Experimental Study of Percussion Technologies in the Minusinsk Basin: Percussion and Tool Types Prehistoric Wars and the Origin of Military Power (Based on Archaeological and Historical- Ethnolog Anthropomorphic Wooden Figures from the Trans-Urals Images on Metal Ware: The Graphic Art of Northwestern Siberia and the Cis-Urals Seventeenth Century Moscow Tiles in Russia Female Ornaments of the Xiongnu-Xianbei Age from Ulug-Choltukh, the Edigan River Valley, Gorny Alta Kayakers Near Scotland’s Northern Shores at the Turn of the 17th–18th Centuries: Main Theories of O Bichura Village (Transbaikalia): Foundation and Population Growth (18th–Late 20th Century) Trepanation Among the Early Nomads of Gorny Altai: A Multidisciplinary Study On the Biological Distinctness of the Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) People in the Northwestern Caspian: Crania   

On the Biological Distinctness of the Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) People in the Northwestern Caspian: Cranial Evidence

A.A. Kazarnitsky.

The cranial series from the Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) burials of the northwestern Caspian is very different from other series associated with this culture. The population history of Eastern Europe in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age is reconstructed based on the multivariate analysis of Mesolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age groups. Most local Pit- Grave populations and those of the Khvalynsk and Sredni Stog cultures are shown to have descended from the Mesolithic groups of Eastern Europe. The Pit-Grave people of the northwestern Caspian evidently descended from a different population that appeared in Eastern Europe in the Neolithic.

Keywords: Physical anthropology, craniology, craniometry, Pit-Grave culture, Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, Neolithic, Mesolithic, Eastern Europe.