Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 46 (1) 2018   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.1.144-153

Annotation:  Personal Ornament Production Technology in the Early Holocene Complexes of Western Central Asia: Ins Hadjoh-2: A Middle Paleolithic Workshop-Camp in Northwestern Caucasus The Late Chalcolithic Ceramics of the Volga Forest-Steppe On the Origin of Natural Bitumen at Yasnoye-8 (Sakhalin Island) Inskoy Dol: A New Early Bronze Age Site in Western Altai Decorated Birch-Bark Artifacts from the Ust-Polui Sanctuary (100 BC to 100 AD) An Old Turkic Statue from Borili, Ulytau Hills, Central Kazakhstan: Issues in Interpretation On Ancient Agriculture in Arid Regions of Central Asia: The Case of the Uvs Nuur Basin Geophysical Studies at the Kushmanskoye (Uchkakar) Fortifi ed Settlement, Kama Basin Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) and Pit-Grave-Maikop Burials at Levoyegorlyksky-3, Stavropol A Periodization of the Timber-Grave Culture in the Western Orenburg Region: Archaeological and Natur The Russian Pioneers’ Winter Camp on Karachinsky Island, the Lower Tobol River, Western Siberia An Experimental Assessment of the Cause of Mummification in the Joseon Period Burials, Republic of K Celestial Bodies on the Ob Ugrian Ritual Artifacts (Based on Archaeological and Ethnographic Sources Craniotomy as a Prehistoric Medical Practice: A Case of Antemortem Cranial Trepanation in Southern Secular and Age-Related Dynamics of Biological Characteristics in the Rural Population of Mongolia:   

Secular and Age-Related Dynamics
of Biological Characteristics in the Rural Population of Mongolia:
A Study of Environmental Adaptation

V.A. Batsevich, O.V. Yasina, and A.V. Sukhova

Lomonosov Moscow State University Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia

This study explores the temporal and age-related variations in anthropometric, physiological, and radiographic data collected in 1986–1990 in five rural Mongolian populations (four Khalkha and one Khoton), living in different natural environments and practicing a traditional lifestyle. The sample comprises 970 adult men and women aged 18–80. In Khalkha Mongols, the effect of climate and other environmental characteristics on anthropometric traits is negligible. These groups demonstrate temporal stability of anthropometric traits over the last 40 years and, if published data are considered, since the late 1800s. Age changes in hand skeleton are low to moderate. Sexual maturation in females is slow: the average age at menarche is 15.8 years, and no secular trend has been detected. The respective age in Khoton females is even higher––16.8 years. Unlike Khalkha females, Khoton females show a secular trend in body size, whereas the tempo of sexual maturation and skeletal ageing is accelerating. The totality of biological parameters indicates successful environmental adaptation in Khalkha Mongols. The Khoton migrants tend toward the adaptive norm typical of the native population.

Keywords: Anthropology, Mongols, Khalkha, Khoton, anthropometry, radiography, human ecology