Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (3) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.3.140-147

Annotation:  Aktas—an “Ephemeral” Upper Paleolithic Site in North Kazakhstan Neolithic Burials in the Zelinda River Mouth, Northern Angara: Burial Practices and Radiocarbon Chro Classic Samarra Painted Pottery from Yarim Tepe I, the Neolithic of Northern Iraq The Megalithic Tradition of East and Southeast Asia The Beginning of Iron Metallurgy in East Asia Tools Used in Tagar Rock Art: Findings of an Experimental Traceological Study Grave Goods of an Elite Saka Burial at Kyrykoba in the Context of Cultural Ties Between the Nomads o On Phoinix (Φοίνιξ) and Its Distinguishing Marks: A Karian “Type Site” Medieval Burials at Ryabchikov Klyuch-1, the Kansk-Rybinsk Basin Chinese Coins from the Early Medieval Cemetery Gorny-10, Northern Altai The State of Preservation of the Shakhty Rock Art Site and the Prospects of Its Conservation South Russian Settlers of Western Siberia in the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries, Based on Archiva A Case of Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis in a Late Neanderthal Population of the Altai Mountains Analysis of 3D-Models of Artifi cially Deformed Crania, Using Geometric Morphometry Dental Data on the Origin of the Early Iron Age Bolshaya Rechka Population in the Upper Ob Area, and   

Analysis of 3D-Models of Artificially Deformed Crania,
Using Geometric Morphometry

E.V. Pugacheva¹, E.N. Uchaneva², A.A. Kazarnitsky², and A.V. Gromov²

¹European University at St. Petersburg, Gagarinskaya 6/1A, St. Petersburg, 191187, Russia

²Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

The study of artificially deformed crania is complicated by difficulties in analyzing curvilinear shapes without reliable reference points for measurement. Methods of geometric morphometrics (GM) help to solve this problem. We generated 3D-models of deformed crania (26 male and 19 female) from burials of different chronological periods of the Okunev archaeological culture (Verkhniy Askiz I, Uybat III and V, Uybat-Charkov, Itkol I and II), Southern Siberia (2600-1700 BC). Using the Landmark IDAV software, each model was transformed into a set of six traditional craniometric landmarks and 450 semi-landmarks regularly distributed over the entire surface of the braincase. For further processing with the Procrustes and principal component analysis, functions of several R-packages (Morpho, Geomorph, and Arothron) were employed. Crania from early Okunev burials were found to have a small deformed area around lambda, spanning the posterior parts ofparietal bones and the upper part of the occipital squama. In crania from later Okunev burials, the deformation extends on the parietal area, causing the reduction of cranial height owing to a lesser curvature of the parietal segment. The lateral walls of the braincase, the frontal squama, and the lower part of the occipital squama in such crania are more convex.

Keywords: Craniology, artificial cranial deformation, geometric morphometrics, 3D-models, Okunev culture