Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (4) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.4.145-153

Annotation:  The Final Early Paleolithic of Azerbaijan (Based on the Garaja Site) Late Acheulean Handaxes from Northeastern Caucasus: Morphology and Technology A Late Paleolithic Housing and Utility Complex at Afontova Gora IV (Ovrazhnaya): New Findings (2020– Ceramic “Necklace”: A Neolithic Ritual Artifact from the Lower Amur Okunev Statues at Mount Uitag, Khakassia A Functional Analysis of Stone Tools from Bronze Age Burials in the Baraba Forest-Steppe, Based on F Seasonality of Sintashta Funerary Rites (Based on the Kamennyi Ambar-5 Bronze Age Cemetery) A Late Krotovo (Cherno-Ozerye) Caster’s Ritual and Memorial Complex at Tartas-1, Baraba Forest-Stepp Star-Shaped Pendants from the Perm Region, Western Urals: Hunnic Polychrome Ornaments Reanimated An Oirat Sphero-Cylindrical Helmet and Arming Cap from the Central State Museum Collection of the Re Log Cabins of Ust-Voikary, a Fortifi ed Settlement in Northwestern Siberia: Dendrochronological Anal “Salt Turn”—A Toponym in the Middle Irtysh Basin: Historical and Archaeological Evidence Literacy and Numeracy Skills of the Inhabitants of Tara and its Rural Districts in the 17th and 18th Aborigines or Migrants? A New Stage in the Okunev Origin Debate Planigraphic (Spatial) Distribution of Mitochondrial DNA Variants at the Andronovo Time Cemetery Tar On the Mongoloid Component in the Pazyryk Population   

On the Mongoloid Component in the Pazyryk Population

T.A. Chikisheva and D.V. Pozdnyakov

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

The Mongoloid trait combination displayed by two Pazyryk crania can be identified as Paleosiberian. Using the method elaborated by leading Russian specialists, the appearance of those individuals was sculpturally reconstructed. Sculpturedfaces support the diagnosis based on craniometric data. We discuss the advantages of a typological approach over a population approach to small and poorly preserved cranial samples. Judging by the skeletal materials from the Neolithic to the modern centuries, the Paleosiberian trait combination is distributed in the Baikal region, where mountainous taiga and tundra landscapes predominate. Those environmental conditions caused the scattering and isolation of hunting-fishing populations. This trait combination apparently originated among the Xiongnu of the southern Trans-Baikal region (Ivolga archaeological complex), when the natives had been involved in the activities of the border outpost—a center of trade, administration, craft, and agriculture in the northern fringes of the Xiongnu Empire. Individuals with Paleosiberian features could have reached the Altai Mountains at the early stages of the Xiongnu tribal union, correlating with thefinal stage of the Pazyryk culture. However, the share of the Paleosiberian component in the Pazyryk population was evidently minor.

Keywords: Pazyryk culture, Altai Mountains, facial reconstruction, Paleosiberian trait combination, typological approach