Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 40 (1) 2012

Annotation:  Bairaki – a Lower Paleolithic Site on the Lower Dniester The Denticulate Mousterian as a Supposedly Distinct Facies in Western Central Asia Non-utilitarian Lithic Objects from the European Paleolithic Decorated Birch-Bark Artifacts from Section VI of the Gorbunovsky Peat-Bog An Alakul Funeral and Ritual Site in the Eastern Orenburg Region Medieval Amulet Illustrating the Divine Horseman Myth, Rozhdestveno, Perm Territory Face Images in Lower Angara Rock Art Boats in the Rock Art of Kanozero and Northern Europe New Data on Bronze Age Jewelry in the Southeastern Urals The Old Russian Male Funerary Attire (Based on Finds from the 10th–11th Century Burial Mounds at Goc Investigation of Wooden Burial Structures in the Process of Archaeological Excavations A Contribution to the Study of the Eastern Links of the Bronze Age Culture of the Northern Middle Vo Secular Imagery in the Islamic Space of Medieval Zirikhgeran Stone Statue of Ailyan, Gorny Altai Jurchen Pendants of the Netsuke Type Elements of Religious Ritualism in Popular Medicine among the Izhma Komi of the Lower Ob Region Early Metal Age Crania from Bolshoy Oleniy Island, Barents Sea   

Early Metal Age Crania from Bolshoy Oleniy Island, Barents Sea

V.G. Moiseyev and V.I. Khartanovich.

A new cranial series from the Early Metal Age burial ground on Bolshoy Oleniy (Great Reindeer) Island in Kola Bay of the Barents Sea is described. So far, this is the only series from the Arctic regions of Europe and the Urals. A multivariate analysis of cranial measurements in 27 prehistoric populations of Northern Eurasia has revealed the specifi city of this group. Its most distinct affi nities are with populations of Western Siberia and the Altai dating to various periods from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age. People buried on Bolshoy Oleniy Island apparently belonged to a group of populations characterized by the retention of an ancient trait combination distinguishing it both from Mongoloids of Eastern Siberia and Eastern Central Asia, and from Caucasoids. This group of populations was apparently distributed across most of the tundra zone of Northern Europe and of the taiga areas of the Urals and northwestern Siberia.

Keywords: Craniometry, population history, Northern Eurasia, Barents Sea, Kola Bay, Early Metal Age, Uralic-speaking peoples.