Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 52 (4) 2024   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2024.52.4.085-097

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Human Remains from a Neolithic Burial at Krokhalevka-5
on the Upper Ob:
Physical Type and Origin

T.A. Chikisheva, M.S. Kishkurno, Z.V. Marchenko, and A.E. Grishin

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

We describe the skeletal remains of a male, aged 25-30, from the Neolithic burial 33 at Krokhalevka-5 in the Upper Ob basin, 21 km northwest of Novosibirsk, dating to the mid-5th millennium BC. Craniometric, dental metric, and nonmetric traits are analyzed. Cranial measurements are evaluated in the context of their variation in 58 individuals representing 11 local populations of the Paleolithic and Neolithic of Northern Eurasia. Data were processed using the principal component analysis in the STATISTICA 10 software. The first PC differentiates crania in terms of general size. The structure of loadings on PC2 indicates the presence of western and eastern trait combinations. The position of individuals on PC1 and PC2 reveals heterogeneity apparently caused by the conservatism of the underlying substratal populations. The Krokhalevka-5 individual is closest to those from Firsovo XI (Barnaul stretch of the Ob) and Zarechnoye-1 (Salair region). They are rather similar to the Volosovo individual from Sakhtysh-2A in Central Russia and a Kitoy individual from Fofanovo in the Trans-Baikal area. These findings point to a complex origin of the Upper Ob population on the basis of one of the evolutionarily conservative Mesolithic or Neolithic substratal components, possibly admixed with more consolidated eastern and western ones introduced by migration. Neolithic crania from Baraba contrast with those from the Upper Ob, suggesting that different substrates were involved in the population history of those regions.

Keywords: Neolithic, burial, Upper Ob region, anthropological composition, non-consolidated morphological complex, individual variation, principal component analysis