Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 54 (3) 2026   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2026.54.3.145-155

Annotation:  The Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans (Homo sapiens) in Africa The Structure of Bioresources Exploited by Paleolithic Humans in the Anui River Basin, Altai An Early Neolithic Burial with a Miniature Fish-Shaped Bait on the Shore of Lake Baikal A Glass Intaglio Depicting Harpocrates (Zeus Kasios) from Markula, Abkhazia Artifacts from the Necropolises of Chersonesos as a Historical and Cultural Source: An Interpretati A Road Station in the Upper Capital of the Eastern Xia State A Mongolian Age Iron Shield from the Khakass-Minusinsk Region From the History of the Late 19th–Early 20th Century Ural Cossacks in the Aral Sea region: Confessio Large Baptismal Crosses (“Cossack Crosses”) as a Source for Reconstructing Migration Routes to Weste Tombstones of the 19th and Early 20th Century at Rural Cemeteries on the Northern Upper Ob Ob Ugrian Sanctuaries on Lake Balbanty Eurasian-American Ethnoastronomic Parallels in the Context of New Data from India The Cúng Yêu Tinh Funerary Rite Among the Bố Y People in Vietnam: Finishing the Unfi nished Cranial Affinities of the Altai Mountains Population During the Xiongnu-Sarmatian Age The Origin of the Modern Populations of Western Siberia, Based on Craniometric Data. Part I: Classif   

The Origin of the Modern Populations of Western Siberia,
Based on Craniometric Data.
Part I: Classification and Ties with Medieval Groups

A.G. Kozintsev

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

To assess the origins of the modern Western Siberian populations, measurements of 30 recent male cranial samples from that territory and 56 medieval ones from Siberia, Southwestern Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and the Volga-Ural area were processed using canonical variate analysis, and Mahalanobis distances corrected for sample size were calculated. The distance matrix was subjected to nonmetric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Ties with modern groups are the most evident in people associated with the Srostki culture of northwestern Altai, Ryolka and Ust-Ishim cultures, Mongolian Age dwellers of Baraba, Gorny Altai, and the lower Tom, and the Yenisei Kyrgyz. Biological differentiation in Southern and Western Siberia is related to language—Ugric, Samoyedic, and Turkic speaking groups show significant differences with regard to their cranial characteristics. Ugric samples differ much sharper than do Samoyedic or Turkic ones. Comparison with medieval samples provides no clues as to the origin of Ugrians. The southern Khanty attribution of Ryolka culture is not supported. Various groups of Selkups may have originated from Mongolic Age people of Baraba or from those of Ryolka and Ust-Ishim cultures. The cranial characteristics of Nenets are typologically Southern Siberian rather than Uralic, and they resemble Turks. The difference between northern Samoyeds and Selkups is likely due to a complex composition and wide geographic distribution of the proto-Samoyedic community. Selkup roots of the Tom Tatars and the Eastern Central Asiatic tendency of Beltyr Khakas are revealed, and the Yenisei Kyrgyz roots of Kachi Khakas are demonstrated. In contrast to their linguistic isolation, Kets display no cranial specificity.

Keywords: Western Siberia, Middle Ages, Ugrians, Samoyeds, Turks, Kets.