Morphological Study of the Teeth of the Meotian Culture Bearers (based on the materials of the burial grounds of the Starokorsunsky settlement No. 2, VI century BC – III century AD)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2025.2.8.20Keywords:
dental anthropology, Meotians, Early Iron Age, antiquity, Northern Black Sea regionAbstract
Very few anthropological scientific works are dedicated to the study of the Meotian culture bearers. So far, there has been a complete absence of data on the dental morphology of the Maeotians. The presented work is aimed at studying the morphology of the dental system of the Meotian culture bearers on the materials of the standard site – Starokorsunsky settlement No. 2. The excavations of the burials, reflected in this work, were conducted from 1980 to 2020 by the Krasnodar Archaeological Expedition of the Kuban State University under the direction of N.Y. Limberis and I.I. Marchenko. Based on a total sample of 66 individuals, two chronological groups were formed: before the I century BC and after the I century BC. This division is due to the appearance of Sarmatians at the borders of the Meotian settlement territory at the turn of the era. For statistical analysis, 28 geographically close comparative series of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age were involved. The studied Meotian series is characterized by the predominance of dental traits of the Western odontological trunk. High frequencies of the cusp of Carabelli can be noted as a distinct trait. A comparison of the early and late series in terms of the frequencies of the main nonmetric dental traits indicates a possible mestization of the population of the settlement with the newcomers. The values of the average taxonomic distances between the Meotians and the comparable series of the Early Iron Age indicate a change in the vector of interpopulation interaction over time, which is associated with an increase in the concentration of eastern phenes in the late Meotian sample. According to the correspondence analysis, the Meotian group studied in this work occupies an intermediate position between the series of the Southern Aral Sea region, the Southern Urals and the Dnieper region. At this stage of the study, the results received may reflect interactions between representatives of the sedentary population of the Kuban region and the nomadic culture of the Scythians and Sarmatians.
References
bramova, A. N. 2022. Naselenie Prikuban'ya rannego zheleznogo veka po dannym skeletnoy si-stemy (VI v. do n.e. – III v.n.e.) (The population of the Kuban region of the Early Iron Age according to the skeletal system (VI century BC – III century AD)). Diss. of Candidate of historical sciences. Volgograd (in Russian).
Anfimov, N. V. 1971. In Liberov, P. D., Gulyaev, V. I. (eds.). Problemy skifskoy arkheologii ( Issues of Scythian archaeology). Series: Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii (Proceedings and Research in Archaeology of the USSR) 177. Moscow: “Nauka” Publ., 170–177 (in Russian).
Bagdasarova, N. A. 2000. In Rykushkina, G. V., Dubova, N. A. (eds.). Antropologicheskie i etnograficheskie svedeniya o naselenii Sredney Azii (Anthropological and ethnographic information about the population of Central Asia). Moscow: “Staryy sad” Publ., 113–124 (in Russian).
Balabanova, M. A. 2005. In Marchenko, I. I. (ed.). Chetvertaya Kubanskaya arkheologicheskaya konferentsiya (IV Kuban Archaeological Conference). Krasnodar: Krasnodar Regional Department of Culture, etc., 4–9 (in Russian).
Balabanova, M. A. 2013. In Marchenko, I. I. (ed.). Shestaya mezhdunarodnaya Kubanskaya arkheologicheskaya konferentsiya (The Sixth International Kuban Archaeological Conference). Krasnodar: “Ecoinvest” Publ., 21–25 (in Russian).
Batieva, E. F. 2011. Naselenie Nizhnego Dona v IX v. do n.e. – IV v.n.e. (paleoantropologiche-skoe issledovanie) (Population of the Lower Don region (a paleoanthropological study)). Rostov-on-Don: Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Bunak, V. V. 1953. In Tolstov, S.P.. (ed.). Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii AN SSSR (Bulletin of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of Academy of Sciences of the USSSR) 14. Moscow; Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 306–419 (in Russian).
Gerasimova, M. M. 1976. In Sovetskaia etnografiia (Soviet Ethnography) (5), 107–113 (in Russian).
Gromov, A. V., Kazarnitsky, A. A. 2014. In Chistov, Yu. K. (ed.). Radlovskii sbornik: nauchnye issledovaniia i muzeinye proekty MAE RAN v 2013 g. (Radlow Collected Papers: Investigations and Museum Projects of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2013). Saint Petersburg: Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of Russian Academy of Sciences, 10–18 (in Russian).
Debets, G. F. 1948. Paleoantropologiia SSSR (Paleoanthropology of the USSR). Series: Proceedings of the N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute. of Ethnography. New Series, 4. Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR (in Russian).
Elnitskyi, L. A. 1961. Znaniya drevnikh o severnykh stranakh (The knowledge of the ancient people about the northern countries). Moscow: “Geografgiz” Publ. (in Russian).
Zubov, A. A. 1968. Odontologiia. Metodika antropologicheskikh issledovanii (Odontology. Anthropological Reseach Technique). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).
Zubov, A. A. 1982. In Finno-ugorskiy sbornik: Antropologiya. Arkheologiya. Etnografiya (Finno-Ugric collection: Anthropology. Archaeology. Ethnography). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ., 134–148 (in Russian).
Zubov, A. A., Khaldeeva, N. I. 1993. Odontologiya v antropofenetike (Odontology in anthropophenetics). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).
Kazarnitsky, A. A. 2015. In Nosov, E. N. (ed.). Zapiski Instituta istorii material'noi kul'tury (Transactions of the Institute for the History of Material Culture) (11). Saint Petersburg: “Dmitry Bulanin” Publ., 109–124. (in Russian).
Kamenetsky, I. S. 2011. Istoriya izucheniya meotov (The history of the study of meotians). Moscow: “Taus” Publ. (in Russian).
Kashibadze, V. F. 2006. Kavkaz v antropoistoricheskom prostranstve Evrazii: odontologicheskoe issledovanie (The Caucasus in the anthropohistorical space of Eurasia: an odontological study). Rostov-on-Don: Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Limberis, N. Yu. 1999 Otchet Krasnodarskoy arkheologicheskoy ekspeditsii o raskopkakh zapadnogo mogil'nika Starokorsunskogo gorodishcha No 2 v 1998 g. (Report of the Krasnodar archaeological expedition on the excavations of the western burial ground of the Staro- korsunsky settlement No. 2 in 1998). Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the Kuban State University (in Russian).
Limberis, N. Yu. 2000. Otchet o raskopkakh Krasnodarskoy arkheologicheskoy ekspeditsii na zapadnom mogil'nike Starokorsunskogo gorodishcha No 2 v 1999 g. (Report on the excavations of the Krasnodar archae-ological expedition on the western burial ground of the Starokorsunsky settlement No. 2 in 1999). Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Fund 1. R.1. no 22977 (in Russian).
Limberis, N. Yu. 2017 Otchet Krasnodarskoy arkheologicheskoy ekspeditsii o rabotakh na Starokorsunskom gorodishche No 2 v 2017 godu (Report of the Krasnodar archaeological expedition on the work at the Starokorsunsky settlement No. 2 in 2017). Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the Kuban State University (in Russian).
Malyshev, A. A., Mednikova, M. B. 1995. In Rossiiskaia Arkheologiia (Russian Archaeology) (4), 125–135 (in Russian).
Morozova, I. Yu., Batieva, E. F., Grosheva, A. N., Kovalevskaya, V. B., Rychkov, S. Yu. 2013. In Genetika (Genetics) 49 (9), 1114–1120 (in Russian).
Pererva, E. V. 2005. In Marchenko, I. I. (ed.). Chetvertaya Kubanskaya arkheologicheskaya konferentsiya (IV Kuban Archaeological Conference). Krasnodar: Krasnodar Regional Department of Culture, etc., 208–211 (in Russian).
Romanova, G. P. 1986. In Kamenetskii, I. S. (ed.). Arkheologicheskie otkrytiia na novostroikakh. Vyp. 1: Drevnosti Severnogo Kavkaza (Archaeological Discoveries at New Building Sites. Iss. 1. Antiquities of the North Caucasus). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ., 195–203 (in Russian).
Rychkov, S. Yu., Morozova, I. Yu., Batieva, E. F., Kullanda, S. V., Kovalevskaya, V. B., Shevchenko, N. F., Grosheva, A. N., Zhukova, A. V. 2013. In Matishov, D. G. (ed.). Problemy genetiki naseleniya i etnicheskoy antropologii (Issues of population genetics and ethnic anthropology). Moscow: N.I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 10 (in Russian).
Segeda, S. P. 2001. Antropologichniy sklad ukraÏns'kogo narodu. Etnogenetichniy aspekt (Anthropological composition of the Ukrainian people. Ethnogenetic aspect). Kiev: Elena Teliga Publishing House (in Russian).
Segeda, S. P. 2006. In Zhelezchikov, B. F. Drevnosti Lebedevki (VI–II vv. do n.e.) (The antiquities of Lebedevka (VI-II centuries BC)). Moscow: “Vostochnaia Literatura” Publ., 155–159 (in Russian).
Stafengagen, I. I. 1753. Kratkoe rukovodstvo k drevney geografii: S iz"yasneniem nyneshnyago sostoyaniya izvestnykh v drevniya vremena zemel'. Sobrano iz raznykh avtorov trudami Imperatorskoy Akademii Nauk Konferentsii Arkhiva-riusa Ivana Stafengagena (A short guide to ancient geography: With an explanation of the current state of the lands known in ancient times. Collected from various authors by the works of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of the Conference of Archivist Ivan Stafengagen). Saint Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Suvorova (Lejbova), N. A. 2008. In Malashev, V. Yu., Iablonskii, L. T. Stepnoe naselenie iuzhnogo Priural’ia v pozdnesarmatskoe vremia: po materialam mogil’nika Pokrovka 10 (The Steppe Population of the Southern Urals in Late Sarmatian Period: Materials of the Pokrovka 10 Cemetery). Series: Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii Rossii (Materials and Studies in the Archaeology of Russia) 9. Moscow: “Vostochnaia Literatura” Publ., 87–95 (in Russian).
Erlikh, V. R. 2007. Severo-Zapadnyy Kavkaz v nachale zheleznogo veka. Protomeotskaya gruppa pamyatnikov (The North-Western Caucasus at the beginning of the Iron Age. Proto-Meotian group of monuments). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 D.S. Khodyreva, N.A. Leibova
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
