PALEOANTHROPOLOGICAL AND PALEOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE LOWER KAMA BASIN POPULATION OF TURN OF THE ERAS ACCORDING TO THE MATERIALS OF IZHEVSK BURIAL GROUND

Abstract

The article is dedicated to a study of craniological materials from Izhevsk burial ground. The researchers had at their disposal a series of 19 male and 26 female skulls. The male skulls are generally characterized as dolicho-mezokranial with a low arch height and moderate development of muscle relief in the neck and forehead. The facial skeleton is medium-wide, medium-high, and medium in terms of proportion. In the general vertical projection, the face is mesognathic, and in the alveolar projection - prognathic. Overall, the male skulls from Izhevsk burial ground belong to caucasoid forms, but with non-moderate features, which may indicate the presence of a mongoloid component. The female skulls, with due account of sexual dimorphism, were not much different from the male skulls, with the exception of a smaller protruding angle of the nose, which can indicate a more pronounced mongoloid component. The craniological series of the Izhevsk burial ground, regardless of gender, is summarized as Caucasoid, but with the inclusion of a certain portion of Mongoloid impurity, which is most pronounced in its female portion. The series from Izhevsk burial ground, according to its morphological features - an elongated skull, narrow and medium-high face combined with moderate horizontal profi ling and medium protrusion of the nasal bones is included in the Volga-Ural series of the turn of the epochs, which anthropologically represent the population of the Pyany Bor, Mazunino, Kara-abyz, Azelino, Gladenovo and Bakhmutino cultures. Probably, the formation of the physical appearance of this population took place on a common morphological basis (Caucasoid as a whole), which, however, does not exclude the genetic infl uence of individual "southern" Caucasoid and more Mongoloid "eastern" groups. A paleo-pathological analysis of the remains of the fi nds from Izhevsk burial ground has allowed to trace and characterize trauma on 4 skulls (9.5%) and 8 skeletons (11%). The osteomalacia and occurrence rate of physiological stress markers (in half of the cases) indicate severe living conditions of the population buried at Izhevsk burial ground.