История изучения антропологических материалов с территории Республики Калмыкия

Abstract

Introduction. The work reviews scholarly publications dealing with paleoanthropological material from Kalmykia’s kurgan burial sites. Goals. So, the study aims to shed light on the history of research of the latter. Materials and methods. The paper employs narrative and historical methods to examine articles and monographs summarizing outcomes of analyses of anthropological material from Kalmykia’s excavations. Results. One can distinguish two periods in the anthropological endeavors — Soviet and contemporary ones. Virtually all anthropologists who investigated the material from Kalmykia mention a wide variety of morphological types inherent to human populations that had inhabited Kalmyk steppes in ancient times. The considered works are characterized by somewhat differing approaches of Soviet-era and present-day anthropologists. Furthermore, the attempted analysis has revealed certain trends in studies of the Bronze Age.