Craniological and Dental Non-Metric Data on the Origin of the Early Iron Age Gorokhovo Culture Population

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of craniological and dental non-metric data from Sargat and Gorokhovo burials. Gorokhovo Culture groups were located in the Upper and Middle Iset and Middle Tobol River regions in 6th–3rd cc BC. The research examines the anthropological uniqueness of the population of the Gorokhovo Culture and the racial and genetic processes that occurred in the forest-steppe territory in the south of Western Siberia in the Early Iron Age. It was established that the sample of the Gorokhovo Culture can be classified as Caucasian populations with a small Mongoloid admixture. Two Caucasian combinations of characteristics have been identified. The morphotype with a narrower and higher face profiled horizontally, a higher nose bridge and a larger angle of protrusion of the nasal bones in retrospect may be associated with groups of Andronovo-Alakul people; later this complex was represented as part of the Sauromatian-Sarmatian population of the European part of Russia. Found in the West Siberian Gorokhovo population it may be due to migration influence. Another Caucasoid component with a lower and wider slightly flattened facial skeleton, a less protruding nose and bridge of the nose is in many ways similar to the morphotype of the AndronovoFedorovo, and the later Sargat population. In this case we can talk about the autochthony origin. Dental nonmetric data organically complements the current results. Dental non-metric traits results demonstrates that the basis of the anthropological composition of the Gorokhovo population was the Andronovo component of South Ural origin. The population of the Sargat culture and the Gorokhovo groups who lived at the same time in the Tobol River Region in the 5th–3rd cc BC differ significantly. However, close population ties between the Sargat and Gorokhovo and their contacts with the Sarmatians contributed to the convergence of their anthropological structure.