Craniological Study of Population of Pereslavl-Zalesskiy in the XVI–XVIII Centuries.

Abstract

The study is based on intra and inter-group analyses of craniometrical characteristics of two samples of skulls obtained during the excavations of urban cemeteries in modern Pereslavl-Zalesskiy. The samples under study consist of 29 male and 19 female skulls from necropolis of the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist XVI – early XVII centuries and 31 male and 26 female skulls from Andrey Smolensky Church cemetery XVI–XVIII centuries. To identify differences between the samples from Pereslavl-Zalesskiy we used Student's t-test. The principal component method and the canonical variate analysis were used for the intragroup and intergroup analyses respectively. Intragroup analysis revealed certain heterogeneity of these groups. The male samples from Pereslavl were demonstrated to be significantly different. This probably indicates a partial replacement of population that occurred after the tragic events of the Time of Troubles, which virtually devastated the city’s neighborhood at the beginning of the XVII century. The results of the intergroup canonical analysis demonstrated the greatest proximity of the Pereslavl’s group XVI-XVII centuries to the samples from Pskov and Suzdal. The proximity of the later samples from Pereslavl-Zalessky to the groups of Moscow and Tver may indicate that the population of these cities made a significant contribution to the formation of the Pereslavl-Zalessky’s population after the Time of Troubles. Female samples from Pereslavl significantly differ among themselves in a number of metric cranial traits. The results of intergroup canonical analysis demonstrate the greatest proximity of the female samples from Pereslavl to each other, and to the samples from Pskov, Tver and Moscow, like in the male samples