Craniophenetic Features of Cis-Kuban Population of the Early Iron Age (Preliminary Data)

Abstract

This study was based on the material of two anthropological series originating from the territory of the kurgan cemetery sites at Volna 1 and the Starokorsunskaya settlement 2. Volna 1 is located 10 km from the village of Taman, and according to archaeologists, it could have been a previously unknown Greek Apoykia. To this date, the excavations of the monument have been fully completed, which gives us the opportunity to speak with confidence that 6th–2nd centuries BC is the period it dates back to. The second kurgan cemetery we examined belongs to Starokorsunskaya settlement No. 2 located 6 km from the village. The settlement and the adjacent necropolis have been studied by the Krasnodar archaeological expedition for almost 35 years, as a result we have an extensive anthropological collection, and a part of it became the subject of our study. The monument dates back to the period of 6th century BC – 3rd century AD and is considered to be a reference one of the largest Meotian settlements in the Kuban region. Both sites are characterized by poor preservation of bone tissue and strong skeletons fragmentation. In spite of that, we used the craniophenetic program and studied 81 skulls obtained during excavations of Volna 1 and 60 skulls from the Starokorsunskaya settlement. As a result of pairwise intragroup comparison using the chi-square of the two population groups of Volna 1 6th–4th centuries BC and 4th–2nd centuries BC we cannot speak of a statistically significant difference. When comparing the two sample population groups from Volna 1 and the Meots from the Starokorsunskaya settlement No. 2, a high similarity of the inhabitants of the Black Sea territories with the Meotes from the Kuban region was noted. Probably, this allows us to assume predominance of Meotian groups in Volna 1 population.