Early Metal Age crania from Bolshoy Oleniy Island, Barents Sea

Abstract

A new cranial series from the Early Metal Age burial ground on Bolshoy Oleniy (Great Reindeer) Island in Kola Bay of the Barents Sea is described. So far, this is the only series from the Arctic regions of Europe and the Urals. A multivariate analysis of cranial measurements in 27 prehistoric populations of Northern Eurasia has revealed the specificity of this group. Its most distinct affinities are with populations of Western Siberia and the Altai dating to various periods from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age. People buried on Bolshoy Oleniy Island apparently belonged to a group of populations characterized by the retention of an ancient trait combination distinguishing it both from Mongoloids of Eastern Siberia and Eastern Central Asia, and from Caucasoids. This group of populations was apparently distributed across most of the tundra zone of Northern Europe and of the taiga areas of the Urals and northwestern Siberia.