Nomadic Groups Research Articles

A Tribe is Burnt to the Ground: Reading The Legend of the Thousand Bulls as an Advocacy of Cultural Integrity

The nomads (yörüks) of Anatolia were forced to sedentarisation both during the Ottoman and the Turkish Republican eras. In today’s Anatolia, only approximately one hundred families are left who maintain their nomadic way of life: the Sarıkeçili Yörüks whose inclusion in UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding is pending. In The Legend of the Thousand Bulls [Binboğalar Efsanesi] (1971), Yaşar Kemal tells, with genuine pathos, the story of the Karaçullu, a sixty-tent pastoralist clan living in the Middle Taurus area of Southern Anatolia. Kemal depicts the Karaçullu as one of the last surviving nomadic groups of the Turkish Republic in the early 1950s and follows their quest, from one spring to the next, to find a permanent pasture upon losing their hopes of the possibility of continuing a nomadic way of life. He demonstrates the correlation between sedentarisation and the tribe’s disintegration over two axes. The first is the process from one stage of capitalism to the other as regards the ending of the nomadic way of life. The second axis is cultural integrity. Yaşar Kemal constructs the story of the tribe over the very intertwinement of the fight for existence and the fight for cultural integrity laying emphasis on the inextricable link between them. Analysing Yaşar Kemal’s emphasis on this link through the representations of nomadism in his novel as well as the connections he makes with historical events that led to the disappearance of the nomadic culture in Anatolia, I hope to contribute to cultural studies related with anthropological research on nomadism and create awareness about the situation of the last nomads of Anatolia.

Biographical and Cultural Evolution of Paanar

Tamil literary tradition registers 'tinai' divisions which is "a language with in a language" comments A.K. Ramanujan as it provides infinite possibilities to create in a finite frame. Along with people in respective landscapes, there are a nomadic group of paanar who visited all five landscapes spreading the oral tradition. References about the paanar, their oral tradition and nomadic lifestyle are found in cankam literature. There are different kinds of paanar referred performers, singers, declaimers, kuttar, viraliyar, poribar and panar along with their female counterparts and characteristic instruments. Records correspond that they were nomadic and visited kings to sing their praise and receive gifts. Their female counterparts were called 'viraliyar'. The Bard community depended on Kings and patrons for their livelihood. They are also called as 'isai panar' or musical paanar. They are further classified into three 'isai panar', 'yazh panar' and 'mandai panar'. This classification is also considered as separate caste by some and separate sect by others. These three sects of paanar are the ancestors of paanar. This research paper intends to study whether this nomadic lifestyle, singing the praise of kings, depending on kings' gifts for livelihood gave the paanar contentment in life from anthropological perspective.

Isotopic assessment of diet and infant feeding practices among Ottoman‐period Bedouin from Tell el‐Hesi

AbstractStable nitrogen and carbon isotopes from human bone collagen (n = 20) were used to examine adult diet and infant feeding practices among the Ottoman‐period Bedouin at Tell el‐Hesi (ca. 1500–1800 CE). Among adults, δ15N values point to a diet dependent on animal protein, fitting with ethnohistoric accounts detailing the reliance of these communities on secondary animal products. Nevertheless, differential access to animal protein was evident between males (δ15N: x̅ = 10.7 ± 0.4‰, 1σ) and females (x̅ = 9.2 ± 0.6‰, 1σ), who consumed proportionally more plant proteins that likely included cereals used to make bread. Carbon isotope values (x̅ = − 17.4 ± 0.4‰, 1σ) were similar between the sexes and suggest a mixed C3‐C4 diet, indicating that domesticated cultivars likely contributed to food intake alongside animal products and were either obtained through trade with more sedentary groups or grown by Bedouin themselves as part of agropastoral ways of life. Nonadult δ15N values are suggestive of an extended period of supplemental breastfeeding alongside complementary feeding similar to those reported among more nomadic historic Bedouin groups. Higher δ13C values among nonadults (x̅ = − 15.7 ± 1.9‰, 1σ) throughout infancy and young childhood differed statistically from those of adults, possibly indicative of a specialized, prescribed diet for pregnant and nursing mothers as well as for young children that included resources possessing higher δ13C values, perhaps derived from C4 cereals or camel's milk.

Первые изображения в скифском «зверином стиле»

The author addresses the origin of the oldest images of the Scythian “animal style” of the transitional Zhabotin period, which were found in three remote regions — the North Caucasus, the Lower Don and the Ukrainian Dnieper forest-steppe. There is a close relationship between them, which can only be explained by the fact these images were simultaneously spread from a common external source. All images appeared during the period of the Cimmerian invasion in Transcaucasia in the first half of the 7th century BC. The already developed corpus of systemic images of “animal style” art was brought from the east of Eurasia. The complexes where they were found reflect the intercultural integration of a new small group of eastern nomads with the local military elite. Particular attention is paid to images with solar symbols and “double” images. At the same time, the early examples of the “animal style” are connected with the art of the “animal style” of the Kelermes period, which began during the reign of Ashurbanipal in Assyria.

Разнообразие вариантов мтДНК и Y-хромосомы в генофонде носителей староалейской культуры (могильник Фирсово-XIV)

This work continues the series of studies devoted to the analysis of the Scythian groups of the Upper Ob region and adjacent areas of Southern Siberia using paleogenetic methods, in particular, the study of the genetic composition and history of the formation of the gene pool of the carriers of the Old Alei culture. At the new stage of the study, we were able to quickly introduce new paleoanthropological materials from the Old Alei complexes of the Firsovo-XIV burial ground, discovered in 2020, into full-fledged scientific circulation by examining the structure of mtDNA in these samples. An in-depth analysis of the mtDNA series expanded in this way made it possible to confirm the participation in the formation of the mtDNA gene pool of the Old Aley population of two main genetic components - associated, respectively, with the autochthonous for the Early Iron Age genetic substrate of the foreststeppe belt of southern Siberia, and with the influence of carriers of the Scythian-Siberian circle of cultures from the territory of Altai-Sayan mountain system and adjacent regions of Southern Siberia. The first data on the Y-chromosome of the representatives of the male part of the Old Alei culture from the Firsovo-XIV burial ground (three samples belonging to the East Eurasian haplogroup Q, two of them to Q1a) provide only a fragmentary picture of the male gene pool, which requires further detailing. At this stage, we have not found the presence of phylogenetically contrasting variants in the male gene pool of the Old Alei population, as might be expected by analogy with the mtDNA gene pool. Most likely, the Old Alei variants of the Q1a haplogroup are of South Siberian origin, which generally correlates with mtDNA data. A more precise localization of the source of their origin within the south of Siberia at this stage of the study is difficult and will require an in-depth analysis of the structure of the identified variants of the Y chromosome. Preliminarily, it can be concluded that the first data on the Y chromosome, like mtDNA, did not allow us to trace signs of genetic influence on the Old Alei population of nomadic groups from more southern and southwestern regions, including the Scythian-Saka population from the territory of modern Kazakhstan. On the other hand, the data obtained allow us to assume the presence of some peculiarity of the Old Alei male gene pool in comparison with a number of early nomadic populations of Southern Siberia, adjusted for the small number of Y-chromosome samples studied by us.

Nomads Trading with Empires: Intercultural Trade in Ancient Somaliland in the First to Seventh Centuries CE

This article presents new data from fieldwork in the de facto state of Somaliland, a region in the Horn of Africa historically inhabited by nomadic pastoralists who played a key role in commercial exchange from the first century BCE onward. Relations between ancient empires and nomadic populations have received comparatively little attention in relation to other groups living within or outside imperial boundaries. Our understanding of these interactions has been colored by stereotypes from classical authors and the elusive nature of their archaeological record. It is thus not surprising that the role of nomadic groups in long-distance trade networks in antiquity has been often downplayed. This is the case in the Western Indian Ocean region. Archaeological evidence from survey and excavation work conducted between 2018 and 2020 in Xiis and the Berbera area reveals the strong integration of the region in the Indian Ocean network, the high purchasing power of the nomads, and their heterogeneity. Participation in long-distance trade seems to have provoked important social changes in local communities that did not, however, put them on the path to sedentism and political centralization.1

Погребальные сооружения развитого Средневековья в Томском Приобье (по материалам могильников)

The article discusses the burial structures on the sites in the Tomsk Ob area in the High Middle Ages. Materials from Astrakhantsevo, Bassandaika burial mounds and a burial ground by the mouth of Malaya Kirgizka are used as a basis.The study involves materials on the burial structures at the sites of Novosibirsk Ob area which constitute a part of the Basandaiskaya culture of the Kuznetsk Depression referring to the Basandai cultural community and also to the Forest Steppe Alta. Each area of burial structures, along with common features, has its own differences.The article aims to study the designs of burial structures in the Tomsk Ob area, to compare them with burial structures on the adjacent territories in order to identify similarities and differences in an important feature of the burial ritual in archaeological cultures of the indicated areas, which is significant for determining the ethnicity of Turkic-speaking nomad groups who came to the territory of Tomsk Ob area in the High Middle Ages.

MONGOLIAN ELEMENTS IN THE ETHNONYMY AND ETHNOTOPONYMS OF THE ZERAVSHAN VALLEY (15—19TH CENTURIES)

This article, based on written sources and archival materials, analyzes the role of Mongolian components in the formation of tribal names and ethnotoponyms of the Zerafshan Valley from the 15th to the 19th centuries. The research revealed the dynamics of penetration and distribution of Mongolian ethnonyms at different levels of the tribal organization of Turkic-speaking tribes of the region. Numerous migrations of Turkic-Mongolian clans to the Zerafshan valley covered a long period, starting from the campaigns of Genghis Khan until the middle of the 18th century. In the region, at different times, the perception of the boundaries of the Mon-gol community changed. If in the 13th — early 14th centuries under the name Mongol an ethnopolitical community was understood, as well as the inhabitants of the Mogholistan region, then later it designated the tribe and clan as part of individual tribes. If in the first waves of migration of Mongolian tribes to the oases of Central Asia their composition could include the main Mongolian clans, then in the following centuries their Turkification took place in the steppe regions and already Turkified tribes or alliances of tribes containing Turkic clans invaded and settled into the valleys. As a result of the migrations of the nomadic population groups from the steppe regions to the Zerafshan valley, the tribal com-position of the population became enriched and the number of Mongolian names, which were perceived by the local population as Turkic, Uzbek, Kazakh and Karakalpak ethnonyms, increased. Many Mongolian elements were included in the toponymy not by the Mongols themselves, but by Turkic or Turkified tribes. The total number of Mongolian elements in the ethnotoponymy of the Zerafshan Valley rose due to the settlement of semi-nomadic clans in the 18th — early 19th centuries. They became more wide-spread in the Samarkand and Navoi provinces and less common in the Bukhara oasis.

Iron Cones in the Burials of Ulus Jochi: Aspects of Ethnocultural Identification

Cone-shaped objects, rolled from iron and bronze sheets, are found in the Golden Horde burials of the late 13th – early 15th centuries. The authors collected information on more than 100 burials with iron and bronze cones located in the territory of Ulus Jochi. This article is examines material from 78 iron cone burials. Specific features of the topographic location of these complexes, use of stones in rituals, construction of log cabins around graves is similar to archaeological and ethnographic monuments of Central Asia associated with ethnic Mongols. As a rule, human remains buried in graves are oriented north or northeast with their heads, which is also a feature of the Mongol funeral rite. Accompaniment of the burial with whole or stuffed horses remains in the complexes with cones is not common, but these features are also known in Mongolian cemeteries in Central Asia. The placement of a sheep tibia at the head of the buried occasionally in vertical position is considered a main ethnic feature of the Mongol culture. In general, the sample of the Ulus Jochi burials, united by the iron cones presence in the burial inventory, is characterized by an increased concentration of rather specific ritual signs typical of the Mongols of Central Asia. This allows us to conclude that the considered monuments belong to the same ethnocultural group of population. Moreover, the available anthropological data testify to the Central Asian (Mongolian) origin of the representatives of this group of nomads of Ulus Jochi Burials with iron cones. The authors observe manifestations of pagan shamanic and Buddhist rituals judging by the dominant features of funeral rituals left by the bearers of Mongolian ethnic and cultural traditions.

Imperial legacies and southern penal spaces: A study of hunting nomads in postcolonial India

Southern penal spaces are marked by resemblances and affinities with colonial regimes of control, yet they also reflect quite distinctive postcolonial social and political dynamics found in the global south. Here, legacies of control, forms of exile, status reductions, hierarchical social stratifications and other like forms come together in robust modes of containment suitable for managing ‘marginal’ and ‘suspect’ populations. We draw on ethnographic empirical work with two hunting nomadic groups in India by two of the co-authors who are working with the Kheria Sabar community in Purulia district in West Bengal and Pardhi community in Mumbai. The latter were subject to notification under the notorious Criminal Tribes Act 1871, marking them out as ‘criminal tribes’ until their de-notification shortly after India's independence in 1947, yet the Kheria Sabars too feel its effects. We draw attention here to the continual negotiation and (re)fabrication of both state and citizen at the point of their everyday contact. Our notion of southern penal spaces contributes to penal theory by breaking from northern societies’ focus on institutional carcerality and capturing instead both the variety and the dispersal of penal and punitive practices found in postcolonial societies of the south.

English

In spite of various policy initiatives and institutional frameworks, a good number of school-age children roam the streets of Nigeria. Nigeria unduly tops the rank in the total number of out-of-school children in the global scene. Now, about 16 million Out-Of-School Children (OOSC) live in Nigeria, and this means that about one out of five OOSC in the world relate to Nigeria. The number has increased from 8.7 million in 2014 to 13.2 million and 16 million in 2015/2019, respectively. But, this number reduced to 6.95 million in 2020. The breakdown of people in the out-of-school set includes children with disabilities; nomadic groups, comprising of pastoralists and migrants fishing groups; Almajiri students and displaced people due to violent Nigeria conflicts, mostly Northern states like Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. These schools are bedecked with series of schools which have been closed, and they amount to roughly 802, out of which classrooms of about 497 were practically sabotaged, while another 1,392 were entirely damaged. It is absolutely patent that the unadulterated surge in the hiking number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is traceable to the reinforced cases of insecurity, feeble institutional and policy structure, norms and traditions of the people, poverty, and total excommunication of children with disabilities in consideration of policies. This unearthed the OOSC fragments and the plausible instigations of the growing occupants in Nigeria.  While this study adopts qualitative approach, it banks largely on secondary data to find out the perplexing population of the out-of-school children. The study concludes that, albeit series of government policy interventions have helped reduce the number of OOSC in 2020, more strategic actions need to be taken to further cushion the growth of the menace of OOSC in the country. Hence, the study proposes some recommendations to reinvigorate the decreasing trend of the OOSC.   Key words: Out-of-school children, causes, Nigeria educational system, legal and policy interventions.

Погребения с целыми скелетами коней в Затисье и степях Восточной Европы VI—VII вв. н. э.

After 567, a certain nomad group of Eastern European origin arrived to the CarpathianBasin with the Avars and occupied the territory east to the TisaRiver. This population differs from the Inner Asian Avars by their burial customs whose best analogies can be found among the contemporary nomads of the steppe region of Eastern Europe, called Sivashovka group. The main aim of this article is a special rite of the two regions: burials with whole horse skeletons. This element of the burial rite was treated as a foreign influence — Avaric or Turkic. This study proves that this element was well embedded in the structures of the funerary rite in both regions. Additionally, there are similarities, which show that both populations get acquainted with this custom at the same time. We can state that the difference between the burials with horse hides and the burials with whole skeletons is based on social, rather than ethnic grounds.

Social agency and prestige technology: serial production of gold appliqués in the early Iron Age north-west China and the Eurasian steppes

ABSTRACT Recent discoveries in north-west China and the Central Asian steppes have shed new light on the study of power display and material connections amongst nomadic groups during the development of gold-making technology in Iron Age Eurasia. Bringing together material science and archaeological approaches, this paper presents an interdisciplinary study of serially produced gold artefacts recovered from the elite burials of north-west China, to gain a better understanding of the inventive nature of early gold-making industry. In particular, we find that the technology used to craft the gold appliqués found in the Xigou cemetery (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) in north-west China attested to the use of moulds or matrices for serial production, closely linked to technological practice of the central Asians steppes. We consider the spread of the peculiar technique and iconography as a tangible way to examine technology transfer and cultural interactions. The contextual analysis reveals that the mould-pressing technique, the animal-style gold artefacts, and the burial practice of using prestigious gold as body adornment constitute a shared set of material expressions of the status and power of nomadic elites in north-west China, Kazakhstan and southern Siberia. Technological practice, in turn, opens up new research avenues in the field, recalibrating our recognition and understanding the active involvement of material objects in human life and culture.

Where nothing stands still: quantifying nomadism in Australian arid-zone birds

ContextNomadism is a movement strategy in response to non-seasonal environmental variability. Knowledge of nomadic species movements is poor but is necessary to understand life histories and develop appropriate conservation strategies.ObjectivesWe provide a first quantification of nomadism among Australia’s arid bird community, which is presumed to be highly nomadic, by measuring variation in species’ occurrence and abundance among years to determine whether there are clear nomadic and non-nomadic strategists.MethodsWe surveyed birds annually from 2012 to 2016. We measured how many years each species was present at a site and estimated inter-annual variability in species abundance, using both measures to infer species movement patterns. We used results to inform existing movement classifications.ResultsMost arid species showed low site persistence, with species detected at the same site, on average, 1.8 out of the five survey years. Movement varied along a continuum rather than grouping into distinct nomadic and non-nomadic groups. Species classified as nomadic showed higher variation in abundance and lower site persistence than species classified as resident. Our method of quantifying nomadism closely replicated existing expert-derived movement classifications of arid zone bird species.ConclusionsRather than a fixed attribute, movements of many species in our study can be heavily environment-dependent, and individuals of a single species can display a continuum of movements in different times and places. This complicates the conservation of species, but the growing recognition of the complexity of species movements offers opportunities for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between species and environment.

Oral-based Bible translation: A contextualised model for the nomadic Himba people of southern Africa

Historically, the work of Bible translation has involved multiple disciplines in a commitment to translate Scripture with integrity and faithfulness to the original Greek and Hebrew texts. Translating Scripture for primary oral societies has added another dimension to the need for accuracy, beauty and clarity in Scripture translation. It has been widely accepted in Western literate society that the Bible is accessed in written print in the form of a book. For oral-preference societies, such as the nomadic Himba and San peoples of southern Africa, a printed Bible has presented a challenge. Few people read or wish to read as their primary means of communication. In the case of the San family of languages, complex phonemic systems of up to 85 contrastive clicks have presented a challenge in developing ‘readable’ orthographies. This article has highlighted the rationale for oral-based Bible translation. The research aimed to address the translation needs of oral societies – some of whom are nomadic or semi-nomadic people groups. The recent missiological positioning of certain Bible translation practitioners has led to an oral-based approach to Bible translation which validates the cultural identity of modern oral communicators. Orally crafted translations of Scripture passages have been recorded and made available to oral societies through a range of media, including MP3 players, SD cards and mobile phone applications. The effectiveness of oral-based Bible translation among the Himba people has been seen in their response. What began as a three-year pilot project to explore the potential impact of oral-based Scripture among oral societies has led to a unanimous demand for a second three-year phase, and an expressed desire for a full oral-based Bible in the Himba language. The oral-based approach as described is currently used in nearly 20 other oral Bible translation, which reflects a felt need for oral-based Scripture among oral societies in southern Africa.Contribution: Insights from the emerging practice of oral-based Bible translation in southern Africa provide valuable data for missiological approaches to communicating the gospel in the context of modern oral societies.

Climate and environmental reconstruction of the Epipaleolithic Mediterranean Levant (22.0–11.9 ka cal. BP)

This study presents, for the first time, an environmental reconstruction of a sequence spanning nearly the entire Mediterranean Epipaleolithic (∼22.0–11.9 ka cal. BP). The study is based on a well-dated, high-resolution pollen record recovered from the waterlogged archaeological site Jordan River Dureijat (JRD), located on the banks of Paleolake Hula. JRD's continuous sequence enabled us to build a pollen-based paleoclimate model providing a solid background for the dramatic cultural changes that occurred in the region during this period. Taxonomic identification of the waterlogged wood assemblage collected from JRD was used to fine-tune the paleoenvironmental reconstruction. The chronological framework is based on radiocarbon dating and the typology of archaeological findings. The LGM (∼22–19 ka cal. BP) was found to be the coldest period of the sequence, marked by a distinct decrease in the reconstructed January temperatures of up to 5°C lower than today, while mean annual precipitation was only slightly lower than the present-day average (∼450 vs. 515 mm, respectively). The wettest and warmest period of the record was identified between ∼14.9 and 13.0 ka cal. BP, with maximum values of 545 mm mean annual precipitation reached at ∼14.5 ka cal. BP. This time interval is synchronized with the global warm and moist Bølling-Allerød interstadial as well as with the onset of the Natufian culture and the emergence of sedentism in the Levant. The Younger Dryas began around 12.9 ka cal. BP and was identified as an exceptional period by the JRD sequence with low temperatures and minimal climatic seasonality contrast: an increase in rain contribution during spring, summer, and autumn was documented concurrently with a significant decrease in winter precipitation. The detailed vegetation and climatological reconstruction presented in this study serves as backdrop to seminal events in human history: the transition from small nomadic groups of hunter-gatherers to the sedentary villages of the Natufian, eventually transitioning to the agricultural, complex communities of the Neolithic.

THE MAIN STAGES OF THE HISTORY OF POPULATION OF THE FOREST-STEPPE OF DNIEPER LEFT-BANK AREA IN THE MID-7th — EARLY 3rd CENTURY BC

THE MAIN STAGES OF THE HISTORY OF POPULATION OF THE FOREST-STEPPE OF DNIEPER LEFT-BANK AREA IN THE MID-7th — EARLY 3rd CENTURY BC

Мончазинское городище ― многослойный памятник в Южном Предуралье

Introduction. Starting from the early Iron Age, the high root bank of the Belaya — downstream from its confluence with the Sim River and virtually to the Ufa Peninsula — was serving a natural barrier that separated the local tribes from nomadic populations who would sporadically penetrate into the left-bank flood pastures. It is along this barrier line that a group of sedentary settlements (hillforts of Okhlebinino I, II, Akberdino I-III, Shipovo, Monchazy) was discovered and identified as those of the Kara-Abyz culture. Supposedly, this advance warning system was still functioning in later periods too, i.e. the pre- and Golden Horde eras, and was somewhat related to antiquities of the Chiyalik archaeological culture. Goals. The work aims to introduce into scientific circulation archaeological materials from the Iron Age and the Late Middle Ages obtained as a result of repeated examinations and explorations at the site of Monchazy located 40 km southeast of Ufa in the lower reaches of the Sim River. The article provides data on the cultural layer of the monument, its defensive structures, introduces analogies to the found metal products, and reveals their cultural and historical aspects. Results. The results obtained indicate the site of the monument was used by both the Kara-Abyz population of the Southern Cis-Urals in the early Iron Age and the late medieval ‘Chiyalik’ residents. The paper also notes that this territory (the middle reaches of the Belaya between the mouths of the Bir and Sim rivers) was a transit area for carriers of Kara-Abyz ceramics with sand admixtures, while carriers of the Chialik culture quite often used fortified promontories of earlier eras (fortified settlements of Kara-Abyz, Bazhino, Ufa I, Ufa II). The publication also provides a broad historical cross-section of the eras (early Iron Age and Late Middle Ages) in relation to the territory on the right bank of the Belaya River. The work also provides data on the archaeological environment near the hillfort of Monchazy. The rather extensive archaeological materials make it possible to conclude as to the difference between ceramic traditions among the population of the Kara-Abyz archaeological culture. It is also noted that nomadic groups of Kipchaks that arrived in the territory of the settlement could have been included in the cultural environment by sedentary carriers of Chiyalik ceramics who professed Islam.

Between the Nile and the Red Sea

Abstract The Medjay were a group of desert nomads inhabiting the region between the Nile and the Red Sea contemporaneous to the Bronze Age of Ancient Egypt (c. 3100-1050 bce). Well-known from textual sources from Pharaonic Egypt and Kushite Nubia, it has proven difficult to produce basic societal descriptions of the Medjay and their political status, especially in their desert heartland. Most studies dedicated to the Medjay evaluate their presence as a nomadic diaspora and emigres on the Nile or focus on their interaction with the Ancient Egyptian state. These approaches place little emphasis on their indigenous geography and nomadic heritage in the Red Sea Hills. This study takes a very different tact and attempts to reconstruct some basic information on their political geography in their indigenous homeland. Although the sources, both textual and archaeological, are currently scarce regarding a Second Millennium bce desert occupation, they do demonstrate complex arrangements between Medjay political actors and nearby states. Particularly notable was the ability of individual tribes to enact varying policies of entente, détente, and aggression towards their Nile neighbours as well as exercise de facto sovereignty over a wealthy desert consistently threatened by Egyptian and Kushite imperialism.

Население Западного Казахстана в раннем железном веке по данным палеоантропологии (на примере могильника Кос-Оба)

The article examines anthropological materials from the Kos-Oba cemetery of the Savromat-Sarmatian period based on craniometric and paleopathological data from the region located between the Ural and Volga rivers in Western Kazakhstan. The results of craniometric analysis are indicative of the continuity of the population from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD, as well as the physical resemblance between the people from Kos-Oba and those inhabiting the UralRiver basin. Paleopathological data also indicate that this sample does not stand out in frequencies of traumas and pathologies from the early nomad groups of the Volga-Ural region and Western Kazakhstan. One of the skulls has a trephine opening, possibly performed with medical purposes or representing a result of ritual manipulation. This study shows that the Kos-Oba cemetery can be reviewed as a part of the large Savromat-Sarmatian site systems, which are present not only in the UralRiver basin and the Ustyurt, but also in the Southern Urals, Northern Aral and Northern Caspian region.