Pages: 225-243

The paper is devoted to the analysis of craniological materials from the cemeteries of the Bronze Age of the Volga-Ural region (Sintashta and Potapovo assemblages). The characteristic feature of the physical appearance of this population is the combination of different morphological variations with a dominant and the presence of the Uraloid components. At the same time, a group of individuals with a specific, different from other individuals, skull structure is distinguished: maturized, broad-faced men with a set of striking features in the face. Analysis of the funerary rites of these individuals indicates their high social status in the Sintashta-Potapovo society. The addition of such an anthropological complex occurred in the Eneolithic on the territory of modern Kazakhstan as a result of contacts of steppe sharply profiled Europeoid populations and groups of Uraloid origin. This led to the formation of a population, originally of metisic origin, conventionally called “steppe Kazakhstan”, which took part in the process of morphogenesis, and, indirectly, the cultural genesis of Sintashta and Potapovo communities.

Keywords: South Urals, Volga-Ural region, Bronze Age, Sintashta culture, Potapovo sites, craniological variants, anthropological components, social status

Information about authors:

Egor Kitov (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (IEA). Lenin Ave., 32-A, Moscow, 119334, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Alexander Khokhlov (Samara, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education. M. Gorky St., 65/67, Samara, 443099, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Polina Medvedeva (Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation). South Ural State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University. Lenin Ave., 69, Chelyabinsk, 454080, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]