Pages: 275-289

The author discusses possibilitiesfor using Bronze Age craniological materials as a historical source. Analysis is based on the measurements of the majority of published male skulls (more than 850) from the Bronze Age burial mounds located in the forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones of Eastern Europe, and from the burial grounds of Transcaucasia. Special attention is given to craniological samples from burials of Post-Catacomb cultures. To test his hypotheses, the author employs such methods as calculation of Mahalanobis distances, transformation of distance matrix into two-dimensional graphs using multidimensional scaling method, discriminant canonical analysis and the probabilistic method. Possibilities of different interpretations are shown for the results of statistical procedures and their dependence on archaeological data. Independence of some conclusions ensured by applying standard methods of physical anthropology is questioned. Changes in the composition of the steppe (Post-Catacomb) population that took place during the final stage of the Middle Bronze Age are recognized as the most extensive for the entire period of the Bronze Age.

Keywords: Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Bronze Age, post-catacomb cultures, craniology, physical anthropology, migration

Information about author:

Aleksey Kazarnitsky (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences. Universitetskaya Emb., 3, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation; Saint Petersburg State University. Universitetskaya Emb., 7/9, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation; Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Institutskaya St., 2/2, Pushchino, 142290, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]