Craniofacial variation of the Xiongnu Iron Age nomads of Mongolia reveals their possible origins and population history (original) (raw)
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Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 2024
In this paper, we present the results of the craniometric study of Afanasievo and Chemurchek (Khemtseg or Hemtseg) archaeological cultures from the territory of Mongolia. Male crania of the Afanasievo culture from the central regions of Mongolia are characterized by a proto-European complex of traits of Eastern European origin. Among the groups of the Afanasievo culture of south Siberia, they are most similar morphologically to the series of crania from the transboundary region of the southern Altai. For the first time, we analyzed the craniological materials of the Chemurchek culture from the Early Bronze Age in Western Mongolia. Our study revealed a significant morphological difference between the Chemurchek culture population and the earlier Afanasievo culture population of South Siberia and Central Asia. From an anthropological perspective, the Chemurchek culture population is characterized by Asian features. They share close similarities with the populations from the northern regions of Mongolia during the Neolithic period. Additionally, they also bear resemblance to the populations of Serovo and Glazkovo cultures from the Circumbaikal region during the Neolithic-Bronze Age periods. We have noticed a certain similarity in the physical characteristics of early Bronze Age populations from south Siberia and central Asia. This similarity may indicate a common ancestral background among these populations. The range of physical diversity among ancient populations in Mongolia encompasses the entire spectrum of variation seen in the northern part of Eurasia during the Neolithic and early Bronze Ages, concerning the main ethnic and genetic lineages of humankind.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2004
Numerous Bronze Age cemeteries in the oases surrounding the Täklamakan Desert of the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, western China, have yielded both mummified and skeletal human remains. A dearth of local antecedents, coupled with woolen textiles and the apparent Western physical appearance of the population, raised questions as to where these people came from. Two hypotheses have been offered by archaeologists to account for the origins of Bronze Age populations of the Tarim Basin. These are the “steppe hypothesis” and the “Bactrian oasis hypothesis.” Eight craniometric variables from 25 Aeneolithic and Bronze Age samples, comprising 1,353 adults from the Tarim Basin, the Russo-Kazakh steppe, southern China, Central Asia, Iran, and the Indus Valley, are compared to test which, if either, of these hypotheses are supported by the pattern of phenetic affinities possessed by Bronze Age inhabitants of the Tarim Basin. Craniometric differences between samples are compared with Mahalanobis generalized distance (d2), and patterns of phenetic affinity are assessed with two types of cluster analysis (the weighted pair average linkage method and the neighbor-joining method), multidimensional scaling, and principal coordinates analysis. Results obtained by this analysis provide little support for either the steppe hypothesis or the Bactrian oasis hypothesis. Rather, the pattern of phenetic affinities manifested by Bronze Age inhabitants of the Tarim Basin suggests the presence of a population of unknown origin within the Tarim Basin during the early Bronze Age. After 1200 B.C., this population experienced significant gene flow from highland populations of the Pamirs and Ferghana Valley. These highland populations may include those who later became known as the Saka and who may have served as “middlemen” facilitating contacts between East (Tarim Basin, China) and West (Bactria, Uzbekistan) along what later became known as the Great Silk Road. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.