Ancient Population of the Lower Volga Region According to Craniology and Anthropological Facial Sculptural Reconstruction from a Skull

Abstract

Human skulls study occupies a special place in anthropology due to a significant informational role of this part of the skeleton in determining both general (group) and individual features enabling restoration of individual physical topology and lifetime appearance. The paper provides the anthropological type description of the ancient population from the Lower Volga region according to the data of craniology and sculptural anthropological reconstruction of the face from the skull. In the course of the study, two female and two male skulls were craniologically analyzed using the typological approach. Sculptural anthropological reconstructions were obtained for three skulls: the two female and one male. Reconstruction of the external appearance of the face from the skull of the second male skull was carried out using a digital method. Anthropological type featuring of the two female skulls from the Srubna culture and the pre-Sauromatian time burials allows us to determine their type as a Long-headed Caucasoids, predominant among the Late Bronze Age population. The male skulls of the Early Iron Age are also characterized by Caucasoid features, but they have a brachycranial skull and a weakened horizontal profiling of the face. The presence of a long-headed Caucasoid complex on the female skull from the pre-Sauromatian burial, combined with a crouched on the left side funeral rite, suggests that the studied individuals had a partial continuity from the Bronze Age population. The morphological features of the Sauromatian and Early Sarmatian skulls have analogies in the synchronous population of Western Kazakhstan, Southern Urals and the Lower Volga region. Visualization of the bone structures of the facial skull gives an idea of how the population from the Lower Volga region looked like in different eras.