Scholarly record

AN ÀNTHROPOLOGICAL MARKER FOR MIGRATIONS IN CATACOMB CULTURE ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEXES FROM THE LOWER VOLGA KURGAN CEMETERIES

A. N. Dyachenko, P. E. Vladimirovich

Abstract

The present paper analyses archaeological and anthropological materials of the Middle Bronze Catacomb culture found in kurgan cemeteries of the Lower Volga area. The specific features of the burial rite, artifacts and cranial pathologies are related to possible migrations of members of some Catacomb cultures from the territories of the North Caucasus, Caucasus and North Pontic area into the open steppes of the the Lower Volga region. Along with innovations in such areas as bronze metallurgy, ceramic production, transport and communications, members of the Catacomb population brought acquired physical pathologies and abnormalities, which can serve as markers of migrations. Some pathologies could be associated with ideological stereotypes and rules (for example, artificial cranial deformation or injuries caused during the initiation rite). Other pathologies found in skeletal remains of the Bronze Age representatives could have been acquired as a result of long living in extreme climatic and natural conditions. Such pathologies include auditory exostoses as a result of inflammatory processes in the ear canal. In the majority of cases this pathology is observed in male skeletons, mainly, in the Pre-Caucasian region, the Caucasus and the North Pontic region, that is in the mountains or near the mountains and in the seaside territories. In the Bronze Age burials of the Lower Volga area the cases of ear exostoses are extremely rare. They are absent in the preceding Yamnaya culture, in the Post-Catacomb epoch, Early Iron Age and in the Middle Ages. Therefore, ear exostoses can be used as a reliable marker of probable migrations of ancient people whose skeletons show this pathology. The researchers provide detailed characteristics of archaeological complexes that contain cases of ear exostoses, give cultural interpretation of such complexes and their chronology. They analyze causative factors of auditory exostoses and probable reasons why the disease carriers came to the Lower Volga steppes. One of the main reasons for the migration of Catacomb culture members was the environmental crisis that gripped vast territories of the Pre-Caucasus, Caucasus and North Pontic area in the second part of the 3rd – beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. This crisis eventually led to nomadic cattle-breeding in steppe areas.

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