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5. The study of morphological variability of craniological series of burial Nerkin Getashen (Republic of Armenia)

The study of morphological variability of craniological series of burial Nerkin Getashen (Republic of Armenia)

Mkrtchan R.A. (1), Vorontsova E.L. (2)

1) Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of History, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia; 2) Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia

Mkrtchan R.A., e-mail: ruzantrop55@mail.ru; Vorontsova Elena L., Ph.D., ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7817-7274, e-mail: elena.l.vorontsova@gmail.com

Abstract

The aim of this work was the study of morphological variability of craniological series of burial Nerkin Getashen which is dated from the middle bronze age (MB) before the early iron (EI). The series under study consists of 48 male and 35 female skulls from Nerkin and Verin Getashen collective burials. Metric characteristics were carried out on standard craniometrical program and analized by principal component analysis (factor analysis) separately for different areas of the skull. There were two processes of changing of the cranial shape that was demonstrated from the example of Getashen burial from the middle bronze age to the early iron. One of these processes is mesocranization of the cerebral cranium as a consequence of flattening of the occipital part. Another process was the decreasing of the facial cranium as a result of reducing of its sizes and its flattening. Probably, these processes were based on polytypical tribal communities (burial number 21 and 28). The palate-alveolar region of the male skulls narrowed while ones of the female skulls expanded. Variability of the palate-alveolar region, of the frons, of the angle vertical profiling of the face and of the angle of the forehead were greater in the late bronze period than in middle bronze and early iron age. In some cases the skulls from separate burial occupy a common locus on a coordinate plane. Probably, this is result of the similarity of their genotypes that testify in favour of the related types of burial.

Keywords

anthropology, craniology, Armenia, bronze age, early iron age

Цит.: Mkrtchan R.A., Vorontsova E.L. The study of morphological variability of craniological series of burial Nerkin Getashen (Republic of Armenia) // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 1/2014; с. 57-73