Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
1) Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of History, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia; 2) Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mochovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia; 3) Department of Archeology and Ethnography, Faculty of History, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Mkrtchan R.A., e-mail: ruzantrop55@mail.ru; Vorontsova Elena L., PhD: ID ORCID: 0000-0002-7817-7274; elena.l.vorontsova@gmail.com; Simonyan H.G., e-mail: hassimonyan89@gmail.com.
The article represents the examination of a series of the Iron Age (IA) skulls retrieved from simultaneous collective burials located in the southwestern coast of the lake Sevan (Republic of Armenia). The examined monuments were grouped by three periods: 1. IA 1a (1150–1000 BC), Mrtbi-dzor and Kanagegh; 2. IA 1b (1000–800 BC), Hatsarat, Nerkin Getashen, Akunk, Norabak; 3. IA 2 (800–650 BC), Noratus and Geghovit. The series under study consists of 45 male and 43 female skulls; metric characteristics were carried out on standard craniometrical program. Basic statistics of the series were measured; also a multidimensional analysis was made using a method of the principal components based on a single covariance matrix. It was demonstrated that despite certain differences of statistical characteristics, the population of the southwestern coast of the lake Sevan was homogenous and was characterized by dolichocephalism taken with the medium width and length of the head, a high face of the medium width, orthognathic and clinognathic, with an outstanding nose and a massive lower jaw. On the plot of integral characteristics individuals may form layers as territorially they are very close and belong to the same lchashen-metsamor (etiuni) culture. However, in certain cases we have succeeded in revealing groupings of individuals by separate collective burials. The affinity of skulls retrieved from the same burial is characterized by a number of morphological characteristics closely located in a coordinate space of the main components and may be interpreted as a factor of kin relations of individuals buried in these burials. Temporal transformations of morphological characteristics revealed on this material and tending to gracilization may be a sign of the decreasing heterogeneity of the population allegedly occurred as a result of a long time persistence under the stable economic and cultural conditions in a relatively isolated urbanized environment.
anthropology; craniology; Iron Age; Sevan basin; collective burials; simultaneous burial rite
DOI: 10.32521/2074-8132.2017.4.091-106
Цит.: Mkrtchan R.A., Vorontsova E.L., Simonyan H.G. The People of Etiuni (the craniological aspect) // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2017; 4/2017; с. 91-106
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