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5. RESULTS OF AN INTEGRATIVE ANALYSIS OF METRIC AND NONMETRIC TRAITS IN CRANIA FROM THE MEDIEVAL CEMETRY AT MAMISONDON, NORTHERN CAUCASUS

RESULTS OF AN INTEGRATIVE ANALYSIS OF METRIC AND NONMETRIC TRAITS IN CRANIA FROM THE MEDIEVAL CEMETRY AT MAMISONDON, NORTHERN CAUCASUS

Berezina Natalia (1), Moiseev Viacheslav (2)

1) Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; 2) Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Berezina Natalia, e-mail: berezina.natalia@gmail.com.

Abstract

The paper focuses on the biological affinities of the medieval population of Mamisondon, the Alagir district, Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. Because the cultural affiliation of Mamisondon people is controversial, biological data can provide important information on the origin and population history of that group. We used data on two morphologically independent systems of traits: craniometric and cranial nonmetric. First, cranial measurements of medieval and modern groups from northern Eurasia including Mamisondon were subjected to canonical variate analysis (CVA) whereas frequencies of nonmetric characters of the same groups were subjected to the principal component analysis (PCA). Next the resulting CV and PC scores were treated as new traits and integrated using PCA. The results of both analyses, metric and nonmetric, are consistent despite the independence of both trait sets. The correlation coefficient between CV 1 and PC 1 reaches 0.9 and that between CV 2 and PC 2 equals 0.5. According to the results of both analyses, the Mamisondon people are autochthonous, possibly with some admixture from the Alans. Our data suggest that Adygeis are the most similar to Mamisondon people among the modern groups. The specific position of Mamisondon on CV 3 shows that random microevolutionary processes were an important factor in the population history of this group possibly due to its geographic isolation.

Keywords

North Caucasus, Alan Culture, Middle ages, craniometry, nonmetric cranial traits

Цит.: Berezina Natalia, Moiseev Viacheslav RESULTS OF AN INTEGRATIVE ANALYSIS OF METRIC AND NONMETRIC TRAITS IN CRANIA FROM THE MEDIEVAL CEMETRY AT MAMISONDON, NORTHERN CAUCASUS // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 3/2014; с. 66-67