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В 2018—2019 гг. на памятнике Самсы в Шу-Илейском междуречье раскопано пять курганов тюркского времени (VIII—X вв.). Всего изучено семь погребений: в четырех курганах обнаружены единичные катакомбные (№1, 3) и подбойные погребения с конем (№ 4, 17). В ещё одном кургане (№ 2) вскрыто два подбойных захоронения, совершённых по мусульманскому обычаю (VIII—X вв.) и одно позднее впускное. В первом захоронении (кург. 2) найдено довольно редкое бронзовое зеркало, ближайшие аналогии которому происходят с территории Тянь-Шаня и Согда. Результаты радиоуглеродного анализа, полученные находки и характер погребального обряда позволяют датировать курганы VIII—X вв. На основе краниологического анализа делается вывод о неоднородности населения, оставившего данный могильник. В серии присутствуют черепа, в облике которых фиксируются как европеоидные, так и монголоидные признаки. Особенности остеологической конституции позволяют отметить, что исследованные посткраниуумы, в целом, характеризуются «степным» морфологическим вариантом сложения. Различия в погребальных обрядах и физическом облике погребённых свидетельствуют об активных процессах смешивания монголоидного и европеоидного компонентов местных и пришлых этнических групп. Полученные данные дают информацию о разнотипном антропологическом составе людей, погребённых на памятнике Самсы, и их связях на основе погребального инвентаря с населением Тянь-Шаня, Согда и Тохаристана. Разнотипность антропологического состава тюрков связана с их смешиванием с представителями иных расовых типов на пути своего распространения, что подтверждается в работах других исследователей.

Based on paleogenetic analysis of anthropological remains from Denisova Cave in Altai Mountains, a previously unknown population of fossil people, the Denisovans, was discovered, and a complex picture of their interaction with Neanderthals was established. Currently, 17 skeletal remains of Paleolithic hominins discovered in the cave have been identified, and fragments of ancient human DNA have been isolated from its Pleistocene deposits. This work is devoted to the characteristics of the Denisova Cave inhabitants based on a comprehensive analysis of currently known paleoanthropological and paleogenetic data. We show that the oldest human remains in Altai were found in the basal deposits of the Denisova Cave. They belong to the Denisovans, hominins that share a common ancestor with Neanderthals but a different population history. The lower culture-bearing layers with finds from the initial stage of the Middle Paleolithic contain fragments of genomes that differ from the Denisovan genomes from the overlying sediments, indicating the existence of two different populations of Denisovans. The earliest evidence of the appearance of Neanderthals in Altai was also found in Denisova Cave. A complete genome sequence was isolated from the phalanx of the foot, which received the conditional name Altai Neanderthal. Between the populations of Neanderthals and Denisovans in Altai, there was a regular exchange of genetic material.

The Dmanisi specimens represent the most diverse contemporaneous hominin fossils found at one single site and are key in understanding the first out -of- Africa dispersal and the origins of Homo erectus. Due to these reasons, they have]e been the focus of many studies in paleoanthropology in the last 30 years. However, there has not been any consensus on how to classify these fossils, nor has it been clarified how many species were co-living at that site. In this article, we aim to revisit the subject and contribute further to the discussion.

The history of North Africa has been always tightly connected to events occurring in Eurasia. Human migrations in both directions are well-documented in written sources and archaeological records. To gain a comprehensive understanding of historical processes, it is essential to study the remains of individuals who inhabited this region during various time periods. A lack of cranial metric data on the Medieval population of North Africa impedes thorough investigation of the population history of the region. This paper presents a craniometric study of the sample from the Southern necropolis at Deraheib. This study contributes to filling the existing void in the understanding of the Medieval population of North Africa. According to written sources, the site was a center of gold mining, known as the city of al-Allaki, dated to the 9th to 15th centuries AD. The city attracted a diverse population seeking economic opportunities. Besides this, Al-Allaki served as an important point on the caravan route which was utilized by merchants and pilgrims traversing the Nubian Desert on their way to Jeddah. The study analyzes cranial metrics of a total of 23 individuals (14 male and 9 female) skulls recovered from the southern necropolis Deraheib sample and employs 55 linear dimensions, following Martin's/Howells craniometric protocol as well as some additional measurements. Statistical analyses were performed using the R language packages and the Multican software. Our results revealed heterogeneity of the sample in male and female parts of the sample at the intragroup level: an observation aligning with existing archaeological and historical evidence. The limited size of the sample warns against any firm conclusions regarding affinities of the Deraheib population. Our intergroup comparison has shown that the cranial sample from the Southern Necropolis of the Deraheib site displays morphological features that are more similar to neighboring Caucasoid populations rather than equatorial groups from East Africa.

The article deals with the paleoanthropological analysis of the skeletons unearthed from the Myntobe necropolis and dated to the II – IV centuries AD. Myntobe necropolis is located 2 km south of Gani Muratbayev village in the Keles district of Turkestan province. The burial ground consists of more than 600 randomly located mounds of various sizes. All mounds have a dirt embankment. Archaeological excavations were carried out at the burial ground in 2017 and 2022, as a result of which burials in the catacombs and naus were unearthed. An analysis of the burial tradition and recovered material allows researchers to speak about the belonging of these burials to the Kangli tribes. Since the burials date back to the Kangli period, the theoretical part reveals the issues of the location and political structure of the tribes and, most importantly, the determination of the paleopathology of the Myntobints by conducting a macroscopic analysis of the discovered skeletons. The results of the analysis allowed for drawing preliminary conclusions about lifestyle, social life, and nutritional status. When writing the theoretical part of the article, electronic textbooks and resources from the book fund of the National Library of Kazakhstan and the library of the International Kazakh-Turkish University named after Kozh Ahmet Yasawi were used. In total, 9 skeletons were selected for paleoanthropological and paleopathological analysis, from mounds No. 3, No. 6, and No. 7. Paleoanthropological reasoning in the main section is written on the basis of materials in Turkish and English from the collections of Turkish libraries. The skeletons found were analyzed macroscopically and many diseases were identified, such as osteoarthritis (joint deformity), osteopathy, ankylosing spondylitis, heel spurs, thickening of the cranial bone, and deformity of the mandibular joint. Preliminary conclusions about the paleopathology of the discovered skeletons are made.

The paper deals with the result of the theoretical and methodological research of scientific publications, dedicated to the paleoanthropological study of the Middle Bronze Age population of the Volga-Don steppes. The results of the analysis made it possible to establish the next: the methodological principles, prevailing in anthropological science, largely determined the specifics and conclusions of the research. In accordance with this, periodization of the historiography of the Catacomb culture of the Lower Volga region and adjacent territories was proposed, which includes two stages: morphotypological (1948–1964) and population-genetic (from 1964 to the present). The contribution of the Moscow and Leningrad anthropological schools to the development of the issues was evaluated. The works of Moscow anthropologists solved a dual problem: factual and methodological. The studies of Leningrad scientists were aimed at systematizing the material and developing issues of ethnic genesis. Analysis of modern historiography allowed us to identify the main trends in the study of the Catacomb culture. The methods of paleodemography, paleoecology, paleogenetics, etc. became an integral part of paleoanthropological studies. The basis of modern research remains the population-genetic race concept and the comprehensive study of anthropological material.

The article presents the results of osteometric research of small groups from the Permian Kama region, attributed to the period of Russian colonization (XVI–XVIII centuries). Mainly three groups are compared (the population of Solikamsk, the first settlers at the Yegoshikha copper-smelter works, the Pyskor monastery dwellers). Also, paleoanthropological data on the medieval population and somatological studies of the XIX–XX centuries in the Upper Kama region are used to compare body length. There is an extremely shortish and gracile "solikamsk" group with a feebly marked bone relief and low gender dimorphism of the skeleton. The specificity of this group is seen both in the absolute size of the postcranial skeleton long bones, and in some combined osteometric features: osteological lengths of hands and legs, a conditional index of the skeleton size, reconstructed body length, etc. The average body length of the representatives of the other groups (men) falls within the range of 161–164 cm.

Abstract Sahelanthropus tchadensis has raised much debate since its initial discovery in Chad in 2001, given its controversial classification as the earliest representative of the hominin lineage. This debate extends beyond the phylogenetic position of the species, and includes several aspects of its habitual behavior, especially in what regards its locomotion. The combination of ancestral and derived traits observed in the fossils associated with the species has been used to defend different hypotheses related to its relationship to hominins. Here, the cranial morphology of Sahelanthropus tchadensis was assessed through 16 linear craniometric measurements, and compared to great apes and hominins through Principal Component Analysis based on size and shape and shape information alone. The results show that S. tchadensis share stronger morphological affinities with hominins than with apes for both the analysis that include size information and the one that evaluates shape alone. Since TM 266-01-060-1 shows a strong morphological affinity with the remaining hominins represented in the analysis, our results support the initial interpretations that S. tchadensis represents an early specimen of our lineage or a stem basal lineage more closely related to hominins than to Panini.

The article presents paleoanthropological materials from the early period of the functioning of the Berel burial mound Pazyryk culture. The monument is located in Altai (Republic of Kazakhstan). The author presents craniological, odontological data and evidence of post-mortem manipulations with the bones of individuals from large mounds that belonged to people of high social status. The physical characteristics of the population represented in the burial mound find analogies both in the Pazyryk culture and among the population of the Saka cultures of Central Asia. The presence of a female skull with a Mongoloid appearance in mound 16 confirms already existing ideas about the participation of individuals with an eastern, Mongoloid appearance in the full life of the Pazyryk community. Post-mortem manipulations with bodies, traces of which are recorded on the skeletal remains of persons of high social status at the Berel burial mound, significantly complement the database for understanding the nuances of burial traditions associated with the artificial mummification of bodies. Farewell ceremonies in a nomadic lifestyle are not always possible in a short time. It can be assumed that the mummification of bodies was a preparatory stage for a complex and lengthy process of farewell traditions before the burial of the body in an arid climate.

The work contains the results of a comprehensive archaeological and paleoanthropological analysis of unique materials which were received at the beginning of the 20th century by the Kuban Museum (now the Krasnodar Territory Krasnodar State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve named after E.D. Felitsyn): fragments of the upholstery of a copper coffin, bronze parts of a saber sheath, iron arrowheads, a wooden comb, and an almost complete skeleton of a buried young man 25-35 years. This miraculously preserved collection comes from a predatory excavation of an underground military entombment next to the modern city of Krymsk. The grave goods, and the closest analogies to the finds and features of the burial rite, undoubtedly indicate the elite nature of the burial and allow us to date the complex to the second half of the 14th century. The analysis using the principal component method showed us a high similarity of the buried skull with materials which were found in the burials of the Aushedz, Karras and Glebovka entombments. This can indicate that the skull belonged to the sedentary population of the North-Western Caucasus – the direct ancestors of the modern Circassians or Abazas. The marks left by arrowheads on the vertebrae and the inside of the rib let us suggest that these injuries were the cause of the warrior’s death.

Animals collect and process the information they need to survive and reproduce. The means by which they process information is through the capacity of intelligence, which is in turn a function of the brain, its morphology, size, organization, and cytoarchitecture. While the internal organization and cellular interconnectivity of the brains of fossilized animals are invisible to paleontologists, the size and surface morphology of the brain are sometimes preserved, usually only in part, in the form of endocasts (casts, either natural or artificial, of the inside of the brain case). This broad survey of the evolution of intelligence in primates as interpreted from the fossil record of endocasts is primarily focused on the lineages that inform us more directly about the evolutionary events leading to the origin of human intelligence.

On Human and other Apes of the kind: Darwinism, Paleoanthropology and Archaeogenetics The affirmation and diffusion of darwinism in Europe coincides with the birth of paleoanthropology. This paper analyzes the interaction between these elements from a historical perspective, underlining on the one hand the relevance of paleoanthropology within the reception of Darwin’s theories at the time, and on the other hand, the importance of recent discoveries in the field of human evolution, stemming from the so-called “Revolution of ancient DNA”. The fall of all anthropological models, brought forward by the implementation of archaeogenetics, opens a new season in the study of humanity’s deep past: the human “family tree” has been chopped down, and in its place, an unexpected and more complex scenario seems to unravel.

This study presents an exceptional collection of 54 Late Pleistocene human remains that correspond to at least three Neanderthal individuals from Simanya Gran, the main gallery of Cova Simanya, located in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. The collection comprised 53 unpublished remains that were unearthed during the 1970s and an additional tooth discovered during 2021 excavations. The specimens represent an adult with a small stature, a periadolescent aged approximately 11.5 years, and an immature individual aged approximately 7.7 years, thus offering a more complete demographic perspective. The collection encompasses diverse anatomical parts including upper and lower dentition, mandible, vertebrae, and limb bones from both the upper and lower extremities. Attempts to extract aDNA were unsuccessful. Renewed archaeological investigations at Cova Simanya have facilitated the reevaluation of the original stratigraphic context of these remains, leading to the discovery of the additional tooth, aligning with the periadolescent individual. This assemblage is currently the most extensive Neanderthal collection from the northeastern Mediterranean Iberia, offering invaluable insights into the morphology and evolutionary trajectory of Late Pleistocene hominins. Hence, Simanya Neanderthals will enhance our understanding of Neanderthal demographics and evolution, paving the way for an in-depth examination of the morphological diversity and evolutionary context of Iberian Neanderthals.

The prehistoric cultural sites of Sanya have important natural and humanistic scientific values, being the source of Hainan′s marine culture. The "Luobi Cave Site" → "Xianlang Cave Site" → "Yingdun Site" shows the development process of Sanya′s prehistoric humans living to the sea. Based on the systematically collected and sorted out prehistoric archaeological data of Hainan Province, this paper sorted out the research of Sanya′s prehistoric cultural sites from the perspective of the "Belt and Road Initiative", excavated their cultural connotation and core values, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions for the protection, development and utilization of prehistoric cultural heritage, so as to meet the needs of Hainan to build the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" culture, and also provided reference for related academic research and the inheritance, protection and value dissemination of cultural heritage.

Hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI) is a pathological condition characterized by bilateral thickening of the inner surface of the frontal bone. HFI is often an incidental finding during routine clinical examinations of patients by computed tomography. The etiology of the condition is currently unknown, but HFI commonly appears with a number of metabolic disorders and hormonal dysfunctions. According to studies, hyperostosis frontalis interna is more common in women than in men. Frequency of HFI is increasing in the modern population. In this study, 195 CT scans of mature individuals of various sex and ages were analyzed using the Amira 2020.1 software: 145 CT scans of skulls from from the collections of the Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Moscow State University and 50 CT scans of Israeli Bedouins from the Institute's exchange collection (with the University of Tel-Aviv, Israel). Nine cases of hyperostosis frontalis interna (5 in males and 4 in females) were found among the analyzed scans. A three-step algorithm for identifying HFI was generated, as well as criteria for distinguishing hyperostosis frontalis interna from other endocranial bony overgrowths. The integrity of the skull, the condition of the frontal bone and other skull bones should be evaluated to exclude diffuse pathological changes which are morphologically close to HFI. Also a researcher should pay attention to the localization of the growths, their boundaries and prevalence. The condition of the diploe and endocranial plate of the frontal bone should be evaluated and compared it with other layers in other bones of the skull on 2D slices. Evaluation of the relief of the internal surface of the frontal bone should be performed on 2D slices in different sections. The pathology should be distinguished using data of localization, prevalence, involvement of other bone structures of the skull, as well as the condition of the diploe and inner surface of the frontal bone. The method can be useful for a comparative study using morphological and radiological criteria, which will help to exclude doubtful cases during analyzing pathology on paleoanthropological material.

The aim of this paper is to perform a tourist assessment of the representative speleoarchaeological geoheritage in Serbia for the purposes of establishing new cave tourism destinations in Serbia. Seven caves have been selected based on their speleoarcheological values. However, only two of them are currently available for visiting. The research results were obtained by using the M-GAM model and they indicate exceptional tourist potential which still remains mainly untapped. To maximize this potential and develop this type of tourism in the future, an initiative strategy for the inclusion of speleoarchaeological values into contemporary tourism flows was also proposed. The focus is set on the establishment of speleoarchaeological visitor centers and a unique tourist affirmation of the researched scientific and educational potential. The presented strategy must be set as a priority in the future in order to contribute to further sustainability of scientific and socio-economic progress through speleotourism development.

The paper presents the results of the anthropological study of a mass grave located in the grounds of the kremlin of Pereslavl-Zalessky (European Russia). It has been preliminary dated to the 13th — first half of the 14th century. This study is aimed at craniological investigation and establishing anthropological connections of the Medieval population of Pereslavl-Zalessky, as well as clarification of the circumstances of appearance of the mass burial within the town territory with the aid of anthropological methods. The human remains were analyzed to identify the number of individuals and to determine their sex and age. Determination of sex and age and recording of injuries were carried out on the craniological material. The craniological program was used to study 28 male and 16 female skulls. A canonical discriminant analysis was used for the intergroup analysis. The mass burial contained separated bones of 80 adults and 19 children. It was possible to identify 30 males and 24 females. The male component of the group was represented by virtually all age groups. The female part comprised mainly women aged 20–35. Therefore, the interred were placed in the grave spontaneously, considerably later after their death; the bodies had time to decompose completely. Eleven instances of skull injuries without signs of necrotic process and healing were recorded. The location and characteristics of the burial and presence of several instances of fatal lacerated wounds indicate that the city residents died in the course of a military clash. Therefore, the studied series represents a time slice of the population of the medieval city. The canonical discriminant analysis on the craniological series of 53 revealed that the studied series is distinct from the territorially and chronologically close series of Yaroslavl and Kostroma Krivichs. It also showed that the formation of the population of Pereslavl-Zalessky was strongly influenced by the migration of the Ilmen Slovens and Smolensk-Polotsk Krivichs. Among the specifics of the Pereslavl series, also noteworthy is the strong influence of southern Russian migrants. On the contrary, the influence of the Finno-Ugric morphological component on the urban population of the 13th–14th centuries was very insignificant.

This study was based on the material of two anthropological series originating from the territory of the kurgan cemetery sites at Volna 1 and the Starokorsunskaya settlement 2. Volna 1 is located 10 km from the village of Taman, and according to archaeologists, it could have been a previously unknown Greek Apoykia. To this date, the excavations of the monument have been fully completed, which gives us the opportunity to speak with confidence that 6th–2nd centuries BC is the period it dates back to. The second kurgan cemetery we examined belongs to Starokorsunskaya settlement No. 2 located 6 km from the village. The settlement and the adjacent necropolis have been studied by the Krasnodar archaeological expedition for almost 35 years, as a result we have an extensive anthropological collection, and a part of it became the subject of our study. The monument dates back to the period of 6th century BC – 3rd century AD and is considered to be a reference one of the largest Meotian settlements in the Kuban region. Both sites are characterized by poor preservation of bone tissue and strong skeletons fragmentation. In spite of that, we used the craniophenetic program and studied 81 skulls obtained during excavations of Volna 1 and 60 skulls from the Starokorsunskaya settlement. As a result of pairwise intragroup comparison using the chi-square of the two population groups of Volna 1 6th–4th centuries BC and 4th–2nd centuries BC we cannot speak of a statistically significant difference. When comparing the two sample population groups from Volna 1 and the Meots from the Starokorsunskaya settlement No. 2, a high similarity of the inhabitants of the Black Sea territories with the Meotes from the Kuban region was noted. Probably, this allows us to assume predominance of Meotian groups in Volna 1 population.

The paper presents the results of study the series of skulls obtained during archaeological excavations at Chekups-2 settlement. Except for the skulls themselves, no mandibles or cervical vertebrae were found. The entire collection originates from a utility pit and was handed over to the author for paleoanthropological analysis. First of all, during the study, traces of destruction were noted, which can be interpreted as a result of exposure. A total 20 skulls feature traces of trauma, mainly located in the occipital bone and the back of the parietal bones. Some of the recorded injuries were aimed not at instant death, but at ritual actions associated with cutting off fragments of the scalp with the bone plate and part of the hair. As a result of a gender and age study, it was ascertained that most of the skulls belonged to men who died in different age intervals from 25 to 55. Children and adolescents were also present as the study sample. The youngest child was 7-10 years old at the time of death, and the skulls of adolescents aged 10-14 and 13-18 are also present. It remains unknown who the people whose skulls became the object of the study were, and in what time period the burial was performed. Nevertheless, the complex itself and the ritual manipulations performed with the skulls, arouse interest and require further consideration.

The article examines the anthropological materials of the Scythian time, obtained as a result of the latest research on the hillforts and settlements of the forest-steppe Don region. The analyzed selection includes 15 relatively intact or partially destroyed human skeletons, as well as scattered remains of six individuals. The finds come from two settlements of the Upper Don (Verkhnee Kazach'e and Semiluki) and the Middle Don settlement 2 near the Titchikha farm. The use of a complex of anthropological methods made it possible to illuminate different aspects of the life of these people. As a result of the work, information was obtained on stress markers and a number of pathologies recorded on the bones. In general, the overall level of physical activity is regarded as average, and the effect of physiological stress was small. A number of changes in the teeth made it possible to make an assumption about the low culture of oral hygiene, as well as about the peculiarities of the diet, which included viscous and, probably, high-protein foods. Attention is drawn to the unusualness and abnormality of both age and sex cohorts of people buried here. Among them were found mainly the remains of men about 50 years old, as well as several burials of children and adolescents. There were no female burials. It was possible to reconstruct the appearance of two people, as well as the height of four individuals, which was about 170 cm. Despite the fact that the work considers a small number of burials, nevertheless, it introduces into circulation new data for the discussion about the picture of the formation of the population of the forest-steppe Don region in the Scythian time.

Human carnivory is atypical among primates. Unlike chimpanzees and bonobos, who are known to hunt smaller monkeys and eat them immediately, human foragers often cooperate to kill large animals and transport them to a safe location to be shared. While it is known that meat became an important part of the hominin diet around 2.6–2 Mya, whether intense cooperation and food sharing developed in conjunction with the regular intake of meat remains unresolved. A widespread assumption is that early hominins acquired animal protein through klepto-parasitism at felid kills. This should be testable by detecting felid-specific bone modifications and tooth marks on carcasses consumed by hominins. Here, deep learning (DL) computer vision was used to identify agency through the analysis of tooth pits and scores on bones recovered from the Early Pleistocene site of DS (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge). We present the first objective evidence of primary access to meat by hominins 1.8 Mya by showing that the most common securely detectable bone-modifying fissipeds at the site were hyenas. The absence of felid modifications in most of the carcasses analyzed indicates that hominins were the primary consumers of most animals accumulated at the site, with hyenas intervening at the post-depositional stage. This underscores the role of hominins as a prominent part of the early Pleistocene African carnivore guild. It also stresses the major (and potentially regular) role that meat played in the diet that configured the emergence of early Homo.

Palaeobiological and archeological excavations at the site of Ewass Oldupa, found in the western Plio-Pleistocene rift basin of Oldupai Gorge (also Olduvai Gorge), Tanzania, revealed rich fossiliferous levels and the earliest remains of human activity at Oldupai Gorge, dated to 2 million years ago. This paper provides zooarchaeological taxonomic, taphonomic, and behavioral analyses, applying several methods to explore the setting in which the assemblage was formed. We identified agency behind bone surface modifications, such as cut, tooth and percussion marks, and determined the frequency of carnivore tooth marks as well as their distribution on both discrete specimens and across species. In addition, our work revealed co-occurrence of modifications to include butchering marks and carnivore tooth marks. Ravaging levels were estimated as percentage. The faunal accumulation from Ewass Oldupa contains two cut marked specimens, together with low degrees of percussion and carnivore tooth marks, moderate ravaging, and diagenetic changes suggestive of water flow. Thus, multiple lines of evidence indicate a palimpsest accumulation. Taxonomic diversity is high, with up to 22 taxa representing diverse habitats, ranging from open grassland to wooded bushlands, as well as moist mosaics during Bed I. Overall, this archaeo-faunal assemblage speaks to increased behavioral versatility among Oldowan hominins and interactions with the carnivore guild.

We provide an extension of the Savanna perceptual preference hypothesis (“Savanna Hypothesis”), supposing that interaction with landscapes offering survival advantage for human groups during evolution might have gradually evolved to permanent landscape preferences. This additional support is based on the palaeoenvironmental analysis of the spread of modern humans into Europe in the late Pleistocene and their living environments there. Our hypothesis is that the preference for park-like landscapes after African savannas experienced a kind of “refreshment” in the Pleistocene. Thus, preferences for certain types of natural settings and scenes may have a more continuous evolutionary history than previously thought. The extended Savanna Hypothesis termed “Pleistocene Hypothesis” might stimulate further work on this important topic linking human evolution and human environmental preferences.

The research of the features of variant anatomy, as an integral part of paleoanthropological exploration, is an extremely important source of additional information about the anatomical structure of humans. Рatterns of variability and frequency distribution of discrete variational features in variant anatomy remain important. Cranioscopic variational (or non-metric) features - anatomical variations in the skeleton structure, registered according to the “presence-absence” principle, are an important source of information in studying the origin and ethnogenetic relationships of paleopopulations. These features include inconstant (additional) skull bones. By modern classification, there are three types of inconstant bones of the human skull: wormian (sutural) bones, fontanelle bones and insular bones. They have various causes: genetic factors, chronic high intracranial pressure, skull deformation, disturbances of the skull symmetry, different pathological processes, etc. The purpose of the work was to research the variant anatomy of inconstant bones of the human skull. The objective to research is the variant anatomy of inconstant skull bones of the human on the anthropological materials from the Scythian grave field. It located near Kolomak village in the Kharkiv region and dates back to IX – IV century BC. The 88 skulls of adult persons has been researched. The inconstant additional bones of skull were present in the structures of 16 skulls out of 88 (18.1%). Results. The sutural (wormian) bones were present in 12 skulls (13.6%), fontanelle bones – in 6 skulls (6.8%), insular bones were absent. In the anatomical structures of 10 skulls (11.4%) were only wormian bones, in 4 skulls (4.5%) were only fontanelle bones, in the structures of 2 skulls (2.3%) were combination of sutural and fontanelle additional bones. Often the inconstant bones were located in several sutures at the same time. The most common sutural bones were lambdoid suture bones - 9 skulls (10.2%). The inconstant bones of the coronal suture and sagittal suture were found in 2 skulls (2.3%). The additional bones of the occipital-mastoid, parietal-mastoid and squamosal sutures were absent on the examined osteological materials. The fontanelle bones most often located at the place of the occipital fontanellele and they were present in 4 skulls (4.5%). The additional fontanelle bones of the mastoid fontanellele were found in 2 skulls (2.3%). The frontal fontanelle bone was in 1 skull (1.1%). The additional fontanelle bones of the sphenoid fontanellele and interparietal bones were not found in the researched skulls. Conclusion. It is interesting to consider the case of combination in one skull a large inconstant bone of the sagittal suture with complete metopic (frontal) suture and occipital bone of sufficiently large size. The results of the research expanded and updated the existing data on the variant anatomy of inconstant cranial bones. Also, the results obtained maybe required in the further research of individual variability in the structure of the human’s skull.

The present paper represents an anthropological study performed on a sample of 79 skeletons, originated from inhumation tombs and reburials, discovered in the necropolis of Aroneanu Monastery of Iași (Iași county, Romania). The necropolis, dating from the 16th-19th centuries, was discovered in 2014. After estimating the age at death and sex, followed by metric data analysis, a typological and paleodemographic study was done. Most skeletons were recorded in the maturus category (59.49%), followed by infans I and II (21.52%), adultus (11.39%), senilis (5.06%) and juvenis (2.53%). The estimated average lifespan for the entire sample subjected to study (0–x years) is 37.07 years, while the values recorded for sex (20-x years) were of 47.73 years in male and 41.97 years in female subjects, respectively. Distribution by sex categories indicates a higher masculinity index. Typologically, the skeletal sample analysed corresponds to the general tendency of population mixture in the medieval period. Thus, we observed the predominance of the Mediterranido-Dynaric elements, to which Alpinoid and Nordoid influences were added.

Abstract Texas is home to four of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. As would be expected, several large universities in Texas, public and private, offer courses in which the topic of human evolution is covered. What might be more surprising to some, given the politics of the state, is that two major Texas public museums (the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas) display substantial human evolution content. Here I review content related to human evolution in five major science museums in Texas and explore the reasons for the differences among these museums. Among the most important factors are money, museum location, museum history and mission, and what can be called “intentionality.” Unsurprisingly, if we want to see more human evolution museum displays, we must convince museum administrators that adding this content is consistent with their mission and will attract more visitors. We (and our students) can, in addition, be more proactive in reaching out to our local museums.

The Early Pleistocene was a critical time period in the evolution of eastern African mammal faunas, but fossil assemblages sampling this interval are poorly known from Ethiopia’s Afar Depression. Field work by the Hadar Research Project in the Busidima Formation exposures (~2.7–0.8 Ma) of Hadar in the lower Awash Valley, resulted in the recovery of an early Homo maxilla (A.L. 666-1) with associated stone tools and fauna from the Maka’amitalu basin in the 1990s. These assemblages are dated to ~2.35 Ma by the Bouroukie Tuff 3 (BKT-3). Continued work by the Hadar Research Project over the last two decades has greatly expanded the faunal collection. Here, we provide a comprehensive account of the Maka’amitalu large mammals (Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Primates, and Proboscidea) and discuss their paleoecological and biochronological significance. The size of the Maka’amitalu assemblage is small compared to those from the Hadar Formation (3.45–2.95 Ma) and Ledi-Geraru (2.8–2.6 Ma) but includes at least 20 taxa. Bovids, suids, and Theropithecus are common in terms of both species richness and abundance, whereas carnivorans, equids, and megaherbivores are rare. While the taxonomic composition of the Maka’amitalu fauna indicates significant species turnover from the Hadar Formation and Ledi-Geraru deposits, turnover seems to have occurred at a constant rate through time as taxonomic dissimilarity between adjacent fossil assemblages is strongly predicted by their age difference. A similar pattern characterizes functional ecological turnover, with only subtle changes in dietary proportions, body size proportions, and bovid abundances across the composite lower Awash sequence. Biochronological comparisons with other sites in eastern Africa suggest that the taxa recovered from the Maka’amitalu are broadly consistent with the reported age of the BKT-3 tuff. Considering the age of BKT-3 and biochronology, a range of 2.4–1.9 Ma is most likely for the faunal assemblage.

How do we know that we can trust our viewpoints, our dogmatic principles and our religious convictions to constitute veracity, if not truth? Where can an arbiter be found for our deliberations to establish the trustworthiness of our viewpoints or belief systems, when we differ one from the other on religious matters, and in the context of religious conviction also differ in political and social endeavours? Van Huyssteen deserves commendation for his contribution to this discourse in developing the concept of a postfoundationalist epistemology in an attempt to justify theology’s integrity, and endorse theology’s public voice within our highly complex and challenging world. He suggests that the concept of human uniqueness might be the common denominator in the contributions of theology (in its specific understanding of the unique status of humans in God’s creation) and science (in its understanding of the unique stature of Homo sapiens in terms of biological evolution). However, the author, in this article, argues that given the radically diverse disciplines of science in our highly developed technological – and indeed within our current Covid-dominated context (on the one hand) and the pre-scientific context of religion (on the other hand), it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine how it can remain possible to find something like a common issue, a shared problem, a kind of mutual concern or even a shared overlapping research trajectory that might benefit precisely from this envisaged interdisciplinary dialogue. Is it possible that ‘alone in this world’ could mean something different than what Van Huyssteen suggests? Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: How do we know that we can trust our viewpoints, and our religious convictions to constitute truth? Van Huyssteen develops the concept of a postfoundationalist epistemology in an attempt to justify theology’s integrity within the discourse with science. However, the author in this article argues that it has become increasingly difficult for systematic theology to find a shared overlapping research trajectory that might benefit this interdisciplinary dialogue.

Adaptations of the lower back to bipedalism are frequently discussed but infrequently demonstrated in early fossil hominins. Newly discovered lumbar vertebrae contribute to a near-complete lower back of Malapa Hominin 2 (MH2), offering additional insights into posture and locomotion in Australopithecus sediba. We show that MH2 possessed a lower back consistent with lumbar lordosis and other adaptations to bipedalism, including an increase in the width of intervertebral articular facets from the upper to lower lumbar column (‘pyramidal configuration’). These results contrast with some recent work on lordosis in fossil hominins, where MH2 was argued to demonstrate no appreciable lordosis (‘hypolordosis’) similar to Neandertals. Our three-dimensional geometric morphometric (3D GM) analyses show that MH2’s nearly complete middle lumbar vertebra is human-like in overall shape but its vertebral body is somewhat intermediate in shape between modern humans and great apes. Additionally, it bears long, cranially and ventrally oriented costal (transverse) processes, implying powerful trunk musculature. We interpret this combination of features to indicate that A. sediba used its lower back in both bipedal and arboreal positional behaviors, as previously suggested based on multiple lines of evidence from other parts of the skeleton and reconstructed paleobiology of A. sediba.

The present article studies the craniofacial morphology of human skulls uncovered from Neolithic-Eneolithic burials (5–4 millennia BC) in the Middle Irtysh basin. The obtained skulls belong to four archaeological sites: Omsk site and Ust-Kurenga in the forest/forest-steppe zone of Russia, as well as Shiderty-3 and Zhelezinka in the steppe zone of North-East Kazakhstan. In order to study these materials, we performed craniometric analysis and an intergroup comparison drawing on the calculation of the Mahalanobis-Rao’s generalised distances (D2) along with using the craniological materials of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic periods from Central Eurasia. In addition, the intravital appearance of an individual from Zhelezinka was restored on the basis of the skull employ-ing the method of M. Gerasimov. In general, the anthropological type of the Neolithic-Eneolithic population from the Middle Irtysh area exhibits intermediate Caucasoid-Mongoloid craniological characteristics. Of the synchro-nous groups, male individuals from the Middle Irtysh area share the greatest similarity with the population of the Altai foothill-plain zone. An earlier study revealed that, in terms of morphological characteristics, the only female skull from the Omsk site is most similar to Mesolithic-Neolithic craniological materials uncovered from the Shigir Peat Site (Urals). The Neolithic-Eneolithic population from the Middle Irtysh area is characterised by heterogene-ous anthropological composition, which is predetermined by its belonging to different landscape zones. The struc-ture of skulls obtained from the forest/forest-steppe zone of the Middle Irtysh area generally corresponds to that of populations associated with the Northern Eurasian Anthropological Formation, with the possibility of exhibiting considerable individual variability. The greatest morphological analogies can be drawn with the Neolithic-Eneolithic human skulls from the Baraba forest-steppe, as well as other forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia. In terms of craniofacial characteristics, paleoanthropological finds from the steppe strip of the Middle Irtysh area belong to the Southern Eurasian Anthropological Formation of the ancient Central Eurasian population. This allows us to demarcate anthropological communities (not differentiated from the perspective of traditional racial systematics), which share intermediate Caucasoid-Mongoloid features in the structure of the facial skull, with differences being detected mainly in the size and proportions of the cavitas cranium. In the forest-steppe of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve, the interaction between populations exhibiting craniological characteristics of Northern Eurasian and Southern Eurasian anthropological formations is noted. The anthropological type of Neolithic-Eneolithic population from the Middle Irtysh area did not affect the morphological appearance of the population belonging to the subsequent period — time of the Yamnaya and Afanasyevo cultures. The burials of this period in East and Central Kazakhstan were probably left during the migration of population groups from the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Eastern Europe to South Siberia and Central Asia. People buried there are distinguished by strongly developed Caucasoid craniological features and belong to the proto-Caucasoid anthropological type, which is typical for the populations of the Yamnaya and Afanasyevo cultures of Eastern Europe and Southern Siberia. Aside from the studied skulls from Shiderty-3 and Zhelezinka, no craniological materials from the periods preceding that of the Yamnaya and Afanasyevo cultures have been uncovered in the steppe zone of Kazakhstan. New paleoanthropological material is required for solving the issues pertaining to racial-genetic relationships between the populations of these regions in the Pre-Bronze Age. The study also revealed a discrepancy between the cultural and anthropological differentiation of the ancient Neolithic-Eneolithic population from the Middle Irtysh region, which archaeologically belongs to one cultural community from the Middle Irtysh area (Ekaterinovka), whereas anthropo-logically it is associated with to two large racial-genetic communities from the central regions of North Eurasia.

Adam’s Ancestors. Paleoanthropology and Spiritualism in the beginning of 20th century The present article focuses on the scholars who in the first decades of 20th century investigated the origin of Mankind, but they did not admit the value of Darwinian theory and cultivated spiritualistic views. Among them, the central personality was Robert Broom, who discovered in Africa the remains of a large number of Australopithecinae. Broom was convinced of the existence of a Superior Plan in history of nature and that Man was the goal of Evolution. His conception was not far from Bergson’s Évolution créatrice and it was inspired by Alfred R. Wallace’s spiritualistic opinions. Paradoxically, the paleoanthropological results reached by Broom were denied by many colleagues, who had an undeclared timor simiae – that means they dislike and loathed the possibility that Man and Apes had a connected evolution. This attitude convinced many scholars, such as Keith, Osborn, Sollas, Leakey, to believe in the authenticity of the finding of Piltdown Man (1912). About the Piltdown Man, both Wallace and Broom did not join the general enthusiasm. They were right, because in the Fifties the Piltdown Man was demonstrated a gigantic forgery. Today, we know – as Darwin hypothesized – that a few million years ago the African savannah was populated by some species of hominids, and we evolved from one of them.

This article presents results of a comprehensive study of paleoanthropological materials from the Buchta Nakhodka 2 burial on the Yamal peninsula (Yamalsky district, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, Tyumen region, Russia). Morphological features of the skulls indicate their belonging to the Eastern-Mongoloid anthropological formation. However, in terms of the nasal bridge structure, they also belong to the Western Caucasoid population. The results of a study using the methods of multivariate statistics show that, despite a high individual variability characteristic of the modern species of Homo sapiens, the range of variability observed in the materials from the Buchta Nakhodka and Yumadoto burial grounds is within the scope of the intergroup variability typical of the North Samoyedic peoples. On this basis, a more representative sample of this ethnic group has been formed, which is taxonomically included in the Yamalo-Enisey group of populations of the West-Siberian anthropological formation. An interesting feature of the studied materials consists in the archaic structure of the lower premolars and the vestibular protuberance of the medial incisors, which are markers of an archaic character. Appearance of the population having lived in Yamal at that time is clearly shown via the facial reconstruction based on crania.

The paper contains information on the conduct of the interdisciplinary seminar “Archaeobiological Studies in Bolgar and in the Settlements of the Golden Horde: Issues and Prospects”. The seminar was held on April 10–14, 2019 at the International Center for Archaeological Research of the Institute of Archaeology named after A.Kh. Khalikov of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences in Bolgar (Spassky District, Republic of Tatarstan). The event was attended by over 30 archaeologists and archaeobiologists from Russia, Moldova and Romania. The purpose of the event was to demonstrate the new possibilities of using archaeobiological materials as an archaeological source for the reconstruction of human development of natural resources and the specific features of life subsistence systems using the example of the Bolgar town and other settlement monuments of the Golden Horde. The seminar featured 16 reports within the framework of 5 thematic sessions: archaeobotany, palynology, archaeological wood research, archaeozoology and paleoanthropology. The event resulted was the establishment of productive cooperation of archaeobiologists from all fields of expertise with each other, as well as with archaeologists. For the first time in Russia, the participants familiarized with and discussed the results of archaeobiological studies in the chronological and territorial aspects of a single cultural and historical community, in this case a large medieval state of the Golden Horde.

Introduction. This work is a review of scientific publications on studying paleoanthropological materials of the Bronze Age originating from burial mounds of the Lower Volga region. Materials and Analysis. The paper begins with the analysis of articles and monographic studies of domestic authors, whose works were written in the period from the 30s to the late 80s of the 20th century. The so-called Soviet period in Russian anthropology is characterized by the dominance of the individual-typological approach in describing skeletal series of representatives of the Bronze Age cultures. The osteological collections from burial complexes of the Bronze Age of the Lower Volga region accumulated at this stage of the study were distinguished by a small number and low representativeness. The main conclusions were based on studying craniological samples. A great contribution to developing ideas on the racial and ethnic history of the Lower Volga region during this period was made by researchers G.F. Debets, V.V. Gizburg, V.I. Vuich, B.V. Firshtein, A.V. Shevchenko. The second part of the article is devoted to analyzing the results of anthropological research in the region in the works of modern Russian scientists.A distinctive feature of these works is that they are based on studying large-scale craniological series of broad temporal and territorial coverage. The studies of such scientists as A.A. Khokhlov, E.F. Batieva, A.A. Kazarnitsky, M.A. Balabanova use the complex approach in which classical methods of physical anthropology (craniology, osteology) are combined with the methods of statistical analysis and using data from Archaeology, Paleodemography, and Paleoecology. Results. The work shows the importance of using anthropological data as an independent source in paleohistorical constructions, as well as in the process of the archaeological study of various cultures of the Bronze Age that existed in the Lower Volga region.

Ancient DNA from, Neandertal and modern human fossils, and comparative morphological analyses of them, reveal a complex history of interbreeding between these lineages and the introgression of Neandertal genes into modern human genomes. Despite substantial increases in our knowledge of these events, the timing and geographic location of hybridization events remain unclear. Six measures of facial size and shape, from regional samples of Neandertals and early modern humans, were used in a multivariate exploratory analysis to try to identify regions in which early modern human facial morphology was more similar to that of Neandertals, which might thus represent regions of greater introgression of Neandertal genes. The results of canonical variates analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis suggest important affinities in facial morphology between both Middle and Upper Paleolithic early modern humans of the Near East with Neandertals, highlighting the importance of this region for interbreeding between the two lineages.

There are a myriad of laws, guidelines and unwritten agreements relating to human, hominid and hominin remains. Legal gaps and inadequate definitions of what constitutes a fossil have meant that a ‘finders keepers’ approach is often applied to the ownership and control of our ancestors' remains. Such shortcomings expose numerous legal and ethical conundrums. Should any one organisation, individual or government control access to recently-found remains, limiting opportunities to unlock the secrets of evolution? Given that humans can start fossilisation processes immediately after burial, at what point does it become appropriate to dig up their remains? And who should control access to them? Could any prehistoric Homo ever have imagined they would one day be exhumed and their remains laid out in cases as the centrepiece of a museum exhibit? This paper surveys a number of implications that arise from these foundational questions, and ultimately challenges the belief that human, hominin and hominid remains are self-evident ‘objects’ capable of clear ownership: rather they constitute creative cultural intersections, which are deserving of greater ethical consideration. Protocols for respecting, protecting and conserving remains while allowing a greater equity in access to information about our common ancestors are both desirable and urgently required.

The internal structure of the bones and teeth of extinct primates holds a significant amount of valuable paleobiological information for assessing taxonomy, phylogenetic relationships, functional, dietary and ecological adaptive strategies, and reconstructing overall evolutionary history. Technologies based on X-ray microfocus (X-μCT) and synchrotron radiation (SR-μCT) microtomography are increasingly used to non-invasively and non-destructively investigate the endostructural properties of fossil mineralized tissues. However, depending on the taphonomic dynamics that affected the specimens following deposition, and on the nature of diagenetic processes, X-μCT and even SR-μCT may provide only faint or no contrast between the mineralized tissues, thus complicating or inhibiting the study of structural features. Using a diverse sample of dentognathic hominid specimens from continental Asia, East Africa and Indonesia, chronologically ranging from the Late Miocene to the Early Middle Pleistocene, we present examples of the successful application of another imaging technology, neutron microtomography (n-μCT), for the extraction, 3D rendering and quantitative assessment of internal morphological detail. The specimens were scanned at the ANTARES Imaging facility (SR4a beamline) at the FRM II reactor of the Technical University of Munich, Germany, at energies ranging from 3 to 25 meV. The datasets were reconstructed with a voxel size from 20 to 27 μm, i.e., at resolutions directly comparable to the X-ray-based microtomographic records commonly used in paleobiological studies of fossil primate remains. Our analyses focused on a mandible, SNSB-BSPG 1939 X 4, representing the Late Miocene hominid Sivapithecus from the Siwaliks of Pakistan; the early Pleistocene (Gelasian) partial mandible HCRP-U18-501 from Malawi, among the earliest specimens attributed to the genus Homo; and an assemblage of hominid dentognathic specimens from the Early Middle Pleistocene deposits of the Sangiran Dome, Indonesia. While X-ray-based imaging revealed from low to moderate internal contrasts for the specimen of Sivapithecus, or from extremely poor to virtually no contrast for the Pleistocene remains from East Africa and Indonesia, the application of n-μCT produced sufficient differences in contrast to distinguish between tooth tissues on the one hand, and between cortical and trabecular bone on the other, thus enabling reliable qualitative and quantitative assessments of their characteristics.

This paper is aimed at scrutinizing the dependence between the morphological features of the Eneolithic — Early Bronze population and the geographical and bioclimatic conditions in the Altai valleys and intermountain basins. Across the territory of the Altai highlands, we have identified several local-territorial groups of archaeological sites dating to the period under study. Most of them belong to the Afanasyevо culture, with the rest being represented by the Kurota, Aragol and Ulita cultural types that have been recently designated from the Afanasyevо culture. For each group, in accordance with their geographical localization, we have calculated geographical and bioclimatic parameters. The comparison of these parameters with the characteristics of the corresponding craniological series has allowed us to reveal the main trends of intergroup variability within the Eneolithic — Early Bronze Altai population. A considerable and statistically significant correlation is found between the morphological parameters, such as the height of the cranium, general sizes of a cranial cavity and the width of the face, and geographic and bioclimatic parameters characterizing the severity of the climate and the mountain height above sea level. In terms of other race-demarcating characteristics, no significant difference has been revealed between the territorial groups of the Altai Eneolithic — Early Bronze population characterized by the proto-European type. The identified variations correspond to the previously established differences between the total series of skulls of the Afanasyevо culture from the Altai highlands and the Minusinsk Hollow, as well as to two craniological types defined as the main anthropological components of the Afanasyevо culture population in Southern Siberia. The first of these types, prevailing among the Altai Afanasyevo culture population, is markedly hypermorphic and characterized by a higher and, in general, a larger skull. The second type, determining the craniological specifics of the unicultural population in the Minusinsk Hollow, is moderately hypermorphic and characterized by a smaller and, importantly, less high skull. Our findings suggest that these differences are associated in many respects with a general increase in the body size in populations having lived in the most bioclimatically unfavourable areas of the Altai highlands. This is evidenced by an increase in the longitudinal and girth dimensions of the long skeletal bones of the Altai Eneolithic — Early Bronze population having inhabited the mid-mountain and high-mountain Altai areas compared with the control samples from the low-mountain Altai regions and the Afanasyevo culture from the Minusinsk Hollow. Therefore, according to the calculated parameters, the population from the bioclimatically unfavourable Altai regions was characterized by a rather large weight and height among all the studied ancient Neolithic — Bronze Eurasian groups. Thus, our study confirms that the main mechanism of biological adaptation to the severe mountain environment of the Altai highlands among the Eneolithic — Early Bronze population was the enhancement of energy processes by means of increasing standard metabolism. As a result, the initially tall and large proto-European population was becoming even larger.

This paper presents the results of human remains study from the necropolis on Tekstilschiki street (Kostroma city, Russia), dated back to XVI–XVIII centuries. The authors provide data on the craniology, postcranial skeleton, describe the pathologies on the teeth and bones. The study was conducted according to standard protocols of Russian anthropology. Studied sample comprises human remains of 77 individuals, including 41 belonged to women. This ratio can be explained by the fact that there was a nunnery necropolis on this territory in the late Middle Ages. Presented study revealed a number of features of the male part of the sample, associated with mesocrania and sharp horizontal facial profile. A comparative analysis of craniological data showed the proximity of the studied population to the medieval population of the Old Ryazan city (Russia). The female part of the sample differs from the male one in its tendency to brachicrania. A morphological analysis of the postcranial skeleton revealed the relative shortening of the shin and forearm of women. The reconstructed height for men turned out to be above average, for women, on the contrary, it is below average. Most often pathologies of the studied population are dentition pathologies and bruises of the bones of the limbs, which most likely had a civilian character.

Artificial cranial deformation has been practiced by indigenous peoples at various times in different parts of the world. In pre-Columbian Cuba, it is believed to have been practiced by the pottery-making agricultural groups called Taino. These people, who spoke the Arawak language, started to inhabit the island around 800 AD. According to the dominant theory, the practice was imported to the region from the Orinoco river valley by the Saladoid pottery makers. However, some authors ascribe this role to the Huecoid groups. Since any written record of the practice is virtually absent, a study of known paleoanthropological materials can be of crucial importance. In this paper, we set out to compare two samples of pre-Columbian crania belonging to the pre-ceramic population, who did not apply the practice of deforming their newborns’ heads (Ciboney), with those belonging to the pottery making agriculturalists (Taino), who did use such a practice. The crania under study, originating from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, mainly feature the frontal occipital oblique type of deformation. The intra-group variation in the deformed group is found to be much higher. This suggests that, despite the presumably standard deforming procedure, individual variations were inevitable. Taking the variations into account, somewhat unusual shapes, which cannot be unequivocally labelled as frontal occipital oblique, should be treated as a result of this diversity. The specific features that differentiate the deformed samples from the non-deformed ones are found to be the length of the parietal bones, the curvature of the frontal bone and the width of the crania. However, we cannot conclude that the deformations are wholly responsible for these differences. Another result of the study consists in the differences found between the crania from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, which point to a possible variation in deformation techniques. However, this firm conclusion cannot be drawn until additional materials from other Antillean islands become available.

This article characterizes extensive craniological and osteological materials from Miankal, the site located in the Samarkand region, the central part of the Big Sogd. A review of anthropological and archaeological data on the population having resided in the aforementioned province is given for a lengthy historical period from antiquity, through the Late Middle Ages and up to the present time. The majority of the collections are presented for the first time in their full size. The article reviews the epochal dynamics of main craniological characteristics and indicators. A comparative analysis of the Miankal series with all other Big Sogd series is performed in terms of important morphological and paleodemographic indicators. The main morphological complexes having existed in ancient, Middle Age and close to the present time populations are described. A certain morphological peculiarity of the Miankal groups is shown. These groups are described in terms of intergroup differences and in comparison with the other Sogd population. The relationship vectors of the Miankal populations with those of the Central (Samarkand), Western (Bukhara) and Southern (Kaskadarya) Sogd are demonstrated for different historical periods. A suggestion is made that Miankal, being part of the Central Sogd, was also populated by groups from the Western and Southern Sogd, as well as from other historical and cultural geographical regions, such as the Central Kyzylkum, the Sarikamish region, the lower Syrdarya. In addition, according to archaeologists, this region might have been populated by immigrants from Kangju.

Some researchers pointed out that the anthropological originality of some native groups of Western Siberia was formed as a result of late metisation processes that occurred in modern times. Judging by historical and ethnolinguistic data, one of such peoples is the Northern Selkups, who moved to the Upper Taz River basin in the XVII century for political, economic and, possibly, environmental reasons. Paleoontropological data can be an important source for solving the issue of their origin. The article is dedicated to the analysis of the craniological collection from Kikki-Akki burial, received in 2013 and replenished in 2016. The cranial characteristic of this group is reduced to a combination of the following features: a low subdolichocranial skull, a slightly flattened medium-wide and medium-high mesoprozopic face, a flat nose and a very small nasal protrusion angle. The intra-group variability of the male part of the series was studied. In terms of the degree of internal morphological similarity, two groups were singled out in the population under consideration. The first were mesocranial skulls with a mo-derate protrusion medium-high face (8 individuals), the second were subdolichocranial skulls with a flattened low face (5 individuals). It has been established that the Selkups from the Narym River area are indeed the ancestors of the Selkups from the Upper Taz River region, but their physical appearance changed over a short period of time (200–300 years) because of migration to the north. According to its anthropological type, male population of the Upper Taz River region in the XVIII–XIX centuries became as close as possible to the Eastern Khanty. However, it was possible to find in their anthropological structure features of the morphotype associated in genesis with the Selkups from the Narym River region. Formation of the anthropological originality of the Selkups from the Upper Taz River region proceeded with an active metisation of these two components belonging to one West Siberian formation. However, biological connections of the Northern Selkups with the ancestral group from the Narym River region apparently weakened by the XVIII-XIX centuries, and the Ugric component became dominant. A different situation is observed in the female population from the Upper Taz River region. They clearly have both basic components, with a slight predominance of the Southern Samoyedic.

The Eneolithic — Bronze Age paleoanthropological materials from the Ulitinsky type Bronze Age burial of Karasu II (the Altai Mountains), as well as previously unpublished measurements of skulls from 1964 excavations of the Afanasievo cemetery of Ust-Kuium are introduced into scientific use. Osteometric characteristics of the individuals from the Ulitinsky type burial affirm that they belong to the steppe morphotype, which is widespread among the populations of the Bronze Age in the steppes and forest-steppe areas of Eurasia. According to the craniometric parameters, a female skull from Karasu II shows features of the anthropological type of the local population of the Altai-Sayan highland with a brachycranial skull shape and some Mongoloid features. Two female skulls from the Afanasievo burial ground of Ust-Kuium originate from burials with a set of ornaments which differ from one-culture complexes. Their Europeoid appearance is typical of the alien Protoeuropeoid population, but one of the skulls is also characterized by brachycrania, which is considered to be influence of local craniological complexes.

Up to the present time, a few craniological samples of the migration period from the Early Iron Age to the Middle Ages from the Lower Tobol river have been introduced in scientific circulation [Zolotareva, 1957; Bagashev, 2000; Poshekhonova et al., 2016]. In addition, there was no acces for observation of the morphology of the cranium of the buried, due to a widespread practice of artificial cranial deformation in that period. Accumulation of materials of the III–VI centuries AD from this region became necessary to form a general sample that would allow investigating its anthropological specificity. Some important conclusions were a result of an extensive comparison of the series with groups of Western Siberia and adjacent territories of the Early Iron Age — the Middle Ages. No doubt, the population that left the burial grounds in the Lower Tobol river basin in the III–VI centuries AD was multicomponent. Those characteristics, which related to the medieval inhabitants of the taiga regions of Western Siberia, and to the Mongoloid part of the population of the previous period predominate during the morphological stage of the study of the group [Bagashev, 2000, 2017]. The population characterized by low facial and cranial length, a minimal nasal protrusion angle and a medium profiled transference. The migration of the groups from the taiga zone to the south in the III–VI centuries AD is not excluded. The Caucasian component in the ge-neral sample from the Lower Tobol river, which is already registered as a minor impurity, is not clearly observed. As a result, it was established, as well as the Sargatka paleopopulation, which became a basis for the formation of the Early Medieval tribes. However, a biological mixing has led to a leveling of the features inherent in various components, they can no longer be correlated with any morphotype of the Early Iron Age. Also we cannot make a conclusion about the migration of the population in the III–VI centuries AD from Western Siberia to the Urals, although this assumption has been repeatedly described in archaeological literature [Matveeva, 2015; Rafikova, 2011]. There is no reason to assume large-scale advancement of groups from the south or east to the territory of the Tobol river during that period, despite the fact that it was demonstrated by an artefact (appearance of a superstratum nomadic component) [Matveeva, 2016].

The results of a study of Neolithic skulls from the burial ground of Firsovo XI, on the right bank of the Ob River near the city of Barnaul, are presented. The restoration resulted in obtaining craniometric characteristics of 7 male and 3 female skulls of different degrees of preservation. The series is characterized by a structure of the facial skull, intermediate between the Caucasoids and the Mongoloids, it contains skulls of a more Caucasoid and a more Mongoloid appearance. According to the results of an intergroup comparison, the Firsovo XI series differs greatly from the Afanasyevo culture series and the similar cultural types of the Altai Mountains, which confirms the conclusion that the Afanasyevo population of Southern Siberia has no local roots. The craniological series under consideration is very similar to the synchronous groups from the Northern foothills of the Altai (burial grounds of Ust-Isha, Itkul, Solontsi V, etc.). There is also a great morphological similarity to the Neolithic series of the more Northern areas of the Ob River Basin near Novosibirsk and Kamen', Kuznetsk Depression, Baraba forest-steppe zone, the Irtysh River basin near Omsk, Northern Kazakhstan, and the forest-steppe Trans-Urals. The similarity to the synchronous groups of the Upper Lena and the Upper Angara is also revealed, as a reflection of racial and genetic connections between the population of the Altai foothill regions and the Neolithic population of the Circum-Baikal region. The male group under consideration also demonstrates a significant morphological similarity to the Neolithic and Early Eneolithic craniological materials from the burial grounds of Lebiazhinka IV and V, Chekalino V, S''iezzhe I in the Volga-Ural interfluve. A hypothesis is made that, before the Bronze Age, an anthropological community of ancient population of the plain forest-steppe zones of Eurasia with intermediate Caucasoid-Mongoloid racial features existed in the territories of Western Siberia and Eastern regions of Eastern Europe. Besides, the group, which left the burial site of Firsovo XI, especially its female part, demonstrates presence of brachicranian component, also with intermediate Mongoloid-Caucasoid racial features. Probably, it belongs to the Southern Eurasian anthropological formation, which determined the anthropological composition of the local population of the Altai-Sayan Highland in the Neolithic — Late Bronze Age.

In arguing that articulate language is underpinned by an algorithmically simple neural operation, the Minimalist Program (MP) retrodicts that language emerged in a short-term event. Because spoken language leaves no physical traces, its ancient use must be inferred from archeological proxies. These strongly suggest that modern symbolic human behavior patterns – and, by extension, cognition – emerged both abruptly and late in time (subsequent to the appearance of Homo sapiens as an anatomical entity some 200 thousand years kyr ago). Because the evidence is compelling that language is an integral component of modern symbolic thought, the archeological evidence clearly supports the basic tenet of the MP. But the associated proposition, that language was externalized in an independent event that followed its initial appearance as a conduit to internal thought, is much more debatable.

The author of the article has two aims. At first, he wants to inform theologians about the newest findings of paleogenetics, paleoanthropology and bioculturology relevant for the theology of creation, theological anthropology, moral theology and fundamental theology. In theology, it is necessary to find a clear borderline between not yet being human and being already human. Searching for this borderline is the second aim of the study. On the level of technology and communication, we can observe a continual development. Although there can be found some leaps, theologians are not able to find a clear borderline. According to the author, this line is marked by moral consciousness, which either exists or not. Human being is a creature able to sin. The time of crossing this Rubicon cannot be determined according to archaeological discoveries. It could be in the time of Homo heidelbergensis, but certainly in the time of classical Neanderthals and anatomically modern people.

With findings from cognitive science, neuroscience, information science, and paleoanthropology, an anthropologist and astronomer-priest team take a new look at the nature of morality, and suggest parameters that are often very different from the philosophical and theological literatures. They see morality as a biologically-based arbitration mechanism that works along a timeline with a valence of good to bad. It is rational, purposeful, social, and affected by emotion but not dominated by it. The authors examine the age and sex structure, family roles, environment, cognition, and lifeway of Homo erectus, an early hominin who arose 1.9 million years ago, and propose that he had a rudimentary moral system that his biology and culture enabled – but only after he learned to control fire. Hearths gave rise to an intense, social, emotional, experiential context where belief systems could be learned by youth before they achieved adult cognition.

The article presents the results of craniological and odontological research based on a group of Ustyug-1 burial ground. The goal of the research is to determine genesis of the Bakal population from the Tobol river region of the Great Migration time. Morphology of the group was compared with the available data on the populations of the Early Iron Age, Early and High Middle Ages of this and adjacent regions. Their biological connection was determined. It was established that a dominant component in the Bakal population is genetically associated with Western Siberian population of the Early Iron Age. It is found out that by the IV–VI centuries AD the ancient multicomponent substrate of the Bakal group almost did not contain Caucasian morphological type. It was present only as a small admixture. The main component is the West Siberian short-faced Mongoloid complex. By the IX–XIII centuries, that component completely dominated in the paleopopulation structure. But a mixed population with Central Asian admixture came from the East in the Turkic period. A small proportion of this South Siberian morphological type is observed in the later Bakal groups. Superstrata component of Kushnarenkovo, which was identified basing on the archaeological materials, is not observed in the anthropological structure of the Bakal population. Odontology data gives a similar conclusion. A complex of odontology traits suggests heterogeneity of the group. Besides, Sargatka component was transformed under the influence of migration from the Eastern part of the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia and Central Asia. Sargatka component in the Bakal group looks much more indistinct, compared with the population of the Baraba forest-steppe. Markers of the Southern gracile type almost disappear, being replaced by Western Siberian complex.