POPULATION OF THE KARA-ABYZ CULTURE OF THE SOUTHERN CIS-URALS ACCORDING TO THE DENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY DATA
This paper examines anthropological characteristics of representatives of the Kara-Abyz archaeological culture, which has been described by A. Kh. Pshenichnyuk in the 1960s. It presents the main results of the study based on the dental anthropology materials from the following three burial grounds - Shipovo (the IV century BC - the III century AD), Okhlebenino (the II century BC - the II century AD) and Kara-Abyz-2 (the IV-II centuries BC). Primary goals of this study were to determine the key odontological features of the Kara-Abyz culture, to trace its origins and genesis, to identify and analyze the intergroup variations within this cultural unity and its relations with the other cultures of the Early Iron Age. In course of the study, the author analyzed 118 individuals according to 8 odontological parameters, for which the comparative data were available. Specifically, the series of the Kara-Abyz culture were compared with a number of other series of the Early Iron Age cultures from the territories of the Southern Cis-Urals, the Kama region, the Aral Sea region, Central Kazakhstan, Western Siberia and forest-steppe Altai. As a result, it was revealed that representatives of the Kara-Abyz culture belong to the Western odontological branch. Despite local differences in several characteristics between the Kara-Abyz series from the three burial grounds under study, it could be claimed that populations, who left them, were odontologically similar as most variations are random in nature. However, it is worth mentioning some specificity associated with the southernmost of three burial ground - Okhlebenino. A comparative analysis conducted by the author has demonstrated that the Kara-Abyz populations, who built this burial ground, had very close and complex relations with nomads of the Southern Cis-Urals, the Aral Sea region and forest-steppe Altai. Taking into account a high level of mobility of nomads during the Early Iron Age and the multicomponent structure of their anthropological composition, it is yet impossible to speak about the exact nature and character of these relations. It should be noted that odontological series from the Okhlebenino burial ground look similar to those discovered at the Aldygan burial ground (the Kulai culture) and in the Irtysh river region (the Sargat culture). These facts allow to suggest that relations between representatives of the Kara-Abyz culture and the populations of the taiga Trans-Ural region were not limited by cultural exchanges. At the same time, similarities between representatives of the Kara-Abyz culture, the Ananyino culture and the Pyany Bor culture of the Kama region identified using craniological data are not supported by the results of the dental anthropology analyses.