Craniological variability of East Slavs in X-XIV centuries A.D
In a previous work [Perevozchikov, 2013] an intra-group statistical analysis of men’s craniologist series of East Slavic tribes. Reason for it was an unexpected, at least for the author, result of the discriminant analysis of Slavic series with close in time and geographical position series of other ethnic groups. The result of this analysis can be interpreted as that the Eastern Slavs had a particular anthropological type [Perevozchikov, Vorontsova, 2008]. The analysis was conducted at two hierarchical levels. Initially we analyzed the whole sample of skulls leaving aside its divisions into separate tribes. And then the analysis was conducted on the tribal level. The distribution pattern of variability was most consistent with a process of consolidation of ethnic groups throw gene flow, but the morphological specifics of individual tribes still remained. In view of the considerable interest in Slavic ethnogenesis it was decided to repeat the analysis on the women’s part of the sample, despite its significantly smaller number (N = 260). Analysis of the total sample was similar to the analysis on men. But tribal analysis showed slightly different results compared to the male half of the sample. The main feature was the apparent morphological separation of women from Novgorod with other Slovene women samples and great proximity to the rest of the samples. Women’s sample morphologically are more similar with one exception. The Novgorod Slovenki clearly stand out from the other women’s by a more orthognatos face. The statistical analysis of craniological series of medieval Eastern Slavs, one can make an assumption that their population structure was close to a S. Wright’s model of a system of semi isolated populations, which is believed to have evolutionary advantages over other population structures.