Some Methods for Assessing the Heterogeneity of Craniological Series

Abstract

Almost any craniological series is not a single population, but a product of mixing of its subgroups. A method for identifying these subgroups using cluster analysis is proposed. The authors used 11 attributes of brain case size and shape, calculated on the basis of three skull diameters (longitudinal, transverse and height) and forming the basis for the craniological classification of anthropological types. Dendrograms were plotted based on individual craniometric data for three cranial series of mixed Caucasoid-Mongoloid origin (Khanty, Mansi and Kazakhs) close to the modern period. A cluster analysis clearly revealed groups of similar skulls - clusters - within each series. A comparison of the clusters showed significant differences in almost all attributes. The three studied series belong to the panoicumene craniotype of the Holarctids, which formed in the vast expanses of Northern Eurasia. As a result of epochal transformations, this type in the classical version acquired its specific features: a relatively large cranium, wide and low in shape. The Kazakh series was closest to this classical version, and its formation took place south of the settlement of the Khanty and Mansi in the territory of the Great Eurasian Steppe, where the processes of mutual influence of its population were actively taking place. The distribution area of the Khanty and Mansi is in the taiga swampy zone of Western Siberia, where interpopulation contacts were not so intensive, which slowed down the formation of the classical craniotype of the Holarctids.