Diachronic Comparison of the Appearance of Tver Residents of the 16th–18th and the 20th Centuries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2025.6.169.184Keywords:
archaeology, craniofacial reconstruction, Late Medieval and contemporary urban populations of Tver Oblast, craniometry, cephalometryAbstract
he appearance of seven Tver Late Medieval inhabitants was restored on the basis of their sculls using M.M. Gerasimov’s method. The paper presents contour and graphic reconstructions compared with the photographs of modern residents. The lifetime features of the heads of Tver townspeople buried at Zatmatsky and Zagorodsky necropolises, 28 men and 15 women, were obtained under the “Appearance algorithm” program. The use of an index system made it possible to describe the main proportions of the head of Late Medieval men and women. Men had a face of average width and height, a nose of average width and short length, a short upper lip, and a mouth and lower jaw of average size. Women had a face of narrow width and average height, a forehead of average height and width, slightly protruding jaws and a medium nose, a short upper lip, and a medium mouth lower jaw. The first information about the cranial volume of the medieval population of the European Plain is reported. Tver residents had a small cranium (1186 cm3). The averaged calculated cephalometric parameters of medieval series were compared with the sizes obtained by direct measurement by the Russian Anthropological expedition headed by V.V. Bunak in its journey across the cities of Tver Oblast (Bunak, V.V. (ed.), 1965). A comparative analysis revealed a substantial similarity between the populations of the two chronological groups, especially the male series. The differences proved be insignificant for most parameters. Medieval women differ from contemporary by dolichocephaly and a shorter nose. For men, a tendency towards brachycephalization is also demonstrated by the modern population as compared to the medieval one.
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