Anthropological expertise of skeletal remains from the Suvlu-Kaya cemetery of late antiquity (South-Western Crimea)

The paper presents results of the expertise regarding remnants of individualsfrom a Classical period cemetery known as Suvlu-Kaya in the South-West Crimea.The paper discusses demographical and craniological features of two chronologicalgroups coming from the undercut graves of the 3rd-4th centuries AD and the vaultsof the 4th-5th centuries AD. Burials in the undercut graves appear to have been leftbehind by a short-term, predominantly, male group characterized by a high injury rate,a tradition of artificial cranial deformation and craniometrical traits typical for the Late-Sarmatian community from the lower reaches of the Volga and the Don. In terms ofits demographical characteristics, the sample from the vaults is similar to a regularand rather successful human population; the morphology of several skulls suggests thatdescendants of the local pre-Greek population living in the Crimea participated in theformation of this group.