On the mongoloid component in the Pazyryk population

The Mongoloid trait combination displayed by two Pazyryk crania can be identified as Paleosiberian. Using the method elaborated by leading Russian specialists, the appearance of those individuals was sculpturally reconstructed. Sculptured faces support the diagnosis based on craniometric data. We discuss the advantages of a typological approach over a population approach to small and poorly preserved cranial samples. Judging by the skeletal materials from the Neolithic to the modern centuries, the Paleosiberian trait combination is distributed in the Baikal region, where mountainous taiga and tundra landscapes predominate. Those environmental conditions caused the scattering and isolation of hunting-fishing populations. This trait combination apparently originated among the Xiongnu of the southern Trans-Baikal region (Ivolga archaeological complex), when the natives had been involved in the activities of the border outpost-a center of trade, administration, craft, and agriculture in the northern fringes of the Xiongnu Empire. Individuals with Paleosiberian features could have reached the Altai Mountains at the early stages of the Xiongnu tribal union, correlating with the final stage of the Pazyryk culture. However, the share of the Paleosiberian component in the Pazyryk population was evidently minor.