Middle volga abashevo individuals in the context of variation of the facial skeleton of the Early and Middle Bronze Age population based on the geometric morphometrics data

This study was the first attempt to examine the craniofacial form of the skulls of the Middle Volga Abashevo individuals buried in the Pepkino kurgan by the geometric morphometrics method. Cranial collections of the Bronze Age populations from Caucasus, southern Siberia, Mongolia and China were used as a reference dataset. The principal component analysis found more similarities between the morphological type of the males buried in the Pepkino kurgan and the southern Caucasoid forms previously to the gracile representatives of the Mediterranean race based on traditional craniology. Assigned results are in agreement with the hypothesis of origins of the Middle Volga population as well as the direction of such migrations from central Europe where the descendants of early farmers were one of the major components that formed the population of the Bronze Age.