Bronze Age Megrel

Study

Facial reconstruction of a 5,750-year-old man from Koskuduk, Mangyshak peninsula, Kazakhstan During archaeological investigations of the ancient settlement of Koskuduk I near the city of Aktau in the Republic of Kazakhstan, A. E. Astafyev discovered a burial (No. 1) containing a human skeleton lying in a flexed position on its left side. The burial was covered with stones. The author of the excavation attributes the settlement to the Oyuklin culture of the Eastern Caspian region, which formed through interaction between the local population and migrant groups of the Khvalynsk culture of the Volga–Ural region and the Kelteminar culture of Central Asia [Astafyev, 2006, p. 169]. The skeleton belonged to a mature male. The braincase is very long front-to-back, narrow side-to-side, and tall. The forehead is moderately wide and sloping, with very pronounced brow ridges (especially on the left), giving the skull an archaic appearance. The back of the skull is rounded with weak protrusions; the mastoid processes are large. The face is of medium width and height. The left orbit is of average height but relatively low, though for ancient populations it is considered high. The nasal opening is damaged but was likely narrow; the nasal bones are large and strongly projecting. The canine fossa is deep. The upper jaw is long and narrow, with a high palate. Facial profiling is sharp. The face is vertically straight, but the alveolar (tooth-bearing) part projects forward. The lower jaw is narrow but wide at the angles, with a well-developed triangular chin. Overall, the face is high and robust. The craniological complex of the Koskuduk individual can be stated quite definitively that it belongs to the Southeuropoid type. In this respect, it has nothing in common with the known skulls of the Neolithic-Eneolithic populations of northern and eastern Kazakhstan (Botai, Zhelezinka, Ust-Narym, Chernovaya II, Shiderty), which represent variants of steppe and more northern origin [Rykushina, Zaibert, 1984; Ginzburg, 1956, 1963; Ismagulova, 1989; Yablonsky, 1998]. Taking into account the archaeological parallels of the Oyuklin culture, it is possible to compare the Koskuduk skull with those of the Kelteminar and Khvalynsk cultures, where the Southeuropoid anthropological types have also been noted. (A. A. Khokhlov, E. P. Kitov, G. V. Rykushina, 2015)

Map showing which countries are the hairiest

Theseus and the Minotaur