A.N.

Bagashev

Uralic peoples origin in the light of bio-anthropological data

(from book "Northern Archelogical Congress. Papers. September 9-14, 2002. Khanty-Mansiisk")

The craniological materials representing the physical characteristics of ancient and modern population of
Western Siberia allow to trace the main stages of formation of the formerly existed and contemporary bio-
anthropological types. The physical type, which was registered in the territory of Western Siberia in the
Neolithic period was the Caucasoid relating to the proto-European type widely spread in Eastern Europe,
Karelia, Baltic region and Ukraine. At the same time the Western-Siberian Neolithic population was
characterized with certain specific features of genesis and physical appearance that were mainly a result
of the added Mongoloid elementy of variois lines of descent. It is possible to distinguish this type as the
Western Siberian variant of the proto-European type, consisting of two groups of population - the Western
Siberian and the Upper Ob.

Conventional boundary between the areas of Caucasoid and Mongoloid populations during the Mesolithic
and Neolithic Time was the area of the Upper Ob region. Part of the Caucasoid population penetrated
even further east, an evidence of which was the Caucasoid element in composition of the Neolithic
population in Eastern Siberia [Debets 1948; Alexeev 1961; Gokhman 1980; Mamonova 1980]. Part of the
Mongoloids settled in the western and southern directions. As a result of mutual contacts the populations
that formed in the Upper Ob region had in their physical composition a Mongoloid component of the Outer
Mongolia origin (Ust-Isha, Itkul, Vaskovo). It was, most likely, via these type of groups that the Mongoloid
elements of the Outer Mongolia type penetrated into the composition of the Kelteminar population of the
north of Central Asia. Reverse contacts facilitated the penetration of Mediterranean type elements into
some West Siberian groups. The influence of the Mediterranean can be traced more clearly in the Middle
West-Ural region. In the composition of other Neolithic groups in addition to the above mentioned
component there was also the Mongoloid elements of taiga origin (Sopka 2, Protoka, Omsk site, Lebedi).
With the groups of the Caucasoid populations of the proto-European type this type of component
penetrated westward as well - the morphologically similar element was registered in the composition of the
population of the Lyalovo culture known in the forest band of Eastern Europe [Alexeeva 1997] and in the
composition of the Mesolithic population of Karelia (Yuzhny Oleny Ostrov) [Yakimov 1960].

The racial-genetic processes that took place in Western Siberia during the Neolithic and reconstructed on
the basis of archeological and bio-anthropological material were in many ways related to the cultural
processes. The data provide evidence of the penetration into Western Siberia of population different from
the locals in their physical appearance and bringing certain innovations into the aboriginal populations
[Zakh, Bagashev 1998]. For example, the inflow of the southern elements into the Western Siberian
cultures in the early stages of their formation correlates with the appearance in the physical composition of
the local population of the racial complexs, genetically related to the Central Asian groups that left after
them the burial site Numek-Kichidgik in the Southern Aral region.

In the Bronze Age the differentiation between groups of population , which had started in the previous
period, grew stronger. The processes of mixing of the Caucasoid population geneticlly related to the
Neolithic population and the taiga Mongoloids continued in the sub-taiga area of Western Siberia. During
that time the physical characteristics typical for the population of the Krotovo culture of pre-Andronovo
time and the Chernoozerye-Tomsk variant of the Andronovo cultural community was formed. However,
within the composition of the latter it is possible to trace quite clearly the Caucasoid elements related to
the Andronovo (Fedorovo) tribes. In the more southern areas of Western Siberia the physical type
genetically related to the population of the Andronovo culture, especially it's Fedorovo variant, began to
spread widely, whereas input of the Alakul type related to the Srubnaya culture tribes was quite
insignificant (Samus culture, Ermak 4). Both Andronovo culture variants had genetic roots in the Neolithic
population of the south West Siberia, and this territory can be excluded from the centers of their formation.
Certain similarities between the types of the Neolithic population of Western Siberia and the Andronovo
(Fedorovo) type result, most likely, from their ancient Paleo-Caucasoid substrate.
The morphological type of the late Bronze Age populations - the Irmen, the Elovka, and the Cherkaskul -
holds intermediary position between the type of the Neolithic (Krotovo) and the Chernoozerye-Tomsk
skulls on the one side, and the type of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) series on the other. This can be taken
as indication that the features of the population of a number of cultures of the late Bronze Age in Western
Siberia were formed largely as a result of their mix.

The physical composition of the population of Western Siberia of the Early Iron Age became even more
complicated. Several main components determined the specifics of the physical type of the West Siberian
populations; the relative importance of those components varied in different local groups.

Within the composition of the population of the Sargat and the Gorokhovo cultures the main component
was the aucasoid racial variant with meso-brachycranial skull shape, wide, short and moderately profiled
in a horizontal plance face bones. The physic features of the Kulai series (the burial site Kamenny Mys)
were determined with the Mongoloid component, the charasteristic features of which were the low height
of the flattened face bones, low elavation of nasal bones with the medium height of the nose bridge. Apart
from the above listed components the Caucasoid complex with the high narrow face also played certain
role in the racial genesis of the forest-steppe populations, another component was the Mongoloid with a
wide and high face. In some samples, particulary in the Irtysh region, it was possible to register the
presence of a Mongoloid component with a dolichocranial skull shape.

The Caucasoid meso-brachycranial component with a wide and low (eurymorphic) face in both variants
was genetically related to the population of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) culture of the Bronze Age,
particulary to those populations, within the composition of which there was a component, the roots of
which went back to the West Siberian Neolithic. During the transition period from the Bronze to the Early
Iron Age relatively stable traditions already formed in the archeological cultures of Western Siberia, but the
physical features of different groups of the population were not yet sufficiently stable. Long time infiltration
of the taiga low-faced Mongoloid elements into the forest-steppe of Western Siberia resulted in the
formation of the local population type with the more brachycranial skull shape and wider horizontally
flattened face bones, lower nose bridge and a small angle of the nasal bones elavation. In the Volga and
the West-Ural (i.e. pre-Ural) regions in the transitional from the Bronze to the Iron Age period as a result of
continued mixing of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) and the Srubnaya-Alakul groups, as well as later, of
Savromatian (Sarmatian?) and Scythian populations, the more charasteristic type for the local population
became more elongated skull shape, somewhat higher and noticeably narrower, well profiled in the
horizontal plane face bones, high nose bridge with the high nasal bones elavation angle.

Genesis of physical type charasteristic for the skulls from the Kulai burials and the low faced brachycranial
component distinguished within the composition of forest-steppe population of the Early Iron Age could be
directly related to the Mongoloid low faced population of the West-Siberian taiga regions. It's racial genetic
influence on the tribes of the south Western Siberia could be traced from the Neolithic , and in the Bronze
Age the low faced Mongoloid component was already recorded as a significant element in the composition
of the population of the Western Siberian sub-taiga zone, as well as in the composition of samples from
the burials of the Okunevo and the Karaskul cultures of the Minusinsk Kotlovina. This component left a
significant imprint on the physical type of the late Bronze Age population that left sites of Elovka and Irmen
cultures. It was the element of low faced Mongoloids in the Early Iron Age population that determined their
morphological pecularities and served as a sufficiently reliable indicator of the degree of their relatedness.

Another Mongoloid component of the physical structure of the forest-steppe populations (highness of the
wide face bones and brachycranial type) morphologically did not differ significantly from the population
type of the Serov and the Glazkov time of Eastern Siberia. It's genesis was related to the Mongoloids of
Outer Mongolia, who slowly and gradually penetrated into Western Siberia from the early Neolithic. During
the Bronze Age the Outer Mongolian elements were registered in the composition of Okunev and Karaskul
populations of Eastern Siberia, the Krotovo, Andronovo (Fedorovo), Elovka, and Irmen groups of Western
Siberia, as well as within the composition of the Cheraskul culture population in the West-Ural region.
In the taiga zone of Western Siberia during the Middle ages the ethnogenic situation remained stable. The
craniological type of the skulls from the Kulai burials, similar components within the composition of the
Novochekino series and all the Sargat samples, related to them low faced Mongoloid component within
the composition of the Krotov series of the burial site Sopka 2 and the series from the burial site Elovka 2
of the Bronze age, as well as the component of the bio-anthropological structure of the Neolithic groups of
the proper Western Siberian type - all those were in many respects similar to the morphological type of the
Middle Age populations of the south-taiga Irtysh region (Ust-Ishim culture) and the Narym Ob region
(ancient Selkup). Apparently, the situation was similar also in the northern part of Western Siberia, but in
the absence of craniological material, which relation to the modern ethnic groups is sufficiently proven, we
can only assume this on basis of indirect data reflecting the racial features of the modern Ob-Ugrians.

In more recent periods a great variety of physical types was registered in the territory of Western Siberia.
In some cases it is possible to trace the ethnogenetic ties of the modern peoples with the Caucasoid
population of Early Iron Age. More or less significant role can be ascribed to it only in the genesis of
physical features of isolated groups of the Tobol-Irtysh Tatar. It is also possible to admit some participation
of the Sargat groups in the racial genesis of the Western Mansi, since the analysis of the physical
composition of the Western Mansi allowed to identify a number of components n their composition, in the
origin of which a certain role could be ascribed to the population of the Sargat community, and hence to
the tribes of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) culture [Bagashev 1999]. It is interesting to note, that the
decorative art of Western Mansi assimilated a significant component related to the south Iranian traditions
[Rydina 1995]; the archeological data also provide evidence of the influence of the southern Iranian
elements on the Mansi culture [Chernetsov 1953]. However, in general, there was a significant weakening,
on the verge of almost break, of the racial genetic ties between the tribes of Sargat cultural community
and modern populations of Western Siberia (based on female materials this conclusion would be less
categorical). Therefore, the traced line of genesis did not produce a noticeable effect on the formation of
the physcial features of the modern ethnic groups.

In the West Siberian south taiga area the ethnogenetic ties between various chronological sections of the
bio-anthropological pattern can be clearly traced. There is a significant physical similarity between series
of skulls from the burial site Kamenny Mys and the Mongoloid type skulls with eurymorphic face bone
structure. The first sample reflected the racial features, of the population, that left the sites of the Kulai
archeological culture, second, though in a dispersed way, also provided information on the physiological
features of the people of this cultural community. The morphological features of both samples of the Early
Iron Age were practically identical to the morhological type of the Medieval Narym Ob population and the
modern Narym Selkup. The population of the Kulai culture, therefore, can justifiably be considered as the
main race component of the Selkup genesis. However, the representatives of a complex of physical
features charasteric for the Kulai culture populations were registered even in the earlier periods. Here we
speak of the racial component identified in the composition of the Chernoozerye-Tomsk variant of the
Andronovo cultural community, the Krotovo population and the Neolithic Western Siberian groups
[Bagashev 2001].

The Mongoloid racial complex identified in the Early Iron Age materials, which had more dolichocranial
shape of the cranium, also had analogues among the Western Siberian population. It had the greatest
similarity with the Ob-Ugrian populations. Those Ugrian samples, in the composition of which the added
Samoyed elements were registered, were morphologically more distant, but the base morphological type
of their physical structure and the specific features of the dolichocranial variant were, in principle, the
same [Bagashev 2000].

The modern population of Western Siberia is characterized with a number of distinctive physical features,
is not racially uniform, has complex physical composition, and the territoral variance of the racial features
of some of the modern groups is sometimes quite high. However, in every specific case the racial features
of the population form certain morphological complexes tied to a particular territory.

Contrary to Altai and Khakasia, in the territory of Western Siberia there existed the populations, in the
physical features of which a number of charasteristics were determined not so much by the added
Mongoloid and/or Caucasoid elements, but by the specific combination of the racial charasteristics, in
which the normal historical correlation was distorted, which indicates the traces of pre-differentiation.
Eventually, this is the feature that determined the uniqueness of the ancient and the modern population of
Western Siberia.

Combination of Caucasoid and Mongoloid traits of Western Siberia and Ural population invetably leads
researchers to the conclusion of a metis character of it's formation. Another view on the mechanism of
formation of the Western Siberia and Ural peoples was put forward by V. V. Bunak. According to his
theory, they were formed not as a result of the mixing, but as a result of preservation of the ancient proto-
morphologic type, which only partially resembled the Mongoloid [Bunak 1956; 1958; 1965; 1980]. This
theory gained a strong support in the studies of the discrete-variable charasteristics of the skulls of the
Uralic groups [Kosintsev, Moiseev 1995; Moiseev, Kosintsev 1998; Moiseev 1999].

Among the Western Siberian groups several super-population communities tied to particular territories can
be distinguished. These are Turks (i.e. Turkics) of the Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba regions, the Turks and the
Selkups of the Tomsk-Narym Ob region; the differences between them are insignificant and are
determined by the various proportion of the South Siberian component (the populations of the Ob-Irtysh
physical type).

Within the composition of the Ugrian populations of the Middle and Lower Ob region there was a
significant share of undifferentiated elements, no South Siberian or North Altai elements, though in some
groups the Samoyed component was registered. High diversity of the Ob-Ugrian populations reflected
rather territoral, than ethnical or bio-anthropological, disintegration among Ugrians; the uniting role in
physical pattern was played by a complex of undifferentiated (populations of the Ural physical type).

Thus, in the population of Western Siberia there are two main physical types, and both are characterized
with a sufficiently clear type of morphology. The Ural type is represented by Khanty and Mansi of taiga
and forest-tundra zones, i.e. it's common in the northern part of Western Siberia. The Ob-Irtysh physical
type is represented by Narym Selkup and Turkic groups of the Western Siberian plain in the south taiga
and forest-steppe zones of the middle and the southern parts of Western Siberia.

The racial specifics and inner similarities of the populations of the Ural and the Ob-Irtysh types caused by
a common race-forming factor in the common territory, a lot of similarities of the ethnogenetic processes,
which occured here in approximately the same nature- climatic conditions, are the evidence of the former
unity of these groups. Therefore, they are combined and distinguished as a separate West Siberian race
[Bagashev 1998; 1998a]., which lost ties with the main racial trunks quite long ago, even before the period
of formation of clear Caucasoid and Mongoloid features, and it is ancient proto-Asian formation.

The time of formation of the Western Siberian secondary center can be referred to the period, when
genetic bridge between the Mongoloids of Asia and North America still existed; starting with the meso-
Neolithic time it is possible to speak of it's differentiation into the tertiary centers. Most likely, it occured in
time, when divergence of the Uralic population of Western Siberia into Ugrian and Samoyed branches
began.