Palaeopathology of sub-adults from Gonur-Depe (Turkmenistan)

The palaeopathological study of sub-adult sample comprising 215 individuals from Gonur-depe Bronze Age site (Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex, Turkmenistan) has shown predominance of dental diseases and indicators of anemia compared to other types of bone lesions. Low frequency of traces of infections, as well as absence of a single case of scurvy, rickets or trauma suggest the optimal living conditions of the population. The typical prevalence of different types of osseous pathology in the sample was probably driven by high population density and farming activities as the main factors of morbidity

Paleopathology of Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex and some adjacent territories. A short overview

The article provides a brief overview of the paleopathological data on the population of the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex (BMAC) and some adjacent regions (sites from the territory of Iran and Pakistan). In addition to the literature review, the results of a formalized comparison of some ancient groups according to the frequency of occurrence of several stress markers using correspondence analysis are presented. Based on this results, groups from the Margiana (Gonur-depe) and Bactria oases (Buston VI), are the closest to each other, as well as to the series from the territory of Iran and the Harappian sample. The mechanisms of adaptation to the influencial environmental biological and social factors, judging from the paleopathological data, differed significantly from the agricultural and pastoral population (Andronovo culture). At the same time, the Central Asian oases population (BMAC), samples from the territory of the Iranian plateau and the Indus valley demonstrate an obvious similarity of the pathological status. Local specificity can be considered as a result of the peculiarities of the course of adaptive processes in different environmental conditions, on the one hand, and as a fact caused by inter-researchers errors, on the other. In general, the given data correspond to those in the «idealized model of subsistence systems correlates with demography and health» for agricultural populations proposed by J. Lukacs. However, high frequency of infectious diseases does not find a clear «osteological» reflection in the material from most of the BMAC sites and sites from adjacent territories

Palaeodemography of Gonur: a review

This paper outlines results of a palaeodemographic study on the Late Bronze Age skeletal sample from Gonur Depe — an ancient proto-urban center in the Murghab oasis (Southern Turkmenistan, 2300–1500 ВС). The analysed sample consists of 4060 individuals (2245 from the Main and Royal necropolises, 1732 from the ruins of the palace-temple ensemble, 5 from the so-called «cemetery of the temenos», 60 from Gonur-20 and 18 from Gonur-21). The analysis includes computation of the standard palaeodemographic parameters; life tables and demographic curves for the total sample and separately for males and females are presented. The total Gonur sample is characterised by a close to normal sex ratio (with a slight predominance of females relative to males) and corresponds to the minimum «standard» infant mortality. The average age of death for adult males is 34.5 years, for females is 34.2 years, and for the total population (including children) — 26.2 years. Demographic patterns for samples from the Gonur necropolis (2245 individuals) and from the ruins of palace-temple ensemble (relatively late burials, 1732 individuals) are different. At the same time, the authors emphasised that all the groups of tombs from various parts of this site belonged to the representatives of a single archaeological population. The results of an intergroup comparison (using Principal Component Analysis) allows us to conclude that the demographic patterns of the Gonur Depe sample are close to those of skeletal population from such proto-urban centers as Altyn Depe (Southern Turkmenistan) and Sapallitepe (Southern Uzbekistan), as well as to the sample from the Elunin culture (Teleutskyi Vzvoz-1 burial ground). It is concluded that the studied skeletal population, according to paleodemographic data, demonstrates a relatively high living standard and a successful population. Moreover, the obtained results are important, because Gonur Depe materials can be taken as «reference» in modelling the demographic structure of the past human societies (in particular, those of the Bronze Age)

Bioanthropological research of human skeletal remains from the Srubno-Alakul mound at Selivanovka II cemetery (Southern Trans-Urals)

The article presents some results of an anthropological study of a skeletal sample (19 individuals) from the excavation of the mound 1 Selivanovka II cemetery (Southern Trans-Urals), performed in 2000. Cultural identity of this burial place is defined as mixed Srubno-Alakul with Alakul dominance. There are no tombs of mature and senile individuals. In double tombs adult (and perhaps sub-adult) individuals of different sexes are buried. Sub-adult subgroup demonstrates a lag in the rate of longitudinal growth from the modern standards. The individual metrics of adult individuals are similar. In body proportions, the adults are close to the populations of the «steppe» morphological type, on the one hand, and to the Chalcolithic — Bronze Age groups of Central Asia, on the other. The latter is manifested in elongation of tibias in some skeletons from Selivanovka. Excessive frequency of some epigenetic markers may indicate close relationship of the buried individuals

Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic