History of Biological Anthropology Study of the Tagar Culture Population

Abstract

The paper touches upon the history of biological anthropology study of the Tagar culture bearers that inhabited the Southern Siberia in the VIII–II centuries BC. The author of the research highlighted the key issues of biological anthropology studies of the Tagar culture: 1) The genesis issues of the Tagar culture (the discussion about the contribution of the Karasuk culture representatives to the formation of the Tagar population anthropological composition); 2) The issue of classifying burials in barrows by timeline, resulting in attribution of individuals from different timelines to a single sampling in anthropological research; 3) The issue of grouping paleoanthropological material due to the constant revision of the chronology of the Tagar culture; 4) The issue of intergroup variability (morphological changes on the bone remains of the Tagar culture population from different timelines). The author extensively examines the key papers by anthropologists of the XX century, dedicated to studying the population of the Tagar culture. The author reviewed the main theories and hypotheses on the genesis issues of the Tagar culture population made by G.F. Debets, V.P. Alekseyev, V.A. Dremov, and A.G. Kozintsev. The current state of anthropological studies of the Tagar culture population is analyzed in the paper.

Keywords

• anthropology
• archaeology
• southern siberia
• early iron age
• tagar culture
• craniology
• osteology
• odontology