Dental non-metric traits of medieval Belarus population

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2020-52-4/258-268

Abstract

The article presents new material on the odontology of the medieval and near-modern population of Belarus. The study is based on craniological samples from the city of Nesvizh (Minsk region). The first one was obtained during the rescue archaeological works at the 17th–18th centuries cemetery at the walls of the Corpus Christi Church (55 individuals), the second one – as a result of restoration works in the crypt of the church. Two samples of the population of Polotsk (Vitebsk Region) were also studied as comparative materials from the territory of Belarus: the 13th–14th centuries sample from the Lower Castle (27 individuals) and the 17th–18th centuries sample from the Polotsk settlement (41 individuals). It was found that the populations buried in the cemetery at the Corpus Christi Church in the city of Nesvizh and in the crypt of this church are rather gracile, although in the first case the features of the northern gracile type are clearly expressed, and in the second case the southern component is observed. In the population of Polotsk, we can see much more distinct differences between early and late samples, expressed in the classification of these groups to two different odontological types: the northern gracile and the central European.

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