An Odontological Study of the Mordvins of the I millennium A.D.

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2020-49-1/50-77

Abstract

The genesis of the ancient Mordvins is a debatable topic. Two main hypotheses suggest either migration or autochthonous development. There is a lot of dispute about the component which played the primary role in the formation of the Mordvins. Different scholars associate the Mordvins with Gorodets and P’yanobor archaeological cultures. Sarmatian and West Siberian (Sargatian) components could also have participated in its genesis. The authors of the article study odontological traits of the Mordvins of the 1st millennium A.D. Our objective is to determine origins of this ethnic group. The odontological materials of the Alfer’evsky, Golitsynsky, Razhkinsky, Selixa-Trofimovsky, Seliksensky and Tezikovsky burial grounds were combined into a single odontological sample (106 specimens). According to odontological traits, Mordvins of the 1st millennium A.D. belong to Caucasoid forms. East admixture was found to be insignificant. The Mordvins were similar to the modern Central European odontological type, although differ from it by the low frequency of the 2med (II) odontoglyphic variant in the first lower molar. A comparison of the ancient Mordvins with the modern and historical odontological series of Eastern Europe, the Urals and Central Asia revealed that the ancient Mordvins differ from the modern Mordvins by the frequency of western and eastern traits. At the same time, the ancient Mordvins are similar to some modern Tatar groups.

The ancient Mordvins, according to the mean taxonomic distance (MTD), are similar to the Russian population of Penza in the 17th–18th centuries. When compared to odontological series of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages and the Middle Ages, the ancient Mordvins are closest to the Balanian culture of the Bronze Age. At the same time, the Mordvins of the I millennium A.D. are quite close to some early Sarmatian samples and the P’ianobor group of the Kamyshly-Tamak burial ground, but are significantly different from the Late Sarmatians and from samples from Volga Bulgaria.

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