MORPHOLOGY OF FEMALE SKULLS OF THE 17th – 18th CENT. FROM BATURYN

Abstract

This article deals with the publication and the comparative analysis of the 17th – 18th cent. female cranial series from town of Baturyn found during excavations by V. Kovalenko, O. Kovalenko, Yu. Sytyi, V. Mezentsev, V. Skorokhod during 2005–2015 on the territory of the Fortress (the Cathedral of the Life-Giving Trinity) and in resedimentation. Computer software designed by B. Kozintsev and O. Kozintsev in 1991 has been applied in the research. 14 craniometric traits defined by R. Martin have been involved into the analysis. The objective of this paper is to introduce a new material into scientific domain and define the place of the cranial series among famous anthropological types. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to provide the general morphological description of female group from Baturyn of the 17th – 18th cent. on the background of neighbouring ethnic groups from Ukraine and Eastern Europe (synchronistic and diachronic methods), determine the distance between separate cranial series of the 14th – 19th cent. with the help of multidimensional canonical and cluster analysis, and to find out the place of female population from Baturyn in the system of craniological types of Eastern Europe. For the first time, the general female series from Baturyn of the 17th – 18th cent. including 33 skulls has been created. After comparison of square divergence of 69 basic traits and indexes of Baturyn female skulls with the standard ones, one can conclude that the researched selection is heterogeneous by its structure. The multidimensional canonical and cluster comparative analyses of the studied female group of the 17th – 18th cent. with the synchronic and earlier series from the 14th – 19th cent. from Eastern Europe (except the Caucasus) have demonstrated its closest similarity to the urban skulls from Podillia. The comparison of 37 studied groups of the 14th – 19th cent. with the method of multidimensional canonical analysis in three-dimensional space has demonstrated the connection of the female skull sample from the town of Baturyn with two urban groups from Podillia.