Anthropological materials of the Eneolithic and Bronze Age from the territory of Crimea, along with archaeological data, are the most important source on the formation history of the anthropological composition of peninsula population and on the study of genetic relationships of the population with Caucasus, the steppe part of Russia and Ukraine, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, the collection of investigated and published anthropological materials of the Bronze Age from the territory of the Crimea is very few and limited to the works on craniological data of a small number of skulls, most of which are poorly preserved. Therefore, it is advisable to introduce into the scientific circulation and analysis even single finds of the studied period, since the study and publication of these materials is necessary to obtain a more objective picture of the ethno-genetic processes that occurred in the Crimea in ancient times. Based on the description and measurement of 10 new skulls of the Early and Middle Bronze Age, we can confirm the thesis on the anthropological diversity and heterogeneity of the population of peninsula in the period under review. It can be confidently said that already in the Early Bronze Age in the Crimea, the presence of Eastern Mediterranean and proto-Caucasoid craniological types is recorded. However, the question of the geographical distribution of these craniological types on the peninsula remains open. We do not exclude that, by the anthropological composition, the inhabitants of the Yamnaya historical community (Pit Grave culture) of the Crimean Piedmont are indeed different from the inhabitants of the Northern Crimea, and this issue requires further development. In the Middle Bronze Age in Crimea, we observe a change in the anthropological appearance of the population associated with the penetration of representatives of the Catacomb cultural and historical community on the peninsula. Thus, even the few anthropological data clearly show the dynamism of ethno-historical processes of the Bronze Age, which has affected all the Northern Black Sea region, including the territory of the Crimean Peninsula. The heterogeneity of the population, reliably recorded here in the Early Bronze Age, is one of the most key characteristics of the period under consideration.

Bezborodykh Vitalii Ivanovich, Anthropologist, LLC “Belgorod archaeological expertise”; 10, Central st., p. Novosadovyi, Belgorod region, 308518, Russian Federation, e-mail: vbezborodykh@gmail.com 

Vasiliev Sergei Vladimirovich, Doctor of Sciences (History), Head, Center of Physical Anthropology, N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS; 32A, Leninsky av., Moscow, 119334, Russian Federation, e-mail: vasbor1@yandex.ru

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