Paleoeuropeoid (steppe herder) infiltration into South Central Asia during the Bronze Age (Dubova et al. 2016)

Update 31/03/2018: Check out this awesome new preprint at bioRxiv: The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia (Narasimhan et al. 2018)

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I don't usually take cranial studies very seriously, mostly because they have a history of being way out of the ballpark. However, Interaction between Steppe and Agricultural Tribes during the Bronze Age: Morphological Aspects by Dubova et al. 2016 is, at the very least, a decent read. A preprint of this paper is freely available at Academia.edu HERE. One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, we'll see a paper like this based on ancient genomes. And I'm pretty sure that the results won't look much different. Emphasis is mine:

Abstract: Here we discuss the results of research conducted on the variability of anthropological features of the populations of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, China, etc., from the Late Stone Age and Bronze Age. A detailed analysis was carried out on 85 craniological series from burial grounds at Gonur and Buston VI (see Table 1). We examined skulls from the steppe, forest-steppe, desert, and semi-desert areas of Central Asia, Ural, Siberia and the North Caucasus. Factor analysis was used to explore the data obtained. Four factors, describing more than 70% of craniological variations, were extracted. The first factor (describing 29.6% of variability) differentiated groups according to the lengthwise sizes of the head and face, mostly taking into consideration cranial breadth, bezygomatic diameter, and orbit width, as well as minimum frontal diameters, upper face and nose heights. The second factor (17.4% of variability) differentiated groups mainly according to facial height, nose and orbit heights. The highest loadings of the third factor, which determined 14.9% of variability, considered important characteristics such as cranial length and breadth, and the fourth factor (10,4% of variability) – nose breadth. As a result, we identified two major anthropological groups: the first comprising North Kazakhstan, South Siberia, Altai, and Ural-Volga, populations with larger latitudinal proportions of the head and face, as well as a smaller width of the forehead, upper face height, and height of the nose; and the second comprising the southern territories, including the majority of the populations of Iran, Pakistan, the Indus valley, and the southern regions of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as well, who had the opposite combination of features: long and narrow heads, high, narrow faces and noses, and round orbits. The analysis conducted has enabled us to affirm that Southern Turkmenistan manifestations of minimal impurities with regard to anthropological components, which could be linked to pastoral surroundings, were not seen prior to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.

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New data has shed light on the interaction between the steppe pastoralists and the sedentary farmers. Cranial series from the southern regions of Central Asia, representing populations where the features of agricultural and pastoral cultures are combined (Kokcha III, Buston VI, Karaelematasai, and Patmasai, Djarkutan), have been clearly located between ‘typical’ farmers (Hasanlu, Gonur, Mohendjo Daro, Pakistani Timargarha and Butkara) and series from the territory of Kazakhstan, southern Siberia, and the Volga-Ural region. At the same time, Gonur skulls, from the necropolis situated in and around ruins of early buildings, and the Buston VI series, as well as those from later layers of Tepe Hissar in Iran, have been identified as having large transversal dimensions while maintaining the same height-sizes of traits of subjects uncovered from earlier periods at the same monuments. This might be connected primarily to the general brachicephalization processes manifested at that time. But it is also likely that this was the result of a gradual penetration of groups from the Eurasian Steppe to the south, which was initially random but then became increasingly common with frequent mating between steppe groups and farmers. The term “infiltration” best characterizes this process of mixing. It should be noted that the currently available archaeological materials from Gonur Depe reveal that around such major proto-urban centers (which Gonur was at the end of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC) already by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC herders were indigenous, as evidenced by small settlements of cattle breeders in the vicinity of the city walls (see for example: Hiebert & Moore, 2004; Cattani, 2004). In addition, separate (sporadic) steppe pottery fragments have been unearthed from some areas of the site and its surrounding smaller settlements (Sarianidi & Dubova, 2010, pp. 39-42). However, we must particularly emphasize that at Gonur (i.e., in Southern Turkmenistan) manifestations of minimal impurities in anthropological components, which could be linked to pastoral surroundings, were not seen prior to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.

Another important point to bear in mind is that in the southern regions of Central Asia there were no Bronze Age sites (or earlier ones), where the presence of the so-called ‘Protoeuropean’ anthropological type (a massive variant with a large sized head, low and wide face, rectangular orbits, and with a flattening of the upper part of the face) was fixed. This variant has only been described by researchers in the northern regions of Central Asia. The groups with a small proportion of the ‘Paleoeuropeoid’ anthropological component in their composition reached southern regions in the Bronze Age. The most prevalent among them still being the Mediterranean type. Such a situation, of course, leads to an increase in mixed populations (i.e., in later groups including those of the Iron Age) with the characteristics presented in both groups becoming increasingly mixed (e.g. Mediterranean traits).

Dubova N.A., Junusbayev S.M., Saipov A.B., Interaction between Steppe and Agricultural Tribes during the Bronze Age: Morphological Aspects, Int. Journal of Anthropology – Vol. 31 – n.1-2 – 2016, DOI: 10.14673/IJA2016121026

See also...

Ancient herders from the Pontic-Caspian steppe crashed into India: no ifs or buts

Descendants of ancient European (fair?) maidens in Central Asia's highlands

Late PIE ground zero now obvious; location of PIE homeland still uncertain, but...