DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2018.2.24475

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the gender and age structure and demographic situation of the Golden Horde populations in the Lower Volga region. The author considers the ratio of men and women in this population, as well as the number of burials of children. Additionally, the author determines the general age of survival for men and women and identifies the peak age of mortality. The author also highlights the average life expectancy of the studied population and calculates the ratio of the adult to child population. And finally, the author carries out an osteometric study of the child and adolescent population during the period of the Golden Horde and determines the main age cohorts and mortality peaks specific to this child population. The methodology applied in this work corresponds to the methods of paleodemography. The whole of the anthropological material is divided into five-year age intervals, on the basis of which the tables of mortality are built. The last age group is 50 or more years (50+). The author conducted an osteometric study of a child and adolescent sample. This group was divided into five age cohorts. In this study, for the first time in a scientific literature, the data on infant mortality during the Golden Horde era on the territory of the Lower Volga region is presented. The information obtained during the course of this research demonstrates the sequence of extinction of a certain simultaneously born generation. Mortality tables reflect patterns of mortality change in population groups with similar extinction order. The presented work gives the possibility to analyze the mortality curves, built on the data of survival tables. During the course of research, the author identified the average age of mortality for different population groups. For the first time in scientific studies, the characteristics of the child and adolescent cohorts of the Golden Horde population are given.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-868X.2017.2.18045

Abstract: Physical appearance of the population of the Golden Horde resulted from interbreeding of representatives of two big races, i.e. the Mongoloid and the Caucasoid. The presence of the Mongoloid component is to some extent manifested in the appearance of inhabitants of all the Golden Horde towns. Nevertheless, it is the Caucasoid features that prevailed in urban population. One of such places was Vodyanskoe settlement. This article presents the history of the antropological study of Vodyanskoe settlement during the Golden Horde period. The article includes craniological study of the Golden Horde population. The author provides a detailed description of the osteometrical series, conducts analysis of osteometrical material, as well as determines the anthropological type, which dwells on this land. The author’s main contribution consists in carrying out the osteometric research and introduction into the scientific circulation of the data about physical type of the Golden Horde population. Based on the craniological and osteological facts, the author was able to give almost precise description of appearance of the urban population of the Christian part of necropolis of the Vodyansky settlement.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2016.1.17256

Abstract: The article focuses on the history of studying the anthropological material found on the territory of the Lower Volga region dating to the time of the Golden Horde. The historiography regarding the examination of the anthropological material collected on the territory of the Lower Volga is relatively scarce andfragmented. Unfortunately, none of the modern works on this subject are dedicated to the compilation of all the anthropological works, whose published conclusions concern the whole period of study of the Golden Horde. This article summarises and systematises various paleoanthropological works. In this study the systematic method of processing data was applied, which works with the method of logically analysing source material. This article reviews the history of study of yet another important source of anthropological material. The anthropological material from the towns of the Golden Horde in the Lower Volga region has been studied from the 1920s–1930s and is still studied today. From the whole body of examined material, the author comes to the conclusion that the population of the Golden Horde was not homogenous in its racial composition, but combined Mongoloid and Caucasian traits. The main population component was Caucasian-Mongoloid mestizos, with varying proportions of Caucasian and Mongoloid miscegenation, which has been identified as a local substrate. Along with the local component of the substrate on the territory of the Lower Volga region, there was also a component of alien population, which can be identified as Khorezm, Central Asian, and Russian. The Mongols in a relatively short period of time almost completely dissolved into the conquered tribes. Wherein two methods of miscegenation can be identified: mechanical and biological.