Antemortem Cranial Injuries in the Altai Mountains Pastoralists of the Scythian and Xiongnu-Sarmatian Periods (5th Century BC to 5th Century AD)
Abstract
This article describes healed cranial injuries in the Altai Mountains pastoralists of the Early Iron Age, the increased prevalence of which may testify to interpersonal violence aimed rather at injuring than killing the opponent. Skulls of more than 500 adults from burials of the Pazyryk (5th to 3rd century BC) and Bulan-Koba (2nd century BC to 5th century AD) cultures have been analyzed. On the world scale, the level of nonlethal violence among the Altai Mountains pastoralists was moderate (25.5 % in males and 9.1 % in females). The frequencies, however, differ between the southern and northern Pazyryk populations (males, 35.7 % vs. 15.3 %, respectively; females, 16.7 % vs. 5.6 %) and between the early and late periods of Bulan-Koba (males, 32.7 % vs. 22.1 %; females, 10.0 % vs. 6.3 %, respectively). The high prevalence of injuries among the Pazyryk people from the high-altitude valleys of the Southeastern and Southern Altai might indicate scramble for limited resources under a harsh climate, whereas the high frequency among the early Bulan-Koba pastoralists could have resulted from an infl ow of migrants. In the Xiongnu-Sarmatian period, as compared to the Scythian period, repeated injuries became more frequent among males. Interpersonal violence among the Altai Mountains pastoralists involved mainly blows to the face, but in the Bulan-Koba males blows on the head were more random. Healed face injuries in women were likely associated with domestic violence.
References
1. Горбунов Б.В. Воинская состязательно-игровая традиция в народной культуре русских: историко-этнографическое исследование. – М.: ИЭА РАН, 1999. – 379 с.
2. Першиц А.И. Война и мир на пороге цивилизации: кочевые скотоводы // Война и мир в ранней истории человечества. – М.: ИЭА РАН, 1994. – Т. 2, ч. 3. – С. 129–247.
3. Серегин Н.Н., Матренин С.С. Погребальный обряд кочевников Алтая во II в. до н.э. – XI в. н.э. – Барнаул: Изд-во Алт. гос. ун-та, 2016. – 272 с.
4. Тишкин А.А. Создание периодизационных и культурно-хронологических схем: исторический опыт и современная концепция изучения древних и средневековых народов Алтая. – Барнаул: Изд-во Алт. гос. ун-та, 2007. – 356 с.
5. Тур С.С., Матренин С.С., Соенов В.И. Вооруженное насилие у скотоводов Горного Алтая гунно-сарматского времени // Археология, этнография и антропология Евразии. – 2018. – Т. 46, № 4. – С. 132–139.
6. Abbink J. Ritual and Political Forms of Violent Practice among the Suri of Southern Ethiopia // Cahiers d’Études africaines. – 1998. – Vol. 38, N 150–152. – P. 271–295.
7. Allen T., Novak S.A., Bench L.L. Patterns of Injuries: Accident or Abuse // Violence Against Women. – 2007. – Vol. 13, N 8. – Р. 802–816.
8. Baustian K.M., Harrod R.P., Osterholtz A.J., Martin D.L. Battered and abused: Analysis of trauma at Grasshopper Pueblo (AD 1275–1400) // Intern. J. of Paleopathol. – 2012. – Vol. 2, iss. 2/3. – P. 102–111.
9. Brickley M., Smith M. Culturally Determined Patterns of Violence: Biological Anthropological Investigations at a Historic Urban Cemetery // Am. Anthropologist. – 2006. – Vol. 108, N 1. – P. 63–177.
10. Chagnon N.A. Life histories, blood revenge, and warfare in a tribal population // Science. – 1988. – Vol. 239. – P. 985–992.
11. Сohen H., Sarie I., Medlej B., Bocquentin F., Toledano T., Hershkovitz I., Slon V. Trauma to the Skull: A Historical Perspective from the Southern Levant (4300 BCE – 1917 CE) // Intern. J. of Osteoarchaeol. – 2014. – Vol. 24, N. 6. – P. 722–736.
12. DeGrood M.P. Skull Fractures // Injuries of the Brain and Skull. – N. Y.: American Elsevier, 1975. – Pt. I. – P. 387–402.
13. Dobash R.E., Dobash R. Violence against Wives: A Case against the Patriarchy. – N. Y.: Free Press, 1979. – 339 p.
14. Ember C.R., Ember M. War, Socialization, and Interpersonal Violence: A Cross-Cultural Study // J. of Confl ict Resolution. – 1994. – Vol. 38, N 4. – P. 620–646.
15. Fonseka S. A Study of Wife-beating in the Camberwell Area // British J. of Clinical Practice. – 1974. – Vol. 28, iss. 12. – P. 400–402.
16. Greene D., Maas C.S., Carvalho G., Raven R. Epidemiology of Facial Injury in Female Blunt Assault Trauma Cases // Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery. – 1999. – Vol. 1, N 4. – Р. 288–291.
17. Harrod R.P., Liénard P., Martin D.L. Deciphering Violence in Past Societies: Ethnography and the Interpretation of Archaeological Populations // The Bioarchaeology of Violence. – Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida, 2012. – Ch. 3. – P. 63–80.
18. Harrod R.P., Willett A.Y., Kincaid M.A., Woods A.R. Injury and Re-injury among the Ancestral Pueblo and Fremont // Broken Bones, Broken Bodies: Bioarchaeological and Forensic Approaches for Accumulative Trauma and Violence / eds. C.E. Tegtmeyer, D.L. Martin. – Lanham: Lexington Books, 2017. – Ch. 4. – P. 61–79.
19. Herdt G. The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New Guinea. – Belmont: Wadsworth, 2006. – 178 p.
20. Hussain K., Wijetunge D., Grubnic S., Jackson I. A comprehensive analysis of craniofacial trauma // J. of Trauma. – 1994. – Vol. 36, iss. 1. – P. 34–47.
21. Jordana X., Galtés I., Turbat T., Batsukh D., García C., Isidro A., Giscard P.-H., Malgosa A. The warriors of the steppes: osteological evidence of warfare and violence from Pazyryk tumuli in the Mongolian Altai // J. Archaeol. Sci. – 2009. – Vol. 36, iss. 7. – P. 1319–1327.
22. Knüsel C., Smith M.J. The Osteology of Conflict: What does it all mean? // The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Confl ict. – L.; N. Y.: Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. – Р. 656–694.
23. Lessa A., Mendonça de Souza S.M.F. Broken Noses for the Gods: Ritual Battles in the Atacama Desert during the Tiwanaku Period // Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. – 2006. – Vol. 101, suppl. II. – P. 133–138.
24. Martin D.L., Harrod R.P. Bioarchaeological Contributions to the Study of Violence // Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. – 2015. – Vol. 156. – P. 116–145.
25. Maxeiner H., Ehrlich E. Site, Number and Depth of Wound on the Scalp in Falls and Blows – a contribution to the validity of the so-called hat brim rule // Archiv für Kriminologie. – 2000. – Vol. 205, N 3/4. – P. 82–91.
26. Monge J., Selinsky P. Patterns of violence against women in the Iron Age Town of Hasanlu, Solduz Valley, Iran // Women in Antiquity: Real Women across the Ancient World. – L.; N. Y.: Routledge; Taylor & Francis Group, 2016. – Ch. 10. – P. 138–155.
27. Novak S.A. Beneath the Façade: A Skeletal Model of Domestic Violence // Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains / eds. R. Gowland, C. Knüsel. – Oxford: Alden Press, 2006. – Ch. 16. – P. 238–252.
28. Sheperd J.P., Shapland M., Pearce N.X., Scully C. Pattern, severity and aetiology of injuries in victims of assault // J. of the Royal Society of Medicine. – 1990. – Vol. 83, iss. 2. – P. 75−78.
29. Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains / eds. J.E. Buikstra, D.H. Ubelaker. – Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1994. – 218 р. – (Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Ser.; N 44).
30. Walker P. Cranial Injuries as Evidence of Violence in Prehistoric Southern California // Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. – 1989. – Vol. 80. – P. 313–323.
31. Walker P.L. Wife Beating, Boxing, and Broken Noses: Skeletal Evidence for the Cultural Patterning of Violence // Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past. – Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, 1997. – Ch. 6. – P. 145–175.
For citation:
Tur S.S. Antemortem Cranial Injuries in the Altai Mountains Pastoralists of the Scythian and Xiongnu-Sarmatian Periods (5th Century BC to 5th Century AD). Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 2019;47(2):148-157. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.2.148-157
Views: 148
Email this article 