See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24252915 Cranial Discrete Traits in a Byzantine Population and Eastern Mediterranean Population Movements Article in Human Biology · November 2008 DOI: 10.3378/1534-6617-80.5.535 · Source: PubMed CITATIONS READS 17 886 2 authors: Francois X Ricaut Marc Waelkens Paul Sabatier University - Toulouse III KU Leuven 149 PUBLICATIONS 2,718 CITATIONS 191 PUBLICATIONS 3,309 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: analyse multi-sources View project Kalimantan Rock Art View project All content following this page was uploaded by Francois X Ricaut on 02 June 2014. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. 1 Cranial Discrete Traits in a Byzantine Population and Eastern 2 Mediterranean Population Movements 3 4 5 f. x. ricaut1 and m. waelkens1,2 6 7 8 Abstract Since the beginning of the Holocene, the Anatolian region has been a crossroads for populations and civilizations from Europe, Asia, and 9 the Near to Middle East, with increasing interactions since the Bronze Age. 10 In this context, we examine cranial discrete traits from a Byzantine population 11 from southwest Turkey, excavated at the archeological site of Sagalassos; the 12 site displays human occupation since the 12th millennium b.p. To investigate [First Page] 13 the biological history of this population, we analyzed the frequency distribu- 14 tion of 17 cranial discrete traits from Sagalassos and 27 Eurasian and African [535], (1) 15 populations. Ward’s clustering procedure and multidimensional scaling anal- 16 yses of the standardized mean measure of divergence (MMDst), based on trait 17 frequencies, were used to represent the biological affinity between popula- Lines: 0 to 32 tions. Our results, considered within a large interpretive framework that takes 18 ——— 19 into account the idea that populations are dynamic entities affected by various influences through time and space, revealed different strata of the Sagalas- -1.40256pt PgVar 20 sos biological history. Indeed, beyond an expected biological affinity of the ——— 21 Sagalassos population with eastern Mediterranean populations, we also de- Normal Page 22 tected affinities with sub-Saharan and northern and central European popula- PgEnds: TEX 23 tions. We hypothesize that these affinity patterns in the Sagalassos biological 24 package are the traces of the major migratory events that affected southwest 25 Anatolia over the last millennia, as suggested from biological, archeological, [535], (1) 26 and historical data. 27 28 Since the beginning of the Neolithic period, the eastern part of the Mediterranean 29 basin and especially the Anatolian region, has been an area of interaction between 30 cultures and populations from Europe, northeast Africa, the Near to Middle East, 31 and the Eurasian steppe (Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza 1984; Bellwood and Ren- 32 frew 2002; Richards et al. 2000). 33 The Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods have been relatively well documented 34 through numerous findings throughout southern Anatolia and upper Mesopotamia. 35 Nevertheless, the increasing number of archeological excavations and information 36 37 1Center for Archaeological Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, 3001 Heverlee, 38 Belgium. 39 2Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Blijde Inkomststraat 21, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. 40 41 Human Biology, October 2008, v. 80, no. 5, pp. 535–564. 42 Copyright © 2008 Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201-1309 43 key words: cranial discrete traits, biodistance analysis, mean mea- 44 sure of divergence, byzantine population, sagalassos, anatolia. BOOKCOMP, Inc. — Wayne State University Press / Page 535 / 1st proof / Human Biology 80-5 / October 2008 536 / ricaut and waelkens 1 from ancient texts (e.g., Assyrian and Urartian annals, Hittite and Achaemenid 2 archives, and Greek, Roman, and Byzantine literary and epigraphic sources) make 3 the history of this area relatively better known from the second millennium b.c. 4 onward. The findings show that important cultural changes occurred in this region 5 since the Bronze Age because of increasing international contacts over a large area 6 (e.g., mainland Greece, the Aegean Islands, Anatolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia) 7 and development of often culturally overlapping and interacting civilizations (Ed- 8 wards et al. 2000; Sahoglu 2005). In this context, Anatolia occupied a key location 9 as a natural bridge between Europe and Asia and has been strongly influenced 10 through cultural, commercial, and population contacts from western, southern, 11 eastern, and northern neighboring regions since the Bronze Age: Hittite city-states 12 in central and south Anatolia (19th–12th century b.c.); the Arzawa federation in the 13 west (15th–12th century b.c.); Minoan (early 2nd millennium b.c. to 15th century 14 b.c.) and Mycenaean (15th–12th century b.c.) colonization of the west coast; the [536], (2) 15 Urartu kingdom in the east (10th– 8th century b.c.); Phrygian, Lydian, and Lycian 16 kingdoms in the west (12th–6th century b.c.); the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 17 including all of Anatolia (6th–4th century b.c.); the Roman republic and imperial Lines: 32 to 36 18 provinces (2nd century b.c.–5th century a.d.); Persian raids from the 3rd century ——— 19 a.d.; Byzantine civilization (6th–15th century a.d.); Arabic incursions from the 0.0pt PgVar 20 7th century a.d.; and the arrival of nomadic tribes from Central Asia from the 11th ——— 21 century a.d. (Boardman et al. 1984; Edwards et al. 2000; Mitchell 1994, 1995). Normal Page 22 The Anatolian population history is thus the result of complex processes involving PgEnds: TEX 23 different population groups for which the impact and contribution to the biological 24 diversity of the Anatolian population is relatively unknown. 25 Molecular genetic analysis of the modern Anatolian population has gen- [536], (2) 26 erally shown affinity with the Western Eurasian population group, despite the 27 presence of a substantial amount of lineages shared by Central Asian populations 28 and a few specific African lineages (Calafell et al. 1996; Cinniog¢lu et al. 2004; 29 Di Benedetto et al. 2001; Luis et al. 2004; Nasidze et al. 2004; Quintana-Murci 30 et al. 2004; Tambets et al. 2000). However, these results are limited by the fact 31 that the genetic structure of modern human populations has been influenced by 32 many historic, demographic, and genetic events (migration episodes, gene flow, 33 and genetic drift) that could have obscured the evolutionary history of Anatolian 34 populations (e.g., the presence of East Eurasian lineages in the current Turkish 35 population resulted from the immigration of nomadic groups from Central Asia in 36 the 11th century a.d.; Di Benedetto et al. 2001). In this context, analysis of ancient 37 populations appears to be a promising way to investigate population history and 38 to validate ethnogenetic hypotheses based on modern data. 39 Despite progress in genetic and biochemical analyses, the morphological 40 analysis of human remains is still the most frequently used method, and it is the 41 initial step to studying variability of ancient human populations. Several studies 42 based on morphological analysis from human skeletons from this geographic area 43 have been published, but they focused mainly on more ancient time periods (late 44 Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic) and on issues that do not directly involve the BOOKCOMP, Inc. — Wayne State University Press / Page 536 / 1st proof / Human Biology 80-5 / October 2008 Craniometrics in a Byzantine Population / 537 1 origin and evolution of Anatolian populations (Bar-Yosef 1998; Bocquentin 2003; 2 Erdal 2008; Faerman et al. 2007; Hemphill 1998; Pearson 1999; Ullinger et al. 3 2005) and are rarely based on analysis of cranial discrete traits from Anatolians or 4 neighboring populations (Berry and Berry 1967, 1972; Hanihara and Ishida 2001a, 5 2001b; Parras 2004). 6 In this context the excavation of more than 50 tombs (11th–13th century 7 a.d.) at the (Hellenistic to Byzantine) Sagalassos archeological site (southwest- 8 ern Turkey) gives us a rare opportunity to address questions concerning the ori- 9 gin and evolution of this population up to the mid-Byzantine period. Within the 10 framework of the Sagalassos project, research is restricted to the period preceding 11 the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in a.d. 1453. To fulfill this 12 purpose, we analyzed cranial discrete traits from this population and examined 13 biodistances with 27 Eurasian and African populations. Indeed, the analysis of 14 cranial discrete traits is one of the most efficient morphological approaches to [537], (3) 15 investigating interpopulation relationships (Berry and Berry 1967, 1972; Crubézy 16 1999; Donlon 2000; Hallgrimsson et al. 2004; Hanihara et al. 2003; Hanihara and 17 Ishida 2001a–d; Hauser and DeStefano 1989; Stefan and Chapman 2003; Sutter Lines: 36 to 53 18 and Mertz 2004), because discrete cranial traits provide biological distances sim- ——— 19 ilar to those found in genetic and other morphological analyses (Cavalli-Sforza et -0.42pt PgVar 20 al. 1994; Hanihara 2008; Hanihara et al. 2003; Howells 1995; Manica et al. 2007). ——— 21 However, even if there is a good correspondence between the results of biodis- Normal Page 22 tance studies using different kinds of data [see Relethford’s