NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD 213 



unfavorable factors : Early marriages of women resulting in lowered 

 fertility, hi^Ii infant and female UK^rtality, lower longevity (in com- 

 parison with Russians) and general higher mortality of Nogais, Kara- 

 Kalpaks, Kirghiz, Turkomans, and others. These were doubtless due 

 to the former low level of social-economic relations, servile status of 

 women, etc., and are now showing signs of disappearing (lArkho). 



The important tables °^ of anthropometric data have been omitted 

 since the physical anthropologist can have ready access to them should 

 he so desire. 



PALEOANTHROPOLOGY OF THE LOWER VOLGA AREA 



In 1930 G. F. Debets ®^ measured ancient skeletal remains from 

 various Volga sites preserved in the Museum of the Kuibyshev 

 [formerly Samara] Society of Archaeology, History and Ethnog- 

 raphy, the Regional Museum of Saratov, and in the Central Museum 

 of the Volga-German A.S.S.R. at Engels. 



The earliest well-known sites from this area, characterized by a 

 microlithic industry, belong to a later period than the western stations 

 yielding geometric forms. Usually associated with these microliths 

 is pottery of the same type as the Eneolithic sites of the Drevne- 

 TAmnaia culture."® 



The burials contain flexed, stained skeletons, egg-shaped pottery, 

 and isolated flint, or, rarely, copper implements. This period is 

 characterized by the prevalence of hunting and fishing with a slight 

 development of animal domestication toward the end of the period and 

 a total absence of agriculture. 



According to Debets the crania were not Mongoloid in spite of the 

 great facial breadth. On the basis of the typical combination of a 

 low, orthognathous face with low orbits and a highly prominent nose, 

 Debets considers them to be definitely European. The great per- 

 centage of slanting foreheads with very strong browridges comparable 



8T Tables i to 4 include 20 measurements and observations on groups in 

 Siberia, Central Asia, Caucasus, and Crimea, and tlic Volpa area. The data, 

 obtained during the past 15 years, are made available here in English for the 

 first time. See AZH, No. i, pp. 47-64. 1936. 



88 Debets, G. F., Materialy po palcoantropologii SSSR: Nizhnee Povolzhe 

 [Materials for the palcoanthropolog)- of the U.S.S.R. : Lower Volga area]. 

 AZH. No. I, pp. 65-81. 1936. 



In September 1934 I met G. F. Debets at ^^GL^ where he is the leading 

 pliysical anthropologist of the younger generation. He has recorded considerable 

 anthropometric data among widely scattered groups. His publications are already 

 extremely valuable. (H. F.) 



»» "Culture of the Burying Grounds in Fosses." 



