224 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 



classified the Europeoid element among his group of western Kalmyks 

 as being of the western Caucasian mesocephalic type ["Pontic race" 

 after Bunak ^^]. 



A series of Torgut skulls from Jugar investigated earlier by 

 Reicher were reexamined by Levin and Trofimova. Although the 

 Torguts were the principal component of the Kalmyks in the seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth centuries, no traces of Europeoid admixture 

 were discovered. From this the authors conclude that Europeoid 

 elements were absent in the composition of the Central Asian immi- 

 grants into the Volga region, who formed the chief component ele- 

 ment of the Kalmyk people. 



Thus, the authors conclude that the Kalmyks acquired these 

 Europeoid elements after their emigration and during the subsequent 

 periods of formation of the Kalmyk feudal union on the territory of 

 the Lower Volga and the North Caucasus. The "Pontic" elements 

 in this area are found since the Scytho-Sarmatian period,^* later being 

 present among the Tatars of the Golden Horde ^^ and among the 

 modem Nogais,-*' who were close neighbors of the Kalmyks. 



The same Europeoid admixture is also found among the western 

 Circassians.^'^ There is also some trustworthy historical testimony 

 regarding intermarriage between the Kalmyks and the Adighe. Thus, 

 historical and anthropological data agree. 



According to Palmov,^^ Shcheglov,-^ IArkho,^° and Cheboksarov, 

 the Kalmyk racial type was strongly afifected by intermixture with 

 the Turkomans [of North Caucasus]. 



Levin and Trofimova examined lArkho's conclusions identifying 

 the Europeoid element among the Turkomans of the Mangyshlak 

 Peninsula with a dolichocephalic element present in its purest form 

 among the lomud Turkomans of Central Asia. They came to the con- 



23 Bunak, V. V., Crania Armenica. Moscow, 1927. 



2* Debets, G., Materials for the paleoanthropology of the Lower Volga. AZH, 

 No. I, 1936. 



25 Trofimova, T. A., Craniological description of the Golden Horde Tatars. 

 AZH, No. 2, 1936. 



26Molkov, A. v., KalmykI [Kalmyks]. Moscow, 1928. 



27 Levin, V. I., Ethnogeographical distribution of certain racial traits amongst 

 the populations of North Caucasus. AZH, No. 2, 1932. 



28 Palmov, N. N., Studies in the history of Volga Kalmyks. 4 vols. Astrakhan, 

 1926-1929. 



29 Shcheglov, L A., Turkomans and Nogais in the Government of Stavropol. 

 Stavropol, ISID. 



so lArkho, A. L, Turkomans of Khoresm [Khwarazm] and North Caucasus. 

 AZH, Nos. 1-2, 1933. 



