Биологична реконструкция на ранносредновековното население на българските земи
Biological Reconstruction of the Early Mediaeval Population in the Bulgarian Lands

Summary/Abstract: A biological reconstruction of the population during the most important period of Bulgarian history, the period when the Bulgarian State and nationality was being formed, has been made by means of metric, racial diagnostic, palaeodemographic and palaeopathological studies. Six hundred skeleton?. from necropolises, dated from the 6th to the 9th century were studied. The palaeodemographic analysis showed an average longevity of 45—50 years in adults. Palaeopathological data provide information about the most frequently met with diseases. Traumatic damage to the skull and the post-cranial skeleton and their frequent complications are characteristic of the epoch. Palaeodontological research shows reduced intensity of caries compared with Late Antiquity, which indicates a sharp change in the way of life and nutrition, owing to the ethnic changes which set in in the early Middle Ages. The racial and typological research sheds light on the evolution of racial types and explains it as an epochal process and as the result of migrational processes which predominated at a given moment. Attention is drawn to the customs (artificial deformation of the head) and curative manipulations (symbolical trepanation of the skull) as an ethnical mark of Proto-Bulgarian affiliation.

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