Notă privind câteva date antropologice referitoare la mormintele Belozerka dintre Dunăre și Nistru
Note on some anthropological data relating to the Belozerka burials between the Danube and the Dniester

Summary/Abstract: The final stage of the Bronze Age in the area of the plains between the Dniester and the Danube is represented by the archaeological sites of the Belozerka culture, which was the main/central cultural formation in the northern Pontic Plain in the Late Bronze Age (Hallstatt A - first half of period B; 13th-10th centuries BC). Currently, more than 300 graves attributed to this archaeological culture are known. The burial spaces are arranged in both tumuli and necropolises, combining tumular and flat burial rituals. According to observations, the representatives of Belozerka culture belonged to an anthropological type characterised by a dolichocranic skull, a strongly horizontally profiled facial profile, prominent nasal bones, etc. A well-defined relief can be seen on the skulls of the representatives of these communities, especially in the supraciliary/supraorbital region. The typological/phenotypic characteristics of the skeletons from the Belozerka graves allow, on the one hand, the identification of the features of one of the variants of the southern gracile Europoid type, specific to the ancient and modern populations of the Balkans. On the other hand, they help detect the influence of steppe features from the circumpontic area of the Volga region to the Lower Danube during the Late Bronze Age and the transition period to the Iron Age. This is not contradicted by the material culture complex of the Belozerka period, which combines pottery and working tools inherent to both the Srubnaya-Sabatinovka populations and the early Hallstatt cultures of Southeast Europe. To clarify the origin of these differences, additional interdisciplinary studies are needed – anthropological analyses (including phenotypic), radiocarbon analyses, stable isotope analysis, etc.

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