The Connection of Southern Siberia with the Population of the Saka Culture of Tian Shan and Semirechye

The Beginning of the Great Migration of Peoples

The Alai Saka from Chala and Sharta show the closest affinity with the Saka of Eastern Kazakhstan and Chirik-Rabad in the Aral Sea region, the population of the late Bronze Age forest-steppe Priobye, and the Bolsherechensk culture, i.e., with series that include low-faced Mongoloids to varying degrees. In the series of Eastern Kazakhstan Saka, there are both Europoid and Mongoloid skulls, and if they are separated, they will occupy a more defined position in the plane of the main components. In this case, the Europoids will shift towards the origin of coordinates to the series of Saka from Central and Northern Kazakhstan, the composite series of Tian Shan Saka, and brachycranial Europoids of Siberia. The Mongoloid component, characterized by hyperbrachycephaly, a wide, low, and flat face, low orbits, and a slightly protruding nose, will occupy the extreme position among the series that contain low-faced Mongoloids. The Alai Saka from Nura, Kara-Kungey, and Kurgak, which have equally expressed Europoid traits, show a completely different direction of connections. They resemble the skulls of the Bronze Age from Aymyrlyga (Tuva) and partly with the Saka of Pamir. All local groups of Saka from Tian Shan, Alai, and Semirechye are significantly distanced from the Andronovo culture of Kazakhtan.

The positioning of female groups in the plane of the first and second main components generally reveals the same connections as between male groups, although in some cases less distinctly. Female series are usually smaller in number. Some discrepancies are due to the fact that the anthropological composition of women and men in the populations drawn for comparison may not be the same.

Thus, the intergroup analysis of the main components determined the place of local groups of Saka from Tian Shan and Semirechye among other populations of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age and allows us to draw the following conclusions regarding their origin. First, the diverse anthropological composition of the Saka of Kyrgyzstan is confirmed. The series of skulls from individual burial mounds of Tian Shan and Alai are less similar to each other than each of them is to the series from other, sometimes quite distant territories. Among the Saka of Tian Shan, Alai, and Eastern Kazakhstan, a low-faced Mongoloid type is distinguished. However, while in Alai and Tian Shan low-faced Mongoloids have a noticeable admixture of Europoid traits, in Semirechye they appear in pure form, forming a mechanical mixture with Europoids. The formation of a mixed Mongoloid-Europoid type of Saka, who left burial mounds at Keden, Dzhiel-Aryk in Tian Shan, Chak, and Shar in Alai, apparently occurred in Southern Siberia, where the local Europoid population was intensively mixed with low-faced Mongoloids, at least since the Bronze Age. The low-faced Mongoloids among the Saka of Semirechye (V. Kazakhstan), who lack Europoid admixture, could have appeared there directly from the taiga zone of Western Siberia, where the original formation of that Mongoloid complex took place. In addition to low-faced Mongoloids, the Saka of Tian Shan also exhibit a Mongoloid component with larger facial dimensions, characteristic of the Central Asian race (Kurenkey). The admixture of the Central Asian racial type is also noted among the Saka of the Aral Sea region. The Saka of Kurenkey came to Tian Shan, apparently, also from Southern Siberia. Although the formation of Mongoloids of the Central Asian type is associated with more distant eastern regions, they are already noted among some populations of the Mountain Altai and Upper Priobye by the middle of the 1st millennium BC.

Evidence for this territory is the significant Europoid admixture among the men of Kurenkey, whose racial type is quite homogeneous. The Europoid component among the Saka of Tian Shan and Kazakhstan is practically the same and closely corresponds to the brachycranial Europoid populations of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Southern Siberia, with which it is apparently genetically related. The anthropological composition of the population of Tian Shan during the Bronze Age is still unknown. However, according to archaeological data, this area was a peripheral zone of the Andronovo culture of Kazakhstan, which provides certain grounds to suggest an anthropological unity between the Andronovo people of Central and Eastern Kazakhstan and the Andronovo people of Tian Shan. In any case, the Europoid groups of Saka from Tian Shan and Kazakhstan do not show continuity with the Andronovo population of Kazakhstan. The Europoids of Alai belong to a different anthropological layer – the East-Mediterranean type.

In conclusion, based on the conducted research of paleoanthropological materials, it can be stated that the origin of the population of the Saka culture of Tian Shan and Semirechye is directly connected to Southern Siberia.

The large-scale migratory wave from the east was anthropologically heterogeneous and included Europoid and mixed Mongoloid-Europoid groups, which remained sufficiently isolated, including in the new territory. In the overall mass of incoming nomads, the Europoid component quantitatively predominated. Some groups of newcomers advanced to Alai as well. Their arrival is associated with the emergence of Mongoloid admixture in this area.

However, the majority of the population of Alai was Europoid and was characterized by a completely different anthropological type not found among the Saka of Tian Shan and Kazakhstan. Perhaps they were descendants of the local population of the Bronze Age. The migratory wave from the east, which "covered" Tian Shan and Kazakhstan, reached the lower reaches of the Syr Darya in the Aral Sea region. According to anthropological data, its scale and extent are such that the conclusion of R. Ismagilov, who called the migration of the carriers of the early Scythian culture the beginning of the Great Migration of Peoples, does not seem exaggerated.

22 Signs of the Saka of Tian Shan