Artificial cranial deformation

There are various classifications of artificial cranial deformations. Among Russian anthropologists, the scheme of E.V. Zhirov (1940) is popular. As reference carriers of parietal deformation, he described samples from the Okunevo burials in Southern Siberia (Bronze Age), Zoroastrian and Nestorian medieval burials in Central Asia. However, later conclusions by E.V. Zhirov and other researchers concerning the deformation type in these series are contradictory: occipital, parietal, and occipital-parietal were noted. We evaluated the morphology of deformed male skulls using 3D geometric morphometrics, using the same samples as E.V. Zhirov, as well as other collections with the si­mi­lar braincase structural features in the cerebral region. 3D-models of skulls were obtained using RangeVision Spectrum scanner. On the cerebral section of each model, 42 equidistant semilandmarks were placed using 3D Slicer plug-in in the form of triangular patches bounded by three fixed landmarks in the craniometric points of bregma, right and left asterions. Procrustes and Principal Component ana­lyses were performed in the R-Studio. The analysis revealed that all of the late Okunevo and part of the Zoroastrian samples indeed have skulls with parietal deformation, characterized by a lowering of the cranial vault starting from bregma. In contrast, a part of the Zoroastrian and Nestorian skulls have the lowering of the vault, which begins in a more dorsal part — this variant can be called occipital-parietal. The remaining Nestorian skulls have occipital deformation. The usual typological terms are still convenient for descriptions, but they are subjective, and their correct/meaningful application requires methodological support using geometric morphometrics

Morphometrics · Principal component analysis · Skull · Superimposition · Typology · Zoroastrianism · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Morphological variations and asymmetry · Paleopathology and ancient diseases