On the Biological Distinctness of the Pit-grave (Yamnaya) People in the Northwestern Caspian: Cranial Evidence

The cranial series from the Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) burials of the northwestern Caspian is very different from other series associated with this culture. The population history of Eastern Europe in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age is reconstructed based on the multivariate analysis of Mesolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age groups. Most local Pit-Grave populations and those of the Khvalynsk and Sredni Stog cultures are shown to have descended from the Mesolithic groups of Eastern Europe. The Pit-Grave people of the northwestern Caspian evidently descended from a different population that appeared in Eastern Europe in the Neolithic.