The biological affinities of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age : a regional dental non-metric approach.

This study investigated biological population affinities amongst Eastern
Mediterranean Chalcolithic and Bronze Age human skeletal samples. Seven hundred
and eighty-six human remains from eight different sites in Cyprus, Greece and Syria
were studied. The sites range in age from the Cypriot Chalco lithic (SouskiouVathyrkakas,
Lemba-Lakkous and Kissonerga-Mosphilia) to Cypriot Late Bronze
Age (Enkomi and Ayios Iakovos), Syrian Early Bronze (Jerablus-Tahtani) and Greek
Middle Bronze Ages (Lema and Asine). Age, sex and non-metric traits from the
dentition, crania and post-crania were recorded. Using the non-metric dental data the
biological affinities of these sites were determined. Two statistics were utilised with
the non-metric traits to determine biological affinities, the Mean Measure of
Divergence (MMD) and the Coefficient of e (D.e). The comparisons bet\veen the
sites from southwest Cyprus show all three sites, which are in close spatial
proximity, to be statistically biologically similar. Also they appeared to show some
relation to the Syrian Early Bronze age site of Jerablus-Tahtani. These findings are
in contrast to the different material cultures of these two regions, which may suggest
the biological relation may be based on the ancestral contact between Cyprus and the
mainland. The Cypriot Late Bronze sites show a mixed relation with the
Chalco lithic samples with some relations with the Middle Bronze Age Greek
samples and Syria. Where geographical distance is usually a factor in these types of
comparisons, this study suggests time may also be a factor.