THE POPULATION OF OLBIA IN THE FIRST CENTURIES AD BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Authors: Nazarova T. , Rudych T. 
Published: January 2025

Anthropological materials date from the Greco-Roman period of Olbia (1st—3rd centuries AD). Most of the finds can be dated to the 1st—2nd centuries AD, there are the assemblages with a narrower dating — the 2nd century.
The main part of the series consists of bone remains from the western part of the Olbia necropolis where, according to the researchers, wealthy people were buried. Several skeletons from the northern part of the Olvian necropolis were involved in analysis. The material comes from the burial structures of different types: earthen crypts, regular graves, niche graves. The material from earthen crypts which, most likely, were the family tombs is dominated in the series.
The total series of male skulls is characterized by a long, narrow, mid-height cranium, which is dolichocranial in shape. The forehead is medium wide, the angle of inclination of the frontal bone is medium. The face is of medium height, narrow in absolute dimensions. According to the upper face index, it falls into the mesen category, but with a lepton tendency. The horizontal profiling of the face is sharp. The face is orthognathic. The orbits are medium in size and mesoconch in the orbital index. The nose is medium high, narrow. The bones of the nose protrude strongly, the bridge of the nose is high.
The female series in the average appearance is characterized by a long, medium-wide skull. Its height is on the border of medium and significant values. The skull is mesocranial in shape. The frontal bone is medium wide, the angle of inclination belongs to the medium category.
The face is medium high, medium wide, according to the index finger is mesen. Its horizontal profiling is sharp. The face is orthognathic. The orbits are medium-high, serose-wide, they are mesoconch-shaped according to the index. The nose is medium high, narrow. The bones of the nose protrude strongly. The bridge of the nose is high.
Men’s and women’s series have been considered in the circle of chronologically close series of Europe. According to the results of intergroup analysis of the population, the male series of the first centuries AD from Olbia shows the closest statistical similarity to the Chersonesus series of the 1st—4th centuries AD. The male population of Olbia and Chersonesus show the maximum distance of the inhabitants of Northern Pontic antique cities from the Scythian and Sarmatian series. During the Roman Age Olbia and Chersonesus were in the zone of Roman influence, and Roman legions were periodically stationed there. Perhaps at that time there was an influx of immigrants from the Western Pontic region, which was reflected to a greater extent in the composition of the male part of the inhabitants of both Olbia and Chersonesus. Infiltration of Iranian-speaking people into the population of these cities, if it took place indeed, was not significant. Iranian influences on the formation of the population in the anthropological material are well recorded in the materials from the Bosporan cities.
The total female series from Roman Olbia demonstrates the morphological and statistical similarity, first of all, with groups from the Late Scythian hill-forts of the Lower Dnieper: Zolota Balka, Mykolaivka-Kozatska (materials of the 2nd century BC — 2nd century AD), series from several Late Scythian burial grounds of the Crimea — Belyaus and Scythian Neapolis (Eastern burial ground). Among the Northern Pontic antique cities this series is statistically and morphologically closest to the sample from Chersonesus.
Most likely, the female population of Roman Olbia and the Lower Dnieper Late Scythian hill-forts had a large extent common genetic basis. It is possible that during hard times for Olbia and the region there was a periodic outflow of population from Olbia to the hillforts or opposite. The population of the individual Late Scythian groups of the Crimea, as well as Late Scythian sites of the Lower Dnieper, was formed primarily from two components, Scythian and Hellenic.
In our series from the necropolis of Olbia, deformed skulls are not recorded, and the Olbian groups are statistically very distant from the Early, Middle, and Late Sarmatians.