The Morphology of Human Teeth from Afontova Gora II, Southern Siberia, and Their Status Relative to the Dentition of Other Upper Paleolithic Northern Eurasians

The Morphology of Human Teeth from Afontova Gora II, Southern Siberia, and Their Status Relative to the Dentition of Other Upper Paleolithic Northern Eurasians

A.V. Zubova and T.A. Chikisheva.

The article describes fi ve teeth from a mandible found in 2014 at Afontova Gora II, dated to 16–12 ka BP. The crown morphology is rather archaic, the odontoglyphic pattern is complex, and no eastern or western markers were detected. The crowns are large whereas the roots are short. The closest parallels are found in the dentition of the Upper Paleolithic child from Listvenka, southern Siberia. The peculiar trait combination shown by those two individuals and denoted as southern Siberian, had probably originated in the Altai and Sayan piedmont. This dental pattern is neutral with regard to the east to west differentiation vector and may be independent of the eastern and western dental meta-races.

Keywords: Dentition, Upper Paleolithic, southern Siberia, Afontova Gora II.