Whom Did the Karasuk People Resemble?

Abstract

To test Yuri Rychkov’s claim that the physical type of the Karasuk people was identical to that of the highlanders of Western Pamir, 24 male Karasuk cranial samples were subjected to a multivariate comparison with 59 samples representing other cultures and periods. Karasuk people proved closest, not to those Pamiris whom Rychkov had included in his study (Goranis, Ishkashimis, Wakhanis, and Rushanis) but to those whom he had excluded because of Kirghiz admixture – the Shugnanis. The admixture appears to have been added, not so much to the indigenous southern component present in other Pamiris, as to that associated with Andronovo immigrants from the steppe. This explains the likely similarity of medieval Shugnanis (and, accordingly, the Karasuk people) to modern Uzbeks retaining tribal identities and northern Tajiks.