The Yutian Water Cemetery Bronze Age Bone Physical Anthropology Research

Xinjiang, the westmost province of China, was the area where the oriental met the occidental. The populations in Xinjiang exhibit very high genetic diversity. However, few studies have been performed to reveal when the population admixture started. In this paper, we studied eighteen skulls from the Bronze Age Liushui graveyard in Katan in the southwest of Xinjiang by morphological observation and craniofacial measure. The Katan sample was then compared with other ancient samples from around Xinjiang using 17 craniometric values through UPGMA cluster analysis, principal components analysis, and multidimensional scaling. Further, we studied twenty skulls from this graveyard by non-metrical traits. The Katan sample was then compared with other 53 samples from Eurasia and North Africa using 20 non-metrical traits data combined with both male and female through principal components analysis, and then Neighbor-Joining cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling base on the Smith's mean measure of divergence. The results of craniometric study indicated that population sample of Liushui graveyard was mixed by western and eastern Eurasians, in which the Mediterranean of Caucasoid are more than the Mongoloid. The results of non-metric study indicated that population sample of Liushui graveyard was mixed by western and eastern Eurasians with strong similarity to the South Asian population. Therefore, we demonstrated that population admixture between east and west Eurasia can be traced back to as early as 1000 B. C. in southwest Xinjiang.