Diachronic Evidence in Nonmetric Morphological Characters of Teeth in Armenian Highland and Georgia Populations

Abstract

The aim of the study is the assessment of biological distance between populations from Arme-nian highland and Georgia based on the frequency of nonmetric odontological traits. These traits are characterized by high inter-population differentiation, low sexual dimorphism, and relatively small intra and inter observer recordation error. This paper presents the results of the odontological differentiation of human populations from Armenian highland and Georgia. The comparative analysis was carried out on 12 populations. Trait frequencies for all populations were analysed using principal component analysis. Results support the following conclusions: The populations of Armenian highland and Georgia can be differentiated as far as the frequency of odontological traits are concerned. Biocultural diversity of ancient Transcaucasian populations has not been studied extensively, therefore delineating some of the patterns of phenotypic variation may be useful for understanding their ongoing evolution.