A Research On The Human Skeletal Remains From Northern Wei Dynasty Graveyard In Datong Dongxin Square,Shanxi

Tuo-Ba Xianbei established the Northern Wei Dynasty at Shengle in 368 CE,moved the capital to Pingcheng in 398 CE,moved the capital again to Luoyang in494 CE.Northern Wei's conomic and political strength incerased significantly during the Pingcheng era,Datong and its surrounding areas were also developed on a large scale,and various ethnic groups,including the Han and Xianbei,merged and interacted here.From the Dongxin sauqre sites,the largest Northern Wei Dynasty cemetery has been found and excavated in the Pingcheng area,the abundant skeletal remains provide a oortunity to study the people in this area and their lifestyle,health status,and relationships with the surrounding ethnic groups.The skeletal remains in tombs of Northern Wei Dynasty from Dongxin square site of Datong have been studied in this dissertation mainly by combining cranial measurements and statistics to study the physical characteristics and population composition of theis residents and to explore the flow status between this group and the surrounding population.The results show that the skull morphology of the ancient residents in Dongxin cemetery is close to the East Asia Type and the Northeast Asia Type of modern Mongolian.The physical characteristics of the ancient residents of the Northern Wei Dynasty in Dongxin squre show the mixed characteristics of the Changle group and the Nanjiao group in Datong area by means of Euclidean distance coefficient and cluster analysis,and the ethnic types are complex and diverse.The author thinks that main ethnic composition of Dongxin Northern Wei Group was Ancient Central Plain Type which may have been nfluenced by Xianbei and other ethnic groups.Pingcheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty was the economic,political and cultural center at that time.The integration of many ethnic groups led to the complexity and diversity of the physical characteristics of the ancient residents in Dongxin Square Graveyard.In addition,4 individuals showed Caucasoid feature morphologically.Combined with the historical records and archaeological background,these individuals were related to merchants from Central Asia or West Asia,which also reflects the openness and inclusiveness of Datong as a trade center at that time.Demography,palaeopathology and other methods were used to study the population composition,disease and health status of the Dongxin Group.The gender structure of Dongxin graveyard population was 0.88:1;the distribution trend of death age consistent for both sexes,which reached the peak in the prime of life and showed a decreasing trend from this center to both ends.As a whole,the rate of trauma among Dongxin population was low,social relations was harmonious and social conditions was relatively stable.The multiple types of skeletal pathology included neoplastic diseases,infectious diseases,nutritional and metabolic diseases,congenital abnormalities and heterotopic ossification,etc.we also gained an intuitive understanding on the body shape of the Dongxin population through the calculation of stature,body mass and bone robusticity.