The gender and age structure of the population of the Petrovsky and Alakul cultures based on the materials of funerary monuments

The demographic structure of the population is reconstructed based on the sex and age definitions of the skeletons of the Petrovsky and Alakul cultures of the late stage of the Bronze Age. The historiographical information on the study of this aspect of the vital activity of populations is given. The analysis of the materials of these archaeological cultures was carried out both on the basis of traditional approaches and using the method of multidimensional statistics of the main components. Calculations of demographic indicators show high infant mortality, which affected the decrease in the average life span in the total group. The average age of mortality and excluding children is also small. The indicator of infant mortality in the Alakul group is close to those of the Sintashta and Srubnaya groups of the Volga-Ural region, which date from a slightly earlier time, and for the Petrovsky group this value is close to the Potapov group. The sex and age indicators of different samples of the Alakul culture differ. This is well shown in the series localization graph based on multidimensional analysis data. The Alakul samples were located in different sectors of the graph, thus demonstrating different demographic trends. Most of them still have a certain similarity in the analyzed indicators. When comparing the series between groups with the involvement of groups of other archaeological cultures, it turned out that the Alakul samples are quite sharply opposed to those of the Eastern European steppes of the previous time, in particular the Yamnaya and catacomb. In the composition of the Late Bronze Age groups, firstly, the proximity of the consolidated Alakul and Petrovsky series to each other is traced, and in parallel their presence in the circle of synchronous series of the log culture of the south of the Middle Volga region. It should be noted that almost all the series of the late Bronze Age, including various Alakul and Petrovsky, are demographically distinctly different from the indicators of the population living in almost the same territories in the initial phase of this era. This definitely indicates a new way of life, apparently connected, first of all, with the transition from mobile cattle breeding to sedentarism.