To study the issue of ethnic identity of the population with artificially deformed practice

Abstract

The article examines the practice of artificial cranial deformation across various geographically and chronologically distinct cultures. The earliest known deformations date back to the 19th millennium BCE from Shanidar Cave (Iraq) and some Neolithic cultures of the Near East. In Georgia, the earliest evidence is found in the second half of the 4th millennium BCE in Chiatura. The highest percentage of deformation (33.3%) is recorded in Early Medieval Samtavro burials, mostly in circular forms achieved through circumferential bandaging of the skull.