ИСТИНА

Hyperostosis Frontalis Interna (HFI) is an idiopathic condition manifested by bone formation involving the endocranial surface of the frontal bone. The etiology of HFI is uncertain (unknown genetic predisposition, pressing of environmental factors or metabolic diseases). HFI in modern people is associated with post-menopausal women (40-60%) and elderly men (22-35%). Different investigations showed that HFI was usually rare in antiquity because the life span was shorter then today, but in archeological specimens often the frequency of HFI of male cases is higher than in clinical samples. Thus, the occurrence of HFI in archaeological male groups is not directly related with age. This analysis aims to investigate the impact of lifestyle on the prevalence of HFI, focusing on the roles of sex-age and daily life. There were studied 647 skulls from different series of Bronze Age pastoralists and agriculturalists from Northern Caucasus, and Sarmatian nomads (4th BC – 2nd AD) from steppe area between Volga and Don. Our results confirmed the previous data that in archaeological series often there is prevalence of HFI in men, not in women. The material, presented different models of economic-cultural types, gave possibility to look for the reasons of occurrence of HFI. In all variants of the models the high prevalence of HFI was associated with populations of agriculturalists and pastoralists versus the nomads. Apparently, this trend can be related with mobility of the groups studied. The least number of HFI is noted among the most mobile groups of nomads. Interesting is the tendency that all the economic-cultural models demonstrate the prevalence of the HFI in young men versus young women. The results are discussed in the fields of biology of HFI and social organization of gender everyday life. Grant RFBR 17-29-04125.