The age and sex structure of the population based on materials from the Eneolithic burial sites of the Middle Volga Region

The paper describes the sex and age structure of the Chalcolithic era population in the Middle Volga. The materials of burial sites of different localization were used, in total – 304 individuals. Historiographic information on the Eneolithic burial grounds of the region is presented. Various approaches to the interpretation of anthropological materials, the accumulation of new sources, as well as the improvement of methods of paleodemographic analysis determine the periodic appeal to the problem of the ancient societies life features. The сross-group analysis was carried out using the method of principal components of multivariate statistics. There is some similarity for the anthropological series in terms of the indicators of high mortality of children and men survival to old age. Differences can also be traced. The characteristics of the dynamics of human mortality based on the materials of the earliest Eneolithic burial ground Ekaterinovsky Cape brings it closer to the indicators of the Neolithic burial grounds of Eastern Europe. The age-sex structure of the population of the Khvalynsk culture of the developed Eneolithic is close to that which was previously given for other populations of the Eurasian era. It has been confirmed that the change in demographic indicators in a favorable direction among the Eneolithic societies in previous times is associated with the expansion of economic systems that have acquired a complex nature, combined agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting and fishing.