肢骨的形态结构可以反映人类进化、古代人群的生存适应性活动和生存环境等重要信息。基于“骨骼功能适应”和“杠杆原理”,有学者对不同生计方式的古代人群下肢股骨开展了大量的研究工作,但是,国内外尚未有关于农业人群和游牧人群股骨之间差异性研究的报道。本文选取两个具有代表性的古代人群,即内蒙古和林格尔土城子戍边农业人群和内蒙古林西井沟子游牧人群进行对比研究。通过对股骨骨干中部横断面生物力学分析发现,农业人群股骨粗壮度与游牧人群之间具有显著差异。前者的平均粗壮度较大,后者女性组下肢骨的活动强度明显较小,这可能与游牧人群经常从事骑马活动而下肢骨活动强度相对较少有关。农业人群股骨指数的变异范围均大于游牧人群,这可能与前者男性的士兵身份有关;同时,也提示土城子男性组股骨所反映的行为活动信息并不代表真正意义上的纯农业人群下肢骨行为模式,而是一种农业和士兵行为的混合模式。在性别分工上,井沟子组的男女性均从事骑马活动,两侧股骨受力较为一致,在两侧不对称性程度和骨干横断面形状上的男女差异不大;男性股骨的粗壮度要明显大于女性,这与井沟子组男性还从事一定的狩猎行为有关。与游牧人群女性较为纤细的股骨不同,土城子组女性作为典型的农业人群代表,其下肢骨整体的活动强度较大,几乎与同组的男性和井沟子组男性相当,组内的性别差异相对较小;骨干横断面形状的显著性差异说明,土城子组内部男性和女性的行为活动方式存在明显的性别分工。本文研究结果说明农业人群女性的下肢骨活动强度较大,在行为活动方式上,戍边农业人群具有更为明显的性别分工。

The morphological structure of limb bones can reflect important information, i.e. human evolution, adaptive behavior of ancient populations and living environment, and vice versa. Most of these studies are based on “Bone Functional Adaptation” and “Beam Model”. Based on these, physical anthropologists have done a lot of research on femora of ancient populations with different lifestyle. However, there have been no related published studies about the femoral differences between agricultural and nomadic populations. Here, we provided detailed comparative assessment of femora from two archaeological sites, i.e. Tuchengzi and Jinggouzi from Inner Mongolia, with agricultural and nomadic lifestyle separately. Specifically, we analyzed diaphyseal structure of femoral three-dimensional visual digital model using methods of cross-sectional geometry. There was significant difference between Tuchengzi and Jinggouzi population. The mean level of femoral robusticity of Tuchengzi agricultural population was found to be larger than that of Jinggouzi nomadic population. The Jinggouzi female sample was significantly less robust than other groups, which should be correlated with the habitual riding behavior. The soldier status of Tuchengzi male sample may lead to the relatively larger variation range of femoral biomechanical index than that of Jinggouzi. It also indicated that the behavior information reflected by Tuchengzi male did not represent the typical agricultural population, but a mixture activity pattern. In terms of gender division of labor, the habitual riding behavior made the mechanical loading on bilateral femora relatively symmetry and similar cross-sectional shape of femoral midshaft, which led to little gender difference of femoral bilateral asymmetry in Jinggouzi sample. However, the males from nomadic population are involved in hunting behavior, which induces the significantly more robust femora that that of female. Compared to the slender femora of females in nomadic population, females in Tuchengzi sample, as the representative of the typical agricultural population, had almost the same robusticity as males of the same group, meaning that the agricultural females were more active in daily life. This also led to the relatively small gender difference of femoral robusticity within Tuchengzi sample. However, there is distinct difference of cross-sectional shape on femoral midshaft between Tuchengzi males and females, which suggesting that the activity pattern is significantly different between males and females of Tuchengzi sample.