Abstract:

Tongwan City, located in Jingbian County, Shaanxi province, is the capital of Daxia in the Sixteen States period. It had lasted for 575 years, including Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Northern Song. Tongwan City lies in the agro-pastoral zone in North China, and has always been a place for people to migrate and communicate. This article refers to the methods listed in the “Anthropometric Manual” to analyze the craniofacial morphological characteristics of the human bones unearthed from the Tongwan City site. The results show that the ancient residents of Tongwan City were dominated by Asian Mongolian races. In terms of morphology, there were differences in ancient race types and the fusion of multiple ancient race types. In addition, there are individuals showing some traits of Europoid. The polymorphism and fusion of the craniofacial characteristics of the residents in the Tongwan city are consistent with the diachronic characteristics of ancient population evolution, and are related to the frequent population exchanges in the history of Tongwan City. The Europoid factor may be influenced by the Sogdians. The main composition of male and female residents may have different sources. As the replacement of major political power bodies, the proportion of farmers and herders also changes with it, to a certain extent.

Key words: Tongwan City site, Human skulls, Craniofacial features, Ancient race types