Foreign elites from the Oxus civilization? A craniometric study of anomalous burials from Bronze Age Tepe Hissar

Discovery of a small number of individuals in the Period III necropolis at the large northern Iranian Bronze Age site of Tepe Hissar directly associated with a complex of imported artifacts raises the question of whether these individuals represent elites who had access to these exotic commodities, or an imposed foreign elite that may have brought these unusual artifacts from their homelands. The source of the atypical objects is believed to be the Oxus civilization of central Asia. This study investigates the identity of these individuals by employing canonical discriminant function analysis of 20 craniometric variables among 174 adult males from Tepe Hissar Period III and Oxus civilization males from Sapalli tepe and Djarkutan. Dicriminant function analysis provides a strong separation between Tepe Hissar Period III males and Oxus civilization males and a high level of correct assignation by sample (95.8%). Imposition of the five males associated with imported central Asian artifacts from the Period III necropolis indicates that the majority (4/5) are phenetically indistinguishable from other Period III Tepe Hissar males. The results indicate that these individuals most likely represent local elite inhabitants of Tepe Hissar, rather than the presence of an imposed foreign elite. However, given the scarcity of crucial specimens, especially females, and comparative skeletal series, this conclusion must remain tentative.