A stress or migration marker (a study of the auditory canal exostosis in the skeleton material of the Middle Bronze Age population from the Lower Volga region burial grounds)

The paper attempts to analyze the incidences of ear exostoses revealed in the skeletal remains of the Middle Bronze Age population of the Lower Volga region. In total, we have revealed 4 incidences of bone (skeletal) formations in the ear canal. The pathologies were observed predominantly in men over 20 years old. The paper presents a description of paleoanthropological material and provides a detailed interpretation of archaeological sites the skeletal remains originated from. We have examined hypothesis of ear exostosis occurrence in the Middle Bronze Age people of the Lower Volga region. The condition may be caused by stress arising from exposure to climatic factors, a specific lifestyle and regular natural inflammatory ear processes. However, the appearance of ear exostoses in the Middle Bronze Age population in the Lower Volga region is most likely to be explained by relocation of some groups from the Trans-Caucasian, Northern Caucasian or Northern Black sea regions. This assumption corresponds to the results of the paleoecological, archaeological and craniological analysis confirming the likely migration of the population of the Trans-Caucasian, Northern Caucasian and the Northern Black sea regions as a result of an ecological crisis at the end of the III — the beginning of the II millennium BC to the territory of the Lower Volga region