ABSTRACT
The chapter provides a brief overview of the population paleopathological data of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Culture (BMAC) and some adjacent regions. A formalized comparison of some ancient groups according to the frequency of occurrence of several stress markers is presented. It shows that groups from Margiana (Gonur Depe) and Bactria (Buston VI) are close to each other, as well as to the series from the Iranian and the Harappan territories. Judging from the paleopathological data, the mechanisms of adaption to the influencing environmental biological and social factors differed significantly between the agricultural and pastoral steppe population. The given data corresponds to the farming population’s “idealized model of subsistence systems correlated with demography and health” proposed by J. Lukacs.
