The Late Pleistocene through Recent Peoples of Northeast Africa: Measures of Affinity based on Dental Evidence

谁是埃及、努比亚和非洲之角的后更新世民族？它们的亲缘关系有多密切？他们是非洲东北部的本地人，移民，还是两者兼而有之？与最近的民族有连续性吗？这些以及其他长期存在的问题已经被无数非洲研究人员提出。然而，尽管有许多考古学和较少数量的基于生物学的研究，特别是在王朝人口中，关于这个问题的答案几乎没有一致意见。拟议的项目旨在建立在这些先前的研究基础上，特别是J Irish的几项牙科调查，其中比较了整个北部和撒哈拉以南非洲（n= 1,625个人）样本的36个牙齿特征。新项目的目标是以三种方式处理更具体、面向区域的问题。首先，将对东北非洲人（以及西亚和欧洲的比较样本）的横截面中多达5000个牙齿进行相同特征的检查，再加上32个牙齿测量。这项工作的目的是在我们所知甚少的情况下，辨别出跨越时间/空间的集体特征，并确定发生的趋势。其次，将使用推断统计来识别那些牙齿最相似的群体。人们普遍认为牙齿的相似性近似于遗传亲缘关系。这些数字衍生的亲缘关系可以测试现有的关于种群起源、关系、迁移和微进化的假设。以前，这些假设是通过人工证据或受环境和方法偏差影响的生物数据推导和检验的。牙科人类学是一个经过验证的领域，可以最大限度地减少这些因素。第三，研究结果将与已发表的基因、语言、文化和其他数据进行对比，以检验方法之间的一致性。这些目标一旦实现，将使人们更好地了解这个孕育了世界上一些最伟大文明的地区的人口历史。

Who were the post-Pleistocene peoples of Egypt, Nubia, and Africa's Horn? How closely related were they? Were they native to northeast Africa, immigrants, or both? Is there continuity with recent peoples? These, and other long-standing questions have been asked by countless African researchers. Yet, despite many archaeological and a lesser number of biological-based studies, particularly among Dynastic populations, there has been little agreement regarding the answers. The proposed project is intended to build upon these previous studies and, specifically, several dental investigations by J Irish -- in which 36 dental traits in samples throughout North and sub-Saharan Africa (n= 1,625 individuals) were compared. The objectives of the new project are to address the more specific, region-oriented questions in three ways. First, up to 5,000 dentitions in a cross-section of northeast Africans (and comparative West Asian and European samples), will be examined for the same traits, plus 32 dental measurements. This work will be done to discern collective traits across time/space beyond what little is known, and identify trends in occurrence. Second, those groups most dentally alike will be identified using inferential statistics. It is widely held that dental similarity approximates genetic relatedness. These numerically-derived affinities can then test existing hypotheses concerning population origins, relationships, migration, and microevolution. Previously, such hypotheses were derived and tested via artifactual evidence, or biological data subject to environmental and methodological bias. Dental anthropology is a proven field that minimizes these factors. Third, the findings will be contrasted with published genetic, linguistic, cultural, and other data to test for concordance among methods. These objectives, when met, will provide a better understanding of diachronic population history in a region that fostered some of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known.