Regional and temporal variations in skeletal morphology of the Nansei islanders

为了从骨骼形态上阐明南塞岛人的种群历史，我们调查了冲绳县不同地区和不同时期的骨骼遗骸。通过田野调查，主要在冲绳县教委博物馆收集古代标本资料，在墓地收集早期现代标本资料。根据Martin和Yamaguchi(1973,1980)的方法进行测量。为了检测南岛人的形态特征，用主成分分析方法计算了9个受试者与周围人群(2个绳门人，4个Yayoi人，4个现代日本人，4个现代日本人，4个现代日本人和Cnina人)的相关矩阵。古代南岛人的特征，即小颅骨，高头骨和短脸，与Tanegashima Yayoi人的特征非常相似。尽管我们没有发现现代南岛人在骨骼形态上的显著区域差异，从冲绳贝丘时期到中世纪时期，南城岛上的居民发生了重大的世俗变化。

To clarify population history of the Nansei islanders by skeletal morphology, we investigated skeletal remains from various areas and periods in Okinawa prefecture. We collected the data of ancient samples mainly at the museum of the educational committee of Okinawa prefecture, and that of early modern samples mainly at the burial sites through field surveys. Measurements were made according to Martin's methods and to Yamaguchi (1973,1980).For detecting morphological features of the Nansei islanders, principal component analysis was applied to the correlation matrix calculated from 9 cranial measurements of the subjects and other surrounding populations (2 Jomon, 4 Yayoi, 4 modern Japanese, Korea and Cnina).The features of the ancient Nansei islanders, i. e. that characterized by small cranial size, hyperbrachycrany and shorter face, closely resembled those of the Tanegashima Yayoi peoples.Though we could not find significant regional variations in skeletal morphology among the early modern Nansei islanders, significant secular change from the Okinawa shell mound period to the medieval period were found within the Nanasei islanders.