72 Section HUMAN DIVERSITY MAPPING DENTAL MARKERS IN EURASIAN POPULATIONS: WHAT WAS HIDDEN IN TABLE DATA? <...> Kashibadze Vera Institute of Arid Zones, Southern Scientifi c Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov-on-Don, Russia The study aims to consider numerous dental data from Eurasian populations in a spatial and temporal context. <...> The maps provide the evidence of the four-cusped LM2 to be a constant marker of western Eurasian populations, while the four-cusped LM1 turns to be an eastern trait in the Upper Paleolithic and early Holocene. <...> The most intense dispersal of a similar combination from Asia to the west is traced in the Early Metal and Bronze Ages, mainly along the steppe belt of the continent. <...> The results of the study suggest that LM1 and LM2 evolved independently in Eurasian populations, thus marking two separate ancestral groups. <...> Key words: phenogeography, Eurasia, dental markers, lower molars, gracilization, population history Contact information: Kashibadze Vera, e-mail: verdari@gmail.com. <...> ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUTHERN URALIAN AND FOREST-STEPPE VOLGA VARIETIES OF THE SINTASHTA AND POTAPOVKA CULTURES, MIDDLE TO LATE BRONZE AGE TRANSITION Khokhlov Alexander1 , Kitov Egor2 1State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, Samara, Russia 2Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia The study of the Bronze Age sites in the Southern Uralian and Volga steppes is crucial for addressing many issues of Eurasian prehistory. <...> The discovery of a number of archaeological sites dating to the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age, and in particular of a series of fortifi ed settlements of Arkaim type, resulted in a revision of the existing periodization of the archaeological cultures in the region, and of the views concerning their origins. <...> We have had an opportunity to study skeletal materials from the Sintashta-Arkaim sites in Southern Urals and from the forest-steppe Potapovka sites of the Volga region, which are culturally related (materials are stored at the Volga State Socio-Humanitarian Academy in Samara). <...> Despite the evidence of military activity in the society (fortifi ed settlements, chariots, weapons), a small number of injuries suggests that Sintashta and Potapovka populations were involved in confl icts only occasionally. <...> We therefore conclude that one must concentrate on elite burials to identify the founders of the Sintashta and Potapovka traditions in this archaeologically homogenous and, at the same <...>