The first archaeoparasitological data on the Russian rural population in Western Siberia in the 18th-19th centuries

The life of the long-established Russian inhabitants of Western Siberia has been well described. In fact, archaeological, ethnographic, and other information on its various aspects is abundant. Archaeoparasitological data, on the other hand, is lacking, particularly with regard to parasitosis incidence. In the present study, eggs of such fish parasites as Opisthorchis felineus and Diphyllobothrium spp. were identified in soil samples taken from the sacral surface of bodies that had been buried in the Gornopravdinskiy burial ground (on the Lower Irtysh River) in the 18th or 19th centuries. The study findings indicate that fish was a key component of the diet of the rural Russian population of that area. No statistically significant sex differences in fish consumption were identified. The parasitological spectrum of the population under consideration was narrow relative to the diversity of parasitoses in urban Russian populations. This fact probably reflects the lower-intensity population flows, their limited radii, and the different economic activities pursued by those people. Based on the archaeoparasito-logical data, the latter seem to have been closer to the economic activities practiced by the indigenous populations of Western Siberia.