Morphological traits of crania in modern Kyongsangnam-do Koreans

The crania of modern Kyongsangnam-do or Southeastern Koreans were examined metrically and nonmetrically. In comparison with those of several modern samples from the northeastern Asia, the modern Kyongsangnam-do crania are characterized by their brachycranic and high cranial vaults as well as their high facial skeletons with the flat frontal and zygomaxillary regions. The modern Kyongsangnam-do shows a close affinity to the modern Central Koreans in the analyses of metric and nonmetric cranial traits. In the same Kyongsangnam-do, the cranial vaults are higher and shorter, and the nasal bones are not flatter in the modern than in the Yean-ri (4th to 7th century A.D.) samples. However, both the modern and the Yean-ri have morphological cranial traits similar to Asian continental Mongoloid in terms of the large upper facial height, the flatness in the frontal and zygomaxillary regions, and the close relationship of Smith's MMD based on 22 nonmetric cranial traits. Thus, it is suggested that these cranial traits, which are common with those of the Asian continental Mongoloid, have been kept from the Yean-ri to the modern Koreans in Kyongsangnam-do.