Archival photographic materials as an anthropological source for creating a composite photographic portrait (based on the archival photographs of the Tungus and Orochons from the collections of the Museum of Anthropology)

Abstract

Introduction. The research is devoted to the study of an archival photographs' collection of the Tungus and Orochons of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, stored in the collections of Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology. In this article some photographs from the collection are published for the first time. In the work examines the possibilities of using archival photographic materials of the Tungus and Orochons to obtain a composite photographic portrait, and its comparison with composite photographic portraits of the modern Evenks.

Materials and methods. The material for the study was a collection of photographs of the Tungus and Orochons, collected at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries, which is currently stored in the funds of the Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Moreover, to the photographs examined in the collections of the Museum of Anthropology, supplementary sources of archival photographs were used to create a composite portrait. A composite portrait of increased clarity was obtained using the faceONface software (combining images at three reference points). A comparative analysis of composite portraits obtained from archival and modern photographs was carried out.

Results and discussion. As a result of a comparative analysis of composite portraits of young and mature Tungus, constructed from archival materials, their significant similarity was revealed. Similarities were also noted between the portrait of the Tungus, obtained from archival data, and the portrait of modern Amur Evenks.

Conclusion. As a result of the analysis of the archival photo collection, the places of origin of some photographs were clarified, and new persons who participated in the creation of the photo collection were discovered. Based on the results of this study, it was shown that the composite photographic portrait method turned out to be the most correct tool for extracting anthropological information from archival photographic materials. © 2025. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.

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