The work is devoted to a comparative study of a significant amount of new paleoanthropological material of the early Iron Age from the territory of the Lower Podonye. For the first time, paleodemographic parameters of the population of the region of this time were studied. The craniological material revealed the epoch-making dynamics of the anthropological composition of the Lower Don urban and nomadic groups and traced the degree of participation of nomads in the formation of the urban population.