No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Patterns of Prehistoric Procurement of Seal at Lake Baikal: A Zooarchaeological Contribution to the Study of Past Foraging Economies in Siberia
Abstract
Seal canines from several Neolithic and Early Bronze Age archaeological sites on Lake Baikal are analysed in the context of a modern reference collection and comprehensive information about modern Baikal seal ecology and behaviour. Our analysis, which includes determination of seasonality and age at death, reveals temporal and spatial patterns of procurement. While it probably played a secondary role in the livelihood of the three foraging cultures in the area, the Baikal seal was apparently an important part of one community's mortuary programme. We also found that observed changes in the use of seal across the Neolithic corroborate well with the discontinuity in human occupation that has been hypothesized on the basis of radiocarbon, artefactual and osteological evidence.
... Previous zooarchaeological research has revealed several distinct patterns in the use of Baikal seals (Weber et al. 1993(Weber et al. , 1998Nomokonova et al. 2010Nomokonova et al. , 2015Losey et al. 2016Losey et al. , 2017a. First, seal remains are most abundant along the western shore of Baikal proximate to the deeper sections of the lake. ...
... With the relatively gracile Baikal seal, this is rarely the case, meaning that multivariate approaches will generate assessments for relatively few individuals, even in large assemblages like those examined here. Second, ageing methods are already well-developed for Baikal seal remains (Weber et al. 1993(Weber et al. , 1998Nomokonova et al. 2010Nomokonova et al. , 2015. Efforts to establish age based on skull dimensions are expected to produce less reliable age estimates than cementum and dentine annulation studies. ...
... Seal age and season of death were assessed at Saga-Zaba II through analysis of thin sections of incremental structures in canine dentine, and where possible, results were confirmed by assessing incremental structures in the cementum (Nomokonova et al. 2015), following Weber et al. (1993Weber et al. ( , 1998. Specifically identified canines (upper right canines, for example) from each analytical unit were selected for analysis, with the total sample being 80 specimens ( Table 2). ...
Baikal seals (Pusa sibirica) are a unique freshwater pinniped that inhabits Lake Baikal in the interior of Eastern Siberia. These seals were critical resources for human groups living along the lake through at least the Holocene. This study develops osteometric methods for assessing Baikal seal body size, including body mass and nose-tail length. This was accomplished through the analysis of biometric and osteometric data for 354 modern Baikal seals. The resulting methods can be expediently used to estimate seal body mass and length. Using these methods, we explore seal use at Sagan-Zaba II, a habitation site on Lake Baikal with deposits spanning much of the past 9000 years. These analyses reveal a general preference for smaller-bodied seals, particularly during the Middle Holocene, and a paucity of larger individuals in the assemblage. Previous ageing of seal remains from Sagan-Zaba II based on incremental structures in seal canines suggested a very similar pattern of seal use. These methods provide useful insights on seal use that complement those already developed for estimating seal age and season of death.
... This finding is also supported by zooarchaeological research at island campsites and cemeteries, where seal remains are very common (e.g. Tyshkine II/III and Shamanskii Mys) (Weber et al., 1998). ...
... The EBA Glazkovo Island sample is also small and derives entirely from the cemetery of Shamanskii Mys. Several features of this cemetery suggest it may have functioned as a more specialized rather than community burial ground: the paucity of nonadults with the single child skeleton having arrowheads embedded in its scapula; the cemetery's highly visible and unique location on a narrow peninsula with a large rock protrusion; and a high number of seal carcasses, including of newborns, near the human graves (McKenzie, 2010;Weber et al., 1993Weber et al., , 1998. Since these seals would have been caught on the eastern Baikal side of the island, they would have had to be transported a considerable distance over land to reach the cemetery (Weber et al., 1993(Weber et al., , 1998. ...
... Several features of this cemetery suggest it may have functioned as a more specialized rather than community burial ground: the paucity of nonadults with the single child skeleton having arrowheads embedded in its scapula; the cemetery's highly visible and unique location on a narrow peninsula with a large rock protrusion; and a high number of seal carcasses, including of newborns, near the human graves (McKenzie, 2010;Weber et al., 1993Weber et al., , 1998. Since these seals would have been caught on the eastern Baikal side of the island, they would have had to be transported a considerable distance over land to reach the cemetery (Weber et al., 1993(Weber et al., , 1998. Thus, the Glazkovo Island may not be particularly representative of the entire population living at the time. ...
Research on Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers from the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia has yielded many insights into their dietary and mobility patterns. A large dataset of stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope values, when paired with freshwater-reservoir corrected carbon-14 dates, allows us to conduct fine-scale investigations into dietary change. Our Small Cemeteries Project has increased the sample of Late Neolithic (LN) Serovo individuals, and Ol'khon Island burials, allowing for new investigations into changes between the Serovo and subsequent Early Bronze Age (EBA) Glazkovo mortuary traditions in the Little Sea Microregion. This is important because research exploring the extent and nature of cultural continuity and change between these mortuary traditions has received less attention than more pronounced earlier transitions. We use stable isotope data from 134 adolescents and adults to explore (1) temporal changes in δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values across the Serovo and Glazkovo mortuary traditions, and (2) differences in stable isotope values between individuals buried on Ol'khon Island vs. the Mainland. During Serovo times, Islanders and Mainlanders were eating somewhat different diets, with the former consuming more seal and the latter more shallow-water fish. Glazkovo Islanders maintained a broadly similar diet to their Serovo Islander predecessors suggesting the continued existence of a specialized group of Island seal hunters. After ~4100 calBP, and the arrival of the Glazkovo mortuary tradition in the Little Sea Microregion, there is the appearance of a new group of Mainlanders consuming a diet with low δ¹⁵N (≤ 14.6‰) and/or low δ¹³C (≤ ˗19.0‰) values unlike anything seen previously. This diet included less lake fish and seal and more terrestrial herbivores. Previous research has shown that many Mainland Glazkovo individuals with this new diet were non-local. Our study finds that just over half of Glazkovo Mainlanders have a low δ¹³C or δ¹⁵N value and they are found in all cemeteries with multiple individuals. This suggests such individuals, many of which were non-local, were fully incorporated into local social groups. Further increasing the sample of LN and Island individuals is needed to better establish these findings; nonetheless, our research highlights the diversity in Middle Holocene adaptive strategies in the Little Sea Microregion.
... Second, the archaeological record of the Lake Baikal shoreline is relatively rich, especially for the Holocene, and includes ample evidence for the use of these animals. Much of this record, particularly from habitation sites, remains poorly documented, but it is clear that by at least the Middle Holocene, seals were regularly being used by the region's foragers [19][20][21][22][23][24]. Third, archaeological evidence clearly shows that in this region sealing also was carried out by pastoralists, who first migrated to this broader region around~3500 cal. ...
... This paper is a major step towards filling this lacuna. Until quite recently [39,40,44], the ancient history of seal use on Lake Baikal had been explored solely through the study of thin sections of archaeological seal canines, which were examined for age and season of death [22,45]. This research suggested that seal use at Lake Baikal focused on the early spring period when the seals basked on the lake ice, that sealing was most intensive during the Bronze Age (~5000 to 3400 cal. ...
... Dentine incremental structures of pinnipeds are widely accepted as a reliable technique for age determinations with an average error of +/-1 year [69,70]. Weber et al. [22,45] developed this technique specifically for archaeological Baikal seal remains, and we apply his methodology here. Specifically identified canines (upper right canines, for example) from each analytical unit were selected for sectioning, with the total sample from Sagan-Zaba being 82 specimens. ...
Sagan-Zaba II, a habitation site on the shore of Siberia's Lake Baikal, contains a record of seal hunting that spans much of the Holocene, making it one of the longest histories of seal use in North Asia. Zooarchaeological analyses of the 16,000 Baikal seal remains from this well-dated site clearly show that sealing began here at least 9000 calendar years ago. The use of these animals at Sagan-Zaba appears to have peaked in the Middle Holocene, when foragers used the site as a spring hunting and processing location for yearling and juvenile seals taken on the lake ice. After 4800 years ago, seal use declined at the site, while the relative importance of ungulate hunting and fishing increased. Pastoralists began occupying Sagan-Zaba at some point during the Late Holocene, and these groups too utilized the lake's seals. Domesticated animals are increasingly common after about 2000 years ago, a pattern seen elsewhere in the region, but spring and some summer hunting of seals was still occurring. This use of seals by prehistoric herders mirrors patterns of seal use among the region's historic and modern groups. Overall, the data presented in the paper demonstrate that Lake Baikal witnessed thousands of years of human use of aquatic resources.
... These Middle Holocene sites have implements, ornaments, and unmodified remains from red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus pygargus), elk (Alces alces), musk deer (Moschus moschiferus), Baikal seal, hare (Lepus sp.), wild boar (Sus scrofa), beaver (Castor fiber), dog (Canis familiaris), wolf (Canis lupus), fox (Vulpes vulpes), brown bear (Ursus arctos), sable (Martes zibellina), eagle owl (Bubo bubo), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetus), unidentified fish, and possibly domesticated sheep (Ovis sp.); remains from red deer, however, are by far the most abundant Goriunova et al., 2012); nearly all of these faunal remains are from Early Bronze Age graves. Shamanskii Mys, a Middle Holocene cemetery and habitation site on the west shore of Ol'khon Island (Fig. 1), produced some remains of seal, red deer, elk, boar, and dog (Konopatskii, 1982;Weber et al., 1993Weber et al., , 1998, but these materials are poorly dated and only selectively identified (see Nomokonova and Losey, 2013). ...
... The age categories used were those from Storå (2000), which are a generalized classification for Phocidae seals based on skeletal element fusion, and include the categories yearling, juvenile, young adult, and older adult (age groups 1 through 4). To more precisely age the seal remains at the site, and to determine the animals' seasons of death, canines were thin sectioned and their dentine (and also occasionally cementum) bands evaluated and counted, following the methods outlined in Weber et al. (1993Weber et al. ( , 1998 and Nomokonova (2011). ...
... While numbers of assignable specimens are low except in layers II-2 and II-3, an overall focus on juveniles is suggested for all analytical units at the site. A focus on young animals also has been documented at Tyshkine II/III and Sagan-Zaba II (Weber et al., 1993(Weber et al., , 1998Nomokonova, 2011;Nomokonova et al., 2011). ...
This paper examines Holocene tends in subsistence practices through the examination of archaeological
faunal remains from the Bugul'deika II habitation site on the west shore of Lake Baikal, Russian Federation.
This data indicates that the primary focus of subsistence activities at the site in almost all periods
was the hunting of Baikal seals (Phoca sibirica). While some deer and other fauna are represented in most
cultural layers, they appear to be supplementary resources throughout the Early and Middle Holocene
period of site use. By ~2900 cal. BP, domesticated ungulates appear at the site, and become increasingly
more relatively abundant through time. Humans using the site during these periods also continued to
use wild fauna, particularly Baikal seals. Yearlings and other juveniles were the most commonly taken
seals at the site, and most were killed in the late winter or early spring when the lake was ice covered.
The overall pattern of fauna use at the site is very similar to that at other sites located on the open
shoreline of Lake Baikal, but contrasts sharply with fauna use at sites located along the Little Sea
shoreline of the lake, which focuses of littoral fish. Finally, while Middle Holocene human cemeteries in
the study area have abundant remains of deer, and stable isotope data on human remains from them
indicate some dietary reliance on such herbivores, remains of deer are not found in abundance in any
local habitation site.
... The age of the specimens was estimated by examining the state of bone fusion and skeletal development. Dental age estimation is not feasible in phocids, as the deciduous teeth are normally shed in utero and they soon develop their permanent dentition, which poses great difficulties for establishing the age with this method (Boyle, 2005;Hillson, 1986;Hodgetts, 2005;Weber et al., 1993Weber et al., , 1998. It should be mentioned that no studies have been published to date on epiphyseal development and fusion in the genus Monachus, so this information is based on the work of Storå (2000) regarding epiphyseal fusion in the species Halichoerus grypus, Phoca hispida botnica, Phoca vitulina and Phoca groenlandica. ...
... Firstly, their skin is of an excellent quality for making waterproof garments and has been highly valued throughout history, even becoming the most expensive type of skin according to the edict issued by Diocletian (Gonz alez, 1999;Johnson, 2004;Johnson and Lavigne, 1999). Another interesting product is their blubber, which accounts for 30e40% of their body weight and is very rich in n-3 and n-6 monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (Henderson et al., 1994;Lyman et al., 1992;Yazici and € Otürk, 1996), making it an important source of nutrition, although it was also used as fuel and for treating the skins (Johnson, 2004;Johnson and Lavigne, 1999;Kiraç and Savaş , 1996). A colony of seals could clearly be a decisive factor when choosing the location for a settlement, within a dynamic of optimisation, diversification and integral exploitation of the environment. ...
During the Late GlacialeEarly Holocene transition Southern Iberia has an extensive record of Palaeolithic coastal sites, wich have been preserved due thanks to the morphology of the continental shelf. This is was a period with rapid palaeoclimatic oscillations and changes in sea level. However, the sites show an apparent continuity in technology and subsistence trends, although human groups made increasingly intense use of marine resources. In this paper we will focus on the study of Mediterranean seal remains from the Vestíbulo hall of Cueva de Nerja (M�alaga, Spain), unit NV4, dated 12,990e11,360 cal. BP. The presence of these bones at the site are interpreted as direct exploitation of seals by humans, who processed different parts of the animal like the flesh, blubber and skin. These data allow us to assess the changing role of marine mammals in the regional Palaeolithic economy
... The age of the specimens was estimated by examining the state of bone fusion and skeletal development. Dental age estimation is not feasible in phocids, as the deciduous teeth are normally shed in utero and they soon develop their permanent dentition, which poses great difficulties for establishing the age with this method (Boyle, 2005;Hillson, 1986;Hodgetts, 2005;Weber et al., 1993Weber et al., , 1998. It should be mentioned that no studies have been published to date on epiphyseal development and fusion in the genus Monachus, so this information is based on the work of Storå (2000) regarding epiphyseal fusion in the species Halichoerus grypus, Phoca hispida botnica, Phoca vitulina and Phoca groenlandica. ...
... Firstly, their skin is of an excellent quality for making waterproof garments and has been highly valued throughout history, even becoming the most expensive type of skin according to the edict issued by Diocletian (Gonz alez, 1999;Johnson, 2004;Johnson and Lavigne, 1999). Another interesting product is their blubber, which accounts for 30e40% of their body weight and is very rich in n-3 and n-6 monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (Henderson et al., 1994;Lyman et al., 1992;Yazici and € Otürk, 1996), making it an important source of nutrition, although it was also used as fuel and for treating the skins (Johnson, 2004;Johnson and Lavigne, 1999;Kiraç and Savaş , 1996). A colony of seals could clearly be a decisive factor when choosing the location for a settlement, within a dynamic of optimisation, diversification and integral exploitation of the environment. ...
During the Late Glacial-Early Holocene transition Southern Iberia has an extensive record of Palaeolithic coastal sites, wich have been preserved due thanks to the morphology of the continental shelf. This is was a period with rapid palaeoclimatic oscillations and changes in sea level. However, the sites show an apparent continuity in technology and subsistence trends, although human groups made increasingly intense use of marine resources. In this paper we will focus on the study of Mediterranean seal remains from the Vestíbulo hall of Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain), unit NV4, dated 12,990-11,360 cal. BP. The presence of these bones at the site are interpreted as direct exploitation of seals by humans, who processed different parts of the animal like the flesh, blubber and skin. These data allow us to assess the changing role of marine mammals in the regional Palaeolithic economy.
... Baikal seals are the only pinniped species that live wholly in freshwater, inhabiting Russia's Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia (Figure 1). These animals have a long archaeological history of interaction with humans, but this history is most often portrayed in a narrow way, with the primary research topics emphasized in the literature being seasonality of hunting and animal choice (Goriunova et al. 2007;Nomokonova 2011;Weber et al. 1993Weber et al. , 1998Weber et al. , 2011. This research has established that the seals were first utilized by foraging groups living on the shores of Lake Baikal just over 9,000 years ago and that they continued to be exploited thereafter by local populations, including the early pastoralists who first migrated to the region around 3,500 years ago (Nomokonova 2011). ...
... These animals appear to have been most intensively utilized by the region's Middle Holocene foragers (Nomokonova 2011). Analyses of incremental dentine layers in the canine teeth of seals recovered from several Holocene sites indicate that most sealing by Baikal foragers occurred in early spring when the lake was icecovered, and the most commonly taken seals were yearlings (Nomokonova 2011;Weber et al. 1998). Stable isotope analyses of human skeletal remains found buried along the lakeshore demonstrated that some Middle Holocene forager groups had diets with substantial aquatic food content, which undoubtedly included some seal (e.g., Katzenberg et al. 2010;Weber et al. 2011). ...
The seals inhabiting Eastern Siberia's Lake Baikal are involved in a suite of meaningful relationships with local people both in the present and in the distant past. Most people rarely see the seals in their natural habitat, but these animals nonetheless are considered icons of the region, particularly among tourists and the broader general public. Our recent interviews with Baikal seal hunters, most of whom are Buriat, revealed relationships of great depth and intimacy with these animals that involved, in part, knowing the animals based on their sounds, smells, taste, fur quality, appearance, and behavior. The hunters and their families maintain relationships with the animals by acting so as to stay in good standing with local spirits and through proper treatment of the animals' bodies after death. Further, Baikal seals have prominent roles in local cosmologies and legends, including the origin stories of some local groups. The region's archaeological record reveals that meaningful relationships with seals extend far back in time, including among ancient foraging groups, some of whom made representations of seals 7,000-8,000 years ago. Humans' long-standing relationships with seals at Lake Baikal cannot be viewed simply as interactions between predator and prey, or consumer and commodity.
... The area in the middle of the peninsula revealed no graves, which were arranged along its edge, but produced instead a large amount of faunal remains (mostly seal bones), lithics, and pottery fragments. Examination of seal teeth for the season of death and the age of the animals revealed a sample biased toward pups of the year and hunting during the spring ice break up (March–May; Weber et al., 1998 ). Since the Little Sea is not part of the seal habitat during any part of the year, the hunting had to be organized on the other side of Ol'khon Island and seal carcasses transported at least c. 15 km to Shamanskii Mys (Weber et al., 2002 ). ...
... The first diet is characterized by d 15 N values ranging between 10‰ and 13‰ while the second cluster shows d 15 N values ranging from 14‰ to 17‰. The former diet appears to consist mainly of game and fish (GF diet) while the latter is best accounted for by a nutritional intake of game, aquatic foods high in nitrogen, partly the piscivore pike and perch abundant in shallow coves and lagoons of Lake Baikal , and more importantly its seal (GFS diet), as attested by faunal remains recovered from many archaeological sites in this micro-region (Nomokonova et al., 2006Nomokonova et al., , 2009a Weber et al., 1993 Weber et al., , 1998 Weber et al., , 2002). Without these nitrogen rich foods, the Little Sea signature would approximate LN and EBA signatures in the rest of the Cis- Baikal. ...
a b s t r a c t The paper examines Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies in the Baikal region of Siberia based on diverse data (radiocarbon, mortuary, geochemical, genetic, human osteological, and zooarchaeological) accumulated over the last 10–15 years. The new model emphasizes the cyclical nature of the long-term changes and recognizes similarities between the Early Neolithic and Late Neo-lithic–Early Bronze Age cultures. The overall impression seems to be that change in the region was rapid rather than gradual. A number of interesting correlations between various cultural and environ-mental variables have been identified. During the Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic–Bronze Age, the spatial distributions of mortuary sites, open landscape, and good fisheries are all correlated and both intervals are coeval with periods of environmental stability. For the Early Neolithic two additional sets of correlated variables have been identified: (1) the uneven distribution of fish resources, uneven dis-tribution of the human population, and cultural heterogeneity; and (2) poorer overall community health, more extensive male travel and heavier workloads, and higher reliance on fishing. For the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age, the sets of correlated variables are somewhat different: (1) more even distribution of terrestrial game resources (herbivores), more even distribution of the human popula-tion, and cultural homogeneity; and (2) better overall community health, less travel and lighter workloads, more equitable distribution of labor between males and females, and higher reliance on game hunting. Viewed together, these patterns emphasize the much more dynamic pattern of hun-ter-gatherer cultural variability, temporally and spatially, compared to what was known before.
... Seals were the single largest dietary source, contributing over 23% of the total diet. This is interesting as seals are strictly limited in terms of seasonal availability and the labor involved in catching them (Nomokonova et al., 2015;Konopatskii, 1974/1975;Weber et al., 1993;Weber et al., 1998). They are highly desirable, providing necessary fat during the cold winter months (Kuhnlein et al., 1996;Marean, 1986;Outram, 1999;Speth, 2010), but may not have been harvestable in volumes suggested by this model. ...
Dietary reconstructions increasingly rely on Bayesian techniques such as Food Reconstruction Using Isotopic Transferred Signals (FRUITS). These models benefit from the use of additional isotopic proxies (¹³C, ¹⁵N, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr), which help refine proportional contributions of potentially overlapping reference groups. However, each new isotope comes with additional considerations and uncertainties. Strontium isotopes are typically discussed as recording primarily geographic information (place of origin) that can be used to infer the movements of individuals through different phases of their lives. Yet, strontium is incorporated into the body through the foods consume, as are ¹³C and ¹⁵N, raising the question of whether strontium ratios are informing primarily about movement of the individual or changes in the diet. Inferring human movement across landscape thus relies on demonstration that observed values could not have come from local sources and required inputs from other geographic regions. Contemporary biogeochemical records are necessary to resolve these possibilities. Refinements in the developmental age estimates for the specific sampling locations on human teeth enable the integration of additional isotopic data through matching of biochemical signatures obtained from dentin and enamel micro-samples. Using multi-isotopic dietary modeling allows better assessment of relative contributions to overall diet of food groups such as terrestrial large game, lake or riverine fish, seal, and plants (inner bark, willow shoots, mushrooms). Notable variability between human molars and adult bone strontium isotopic ratios has been inferred as representing the presence of non-locals at the Shamanka II cemetery. Dietary reconstruction suggests that plants are the primary variable responsible for this “mobility” indicator.
... There is an endemic species of seal (Phoca sibirica) in the lake which may have contributed to the diets of the Fofanovo hunter-gatherers. This has been demonstrated for individuals from Cis-Baikal, primarily from the Little Sea microregion on the northwest side of the lake (Katzenberg et al., 2012;Nomokonova et al., 2013b;Nomokonova et al., 2015;Weber, 2003;Weber et al., 1998;Weber et al., 2011). Aquatic life in the Selenga River has not been studied archaeologically, but commercial, conservationist, and environmental studies have recorded the fish communities of the river in different portions(e.g., Sampson et al., 2002; Table 2). ...
A considerable amount of bioarchaeological research – including AMS 14C dating and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses (δ13C and δ15N) – has been undertaken on the hunter-gatherers from the area west of Lake Baikal, known as Cis-Baikal. No such work has previously been reported for the east side of the lake, Trans-Baikal. Here, we present new radiocarbon dates and isotopic results for twenty individuals from the Fofanovo cemetery, located along the Selenga River on the southeast coast of Lake Baikal.
Once corrected for an old carbon effect using regression equations developed for Cis-Baikal, the radiocarbon results form 4 chronological clusters: 1) Late Mesolithic (LM), around 7950 cal BP (n = 3); 2) Late Neolithic (LN), between ca. 6000 and 5500 cal BP (n = 5); 3) LN to Early Bronze Age (EBA), between ca. 4900 and 4500 cal BP (n = 2); and the largest cluster 4) later EBA, around 3700 cal BP (n = 10). The LM Cluster 1 dates indicate that formal cemetery use in Trans-Baikal may have begun earlier than in Cis-Baikal. Clusters 2 and 3 reveal a previously unidentified LN component to the cemetery. Additionally, the EBA Cluster 4 appears to be largely synchronous with the EBA in Cis-Baikal.
As a group, the Fofanovo individuals are isotopically distinct from the Middle-Holocene hunter–gatherers in the microregions of Cis-Baikal, exhibiting a combination of low δ13C values (−19.4 ± 0.9‰) but high δ15N values (15.2 ± 0.8‰). This likely reflects the distinctive isotopic ecology of the lower Selenga River, combined with use of aquatic resources from Lake Baikal itself. While further sampling is needed to test its robustness, a statistically significant difference between the LN (n = 6) and EBA (n = 11) was found, suggesting a greater reliance on the seasonal resources of the Selenga River during the EBA.
Further analyses on these and other individuals from the cemetery are planned and will undoubtably provide additional insights into hunter-gatherer subsistence adaptations and dietary variation in Trans-Baikal, highlighting both differences and similarities with those of Cis-Baikal.
... In the valleys of northern Mongolia, the largest chipped stone scatters are strung out along rivers and occupy higher bluffs and well-drained large sandbanks deposited by large postglacial rivers (Abramova 1956;Wright and Janz 2012). Excavated assemblages in northern and central Mongolia are rare, but extensive work in the region west of Lake Baikal suggests a river and lacustrine-focused subsistence system with a high degree of seasonal mobility (Weber et al. 1998;Weber and Bettinger 2010). Northern Mongolia contains little evidence for the elaborate adornments and extensive cemeteries that are found in the river valleys of the Baikal region of Siberia (Bazaliiskii 2003). ...
There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly precise chronologies, regional studies, and the growth of development-driven archaeology are transforming our knowledge of this key region of northeastern Asia. This review summarizes recent work and provides a narrative of the prehistoric and medieval cultural sequences as presently understood. I focus on long-standing key topics: early human habitation, the adoption of food-producing economies, Bronze Age social transformations, and the emergence of central places and large polities. I argue that, on the one hand, Mongolia has unique data and new examples to offer the archaeological community and, on the other, that the prehistory of Mongolia and the steppe are not so different from the rest of the world in its history of research and key questions. This review provides general overviews covering the Upper Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic or Neolithic, and Bronze Age to the Xiongnu period; specific data related to each period provide jumping-off points for comparative analysis and further examination.
... Russian (Bazaliiskii 2005;Goriunova 1997;Kharinskii and Sosnovskaia 2000;Turkin and Kharinskii 2004 Faccia et al. 2014Faccia et al. , 2016Haverkort et al. 2008;Katzenberg et al. 2008Katzenberg et al. , 2009Katzenberg et al. , 2012Lieverse et al. 2007aLieverse et al. , 2007b, 2014a, 2014bLink 1999;Losey et al. 2008Losey et al. , 2011Losey et al. , 2012Losey et al. , 2013aLosey et al. , 2013bMooder et al. 2005Mooder et al. , 2006Moussa et al. 2016;Nomokonova et al. 2011Nomokonova et al. , 2013Nomokonova et al. , 2015Osipov et al. 2016;Scharlotta et al. 2013Scharlotta et al. , 2014Scharlotta et al. , 2016Schulting et al. 2014Schulting et al. , 2015Shepard et al. 2016;Temple et al. 2014;Waters-Rist et al. 2010Weber et al. 1998Weber et al. , 2011Weber et al. , 2013Weber et al. , 2016aWeber et al. , 2016bWhite et al. n.d.), a few monographs (Weber et al. 2007(Weber et al. , 2008(Weber et al. , 2012 ...
Ancient steppes for human equestrians
The Eurasian steppes reach from the Ukraine in Europe to Mongolia and China. Over the past 5000 years, these flat grasslands were thought to be the route for the ebb and flow of migrant humans, their horses, and their languages. de Barros Damgaard et al. probed whole-genome sequences from the remains of 74 individuals found across this region. Although there is evidence for migration into Europe from the steppes, the details of human movements are complex and involve independent acquisitions of horse cultures. Furthermore, it appears that the Indo-European Hittite language derived from Anatolia, not the steppes. The steppe people seem not to have penetrated South Asia. Genetic evidence indicates an independent history involving western Eurasian admixture into ancient South Asian peoples.
Science , this issue p. eaar7711
... Zeder 2006). With human hunting, both modern and ancient there is evidence for culling of younger animals such that the age distributions of the faunal assemblages differ from the patterns seen with natural attrition or nonhuman predator (Weber et al. 1998;Greenfield and Arnold 2008). In general, we posit that in the archaeological setting, the age gap between the oxygen isotopic values obtained from teeth and bones is, on average, much greater for human adults as compared to co-occurring animals. ...
There is substantial room for isotopic analysis to address questions regarding human migration and interaction with the landscape. Oxygen isotopes in vertebrate tissues, which are generally thought to reflect water source, are derived from a combination of water, food and air isotopic values put through the physiology and intermediary metabolism of the animal. We highlight two additional issues in applying oxygen isotopic analysis to humans: the unique developmental regime of skeletal elements and the impact of cooking on food.
... Other developments resulting from work done by the Baikal Archaeological Project include a method for determining the season of death for seals based on teeth recovered from Baikal grave sites (Weber et al. 1993). Results indicated that prehistoric seal hunting was seasonal, taking place primarily between March and June, and secondary to fishing and terrestrial hunting throughout the Neolithic (Weber et al. 1993(Weber et al. , 1998(Weber et al. , 2002. Furthermore, Lieverse et al. (2006) developed a method for documenting skeletal conditions from the Khuzhir-Nuge XIV cemetery on the west coast of Lake Baikal. ...
This dissertation focuses on the landscape context of the archaeological record in the Transbaikal along the Chikoi, Khilok, and Menza rivers. Of the 13 study sites, Studenoe 1 and 2, Ust’-Menza 1, 2, 4, and 5, Kunalei, Melnichnoe 1 and 2, Chitkan, and Priiskovoe sites are associated with fluvial environments, while Tolbaga is associated with a colluvial environment. Cultural components range from approximately 30,000 years old at sites like Tolbaga, to about 1130 years old at sites such as Studenoe 1.Preservation and context are best at Studenoe 1 and 2, and Ust’-Menza 1 and 2 where occupations post-date 19,000 years ago and low-energy flood deposits quickly buried cultural material. In contrast, sites such as Kunalei, Melnichnoe 1 and 2, and Priiskovoe, where initial occupations occurred prior to 19,000 years ago, are in much worse shape. At these sites, it appears that permafrost activity linked to the last ice age had major effects on their geological contexts. An exception to this, however, is Chitkan, where greater than 19,000-year-old cultural material remained relatively undisturbed by freeze-thaw action. Although not as prone to damage from cryogenic processes, the context of Tolbaga is poor because of the site’s position on a 10° slope, where post-depositional movement of some of the artifacts is obvious. This research also focuses on how human land use changed through time. For example, during the early Upper Paleolithic (40,000 to 27,000 years ago), humans chose locations above and away from major rivers. Later sites are found closer to the rivers, and by the end of the Pleistocene (ca. 10,000 years ago), humans camped as near major streams as possible. Moreover, site selection may have been related to environmental and behavioral factors. More sedentary early Upper Paleolithic foragers, for example, chose sites for long-term occupation on slopes several dozen meters above the major streams. Later, as mobility increased and camps were changed more often, occupation surfaces were located within a few vertical meters of the active channels. What is more, these apparent differences likely do not result from preservation as intact culturally-sterile sediments more than 27,000 years old exist at some locations adjacent to the rivers.
... The frozen portions of the surface of the lake enables access to seal and waters out of reach for shore-fishermen, while remaining open-water provides improved hunting opportunities as ungulates and other terrestrial mammals are drawn to ice-free water sources (Weber et al., 1998;Nomokonova, 2011;Losey et al., 2012). Travel and pursuit of game is more difficult during the winter, and game in the late winter can become dangerously low in fat leaving humans in danger of protein poisoning if fat and carbohydrate resources from summer resources and seal hunts fail (Winterhalder, 1981;Speth and Spielmann, 1983). ...
Dietary isotopic research, coupled with zooarchaeological and bioarchaeological analyses have indicated that fishing was an important element of Early Neolithic subsistence, contributing more to the diet through time, and may have contributed to social differentiation. In order to assess the relative cultural importance of fishing to Neolithic populations, multiple classes of grave goods and radiocarbon dates from the Shamanka II cemetery are analyzed for principal components. Specific relationships between prestige goods, fishing gear, and functional axes are hypothesized to exist if fishing are an important socioeconomic activity. Results suggest that there was no intensification of fishing by the Shamanka II population during two phases of use in the Early Neolithic, and indicate a lack of correlation between fishing gear, axes, and some prestige goods. There appears to be a relationship between the frequency of fishing and hunting gear and radiocarbon dates, and modest relationships between dietary isotopes, radiocarbon dates, and prestige goods. This suggests that while fishing specialists are present in Early Neolithic society and evidence suggests increasing importance of fishing during two separate phases of cemetery use, their role in providing important food resources did not translate to apparent prestige or wealth in certain grave goods during all periods of use at Shamanka II. During two phases of use, fishing, hunting, and non-wearable prestige goods became markedly more important towards the end of the first phase and dominant during a second phase of cemetery use. The role of Shamanka II as a cemetery indicate a biased cultural system if reflective of a community population, and appears to have shifted to a special use cemetery with specific demographic and spatial patterning after a hiatus of a century or more during the Early Neolithic.
... A.W. Weber et al. / Quaternary International xxx (2016) 1e22 15 measurements around À22‰ would be available in winter and spring (Weber et al., 1998;Nomokonova et al., 2013). All these resources considered together cover a wide range of d 13 C values from À25.0‰ to À10.0‰. ...
A data set of 116 AMS radiocarbon dates on human skeletal remains from an Early Neolithic (c. 7500-6700 cal BP) Shamanka II cemetery on Lake Baikal, Siberia, and associated carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values are analyzed for insights about site chronology and dietary variation of this group of hunter-gatherers. All dates are corrected for the Freshwater Reservoir Effect (FRE) according to the correction equations developed using paired radiocarbon dates on human and terrestrial faunal remains from the same graves (Bronk Ramsey et al., 2014; Schulting et al., 2014). Further examination of the data set provides the following main findings. First, it identified the presence of two phases of cemetery use at Shamanka II, each of quite different duration, separated by a relatively long period of disuse lasting as much as 300-550 years. Second, it demonstrated presence of four groups of people during the long Phase 1 each with a slightly different dietary pattern: three displaying a temporal change toward greater reliance on aquatic foods and one group, which apparently did not experience a diet shift. Third, the results show that all individuals from the short Phase 2 evince a clear chronological trend towards increased dietary contribution of aquatic food and that this pattern repeats closely one of the three trends present in Phase 1. While a generally similar chronological dietary trend has been found recently also among the Early Neolithic groups from the nearby Angara valley (Weber et al., 2015), the Shamanka II population appears to be much more diverse in dietary terms than its neighbours to the northeast.
... During the summer, large runs of black grayling (Thymallus arcticus) are found in the first section of the Angara River, and several fish species enter the tributaries of the Angara in large numbers to spawn. The shallow coves and bays in the Little Sea region of Lake Baikal, between Ol'khon Island and the west coast of the lake, also provide excellent opportunities for fishing and during the late winter when the lake is frozen, nerpa, the Lake Baikal seal (Phoca sibirica) can be hunted [16][17][18][19]. Ethnographic studies of boreal forest populations highlight the use of mushrooms, berries, and pine nuts as other non-medicinal resources [15,20,21]. ...
Micro-sampling and analysis of tooth enamel from faunal samples in the archaeological record has enabled research into the mobility and seasonality of animals in prehistory. However, studies on human tooth samples have failed to yield similar results. It is well understood that human tooth enamel does not fully mineralize in a strictly linear fashion, but rather entails five recognizable stages of mineralization. Until the enamel matrix fully crystallizes, the matrix remains an open chemical system, thus at each stage of mineralization, the geochemical composition of the enamel matrix can be altered. At present it is unclear if failure to mirror the results from faunal teeth with human teeth is a factor of mineralization rates or simply the result of the difference in enamel volume and formation time between human and herbivore teeth. Therefore, the applicability of chemical analyses to human teeth is a balance between micro-sampling analytical techniques and generating archaeologically relevant data. Yet limited case studies have been performed to examine the scale and extent of this problem in human teeth using laser-ablation ICP-MS. Five human molars from an Early Bronze Age cemetery on the shores of Lake Baikal, Siberia were serially sampled and analyzed by means of laser-ablation quadrupole and multicollector ICP-MS in order to examine the nature of geochemical changes within the enamel matrix. This sampling was performed in order to generate a statistically significant dataset to assess the effectiveness of two approaches along with published methodologies to counter known problems with attempts to assess Sr87. Recent research has demonstrated that among the methodological problems, there is isobaric interference at mass 87 caused by the formation of calcium phosphate (Ca40PO) in response to interaction between the laser and the enamel matrix. Correction procedures using Zr91 in tandem with Ba/Sr ratios are examined. Additionally, serial sampling of teeth from hypothesized mobile hunter-gatherers provides useful insight into the dynamic interplay between physical sampling limitations and the scale at which useful geochemical data can be recovered from organic minerals. Traditional utilization of geochemical data for mobility has relied on a local/non-local dichotomy in population level analyses; however, this approach is of limited utility with regard to mobile populations. Our ability to effectively analyze skeletal materials at a micro scale provides our best hope at addressing the rift between recognition of an indirect relationship between biological intakes, mineral formation and being able to generate relevant analytical data.
... The Kitoi grave also contained the skeletons of 2 dogs, and a few of the Glazkovo burials were furnished with seal remains. Excavations of the middle part of the cape revealed archaeological material abounding in faunal remains (mostly seal), lithic artifacts, and pottery fragments; however, no graves were found in this area (Konopatskii 1982;Weber et al. 1993;Weber et al. 1998). ...
Extensive radiocarbon dating of human remains from Neolithic and Bronze Age hunter-gatherer cemeteries in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia has been undertaken as a part of the multidisciplinary examination of this material conducted by the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP; http://baikal.arts.ualberta.ca). Due to the large number of analyzed samples, this paper reports the 14 C results only in the context of the basic archaeological information about each of the cemeteries. Comprehensive evaluation, analysis, and interpretation of this entire data set will be undertaken in separate publications. In fact, the dates for one such cemetery have already been examined on 2 recent occasions (Weber et al. 2004, 2005).
... During the summer, large runs of black grayling (Thymallus arcticus) are found in the first section of the Angara River, and several fish species enter the tributaries of the Angara in large numbers to spawn. The shallow coves and bays in the Little Sea region of Lake Baikal, between Ol'khon Island and the west coast of the lake, also provide excellent opportunities for fishing and during the late winter when the lake is frozen, nerpa, the Lake Baikal seal (Phoca sibirica) can be hunted [16][17][18][19] . Ethnographic studies of boreal forest populations highlight the use of mushrooms, berries, and pine nuts as other non-medicinal resources 15,20,21 . ...
Micro-sampling and analysis of tooth enamel from faunal samples in the archaeological record has enabled research into the mobility and seasonality of animals in prehistory. However, studies on human tooth samples have failed to yield similar results. It is well understood that human tooth enamel does not fully mineralize in a strictly linear fashion, but rather entails five recognizable stages of mineralization. Until the enamel matrix fully crystallizes, the matrix remains an open chemical system, thus at each stage of mineralization, the geochemical composition of the enamel matrix can be altered. At present it is unclear if failure to mirror the results from faunal teeth with human teeth is a factor of mineralization rates or simply the result of the difference in enamel volume and formation time between human and herbivore teeth. Therefore, the applicability of chemical analyses to human teeth is a balance between microsampling analytical techniques and generating archaeologically relevant data. Yet limited case studies have been performed to examine the scale and extent of this problem in human teeth using laser-ablation ICP-MS. Five human molars from an Early Bronze Age cemetery on the shores of Lake Baikal, Siberia were serially sampled and analyzed by means of laser-ablation quadrupole and multicollector ICP-MS in order to examine the nature of geochemical changes within the enamel matrix. This sampling was performed in order to generate a statistically significant dataset to assess the effectiveness of two approaches along with
published methodologies to counter known problems with attempts to assess Sr87. Recent research has demonstrated that among the methodological problems, there is isobaric interference at mass 87 caused by the formation of calcium phosphate (Ca40PO) in response to interaction between the laser and the enamel matrix. Correction procedures using Zr91 in tandem with Ba/Sr ratios are examined. Additionally, serial sampling of teeth from hypothesized mobile hunter-gatherers provides useful insight into the dynamic interplay between physical sampling limitations and the scale at which useful geochemical data can be recovered from organic minerals. Traditional utilization of geochemical data for mobility has relied on a local/non-local dichotomy in population level analyses; however, this approach is of limited utility with regard to mobile populations. Our ability to effectively analyze skeletal materials at a micro scale provides our best hope at addressing the rift between recognition of an indirect relationship between biological intakes, mineral formation and being able to generate relevant analytical data.
... (калиброванная дата). Это подтверждается многочисленными костными остатками нерп на поселенческих комплексах [Горюнова, Оводов, Новиков, 2007;Nomokonova, Losey, 2013;Weber et al., 1998], а также результатами анализов стабильных изотопов, проведенных по костям людей, погребенных на могильниках среднего голоцена [Katzenberg et al., 2010;Weber et al., 2011]. Нерп добывали не только охотники-рыболовы, проживавшие в Прибайкалье, но и скотоводы, которые мигрировали сюда в течение позднего голоцена и чья хозяйственная деятельность была в основном связана с домашними животными [Nomokonova et al., 2010]. ...
For over 9000 years, seals were a major food source for many groups of foragers living in the Lake Baikal region of Eastern Siberia, as evidenced by the frequency of seal bones in the Holocene sites of that area. This article introduces new representations of seals and summarizes previously known seal depictions. Seal images were rather common in rock art and portable sculpture. Also, Neolithic and Bronze Age foragers used seal bones in manufacturing implements and ornaments and placed parts of seal carcasses in burials. From the Iron Age on, seals featured in pastoralist sacrificial rites, along with other animals. Copyright © 2014, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
... As already mentioned, based upon dietary evidence , there are two distinct diet types within the Little Sea EBA population: GF and GFS. Sealing is predominantly a seasonal activity conducted on Lake Baikal from late winter to early spring (Weber et al., 1998). Weber and colleagues , based on the examination of the large KNXIV data set, hypothesized the movement of significant numbers of individuals between the Upper Lena and Little Sea micro-regions on a seasonal basis and that the seasonal nature of this movement produced two cycles of inter-regional mobility, one that brought people from the Upper Lena to the Little Sea during the narrow window when seal meat was available for consumption and possibly to participate directly in the hunting of seals, and another pattern that brought non-locals to the Little Sea outside of the sealing season. ...
Previous geochemical work conducted on the materials from the Khuzhir-Nuge XIV cemetery on Lake Baikal, Siberia, has demonstrated the effectiveness of using 87Sr/86Sr ratio analysis in interpreting mobility patterns among Early Bronze Age hunter–gatherer groups. The research reported here focuses on six small cemeteries representing the Little Sea and Upper Lena micro-regions as well the Early Neolithic (EN: ca. 8000–7200 cal BP) and Early Bronze Age (EBA: ca. 5200–3400 cal BP) periods, thus expanding both the geographic and chronological scope of the previous work. The reference collection of environmental samples, to document bioavailability of the measured geochemical tracers, was also expanded substantially by inclusion of samples of modern plants and water from Lake Baikal and a number of surrounding rivers. First, second, and third molars of 14 adult individuals were tested for 87Sr/86Sr ratios as well as rare earth and trace element concentrations using LA-ICP-MS. Each human tooth was micro-sampled at four locations along the crown enamel thus providing data of higher temporal resolution relative to a single sampling locus. Geochemical signatures for water, plant and animal bone samples were found to be far more variable across the region than predicted based on the age and type of geologic formations. 87Sr/86Sr ratios for cultural micro-regions proved to overlap significantly and required trace element data to identify more discrete geochemical groups. The level of hunter–gatherer mobility between and within the analyzed micro-regions was found to be significant with individuals recovered from the Upper Lena showing contact with the Little Sea micro-region along the northwest coast of the lake.
... However, micro-sampling for solution preparation still requires significant laboratory processing whereas laser ablation requires virtually no such special handling (Copeland, et al., 2008, Nowell and Horstwood, 2009, Prohaska, et al., 2002, Scharlotta, 2010. In spite of several studies using LA on human teeth, bone and high-Sr apatites (Prohaska, et al., 2002, Weber, et al., 2007, analysis of phosphate minerals by LA has not been tested extensively for strontium work until quite recently (Copeland, et al., 2010, Horstwood, et al., 2006, Pye, 2004, Scharlotta, 2010, 2012, Vroon, et al., 2008, Weber, et al., 1998, Woodhead, et al., 2005. ...
The nature of long bone formation and the pathways of interaction between bone samples and the burial environment suggest that portions of the bones disconnected from the arterial system are resistant to diagenetic alteration. Preliminary work on femurs from Early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers in Cis-Baikal, Siberia shows that the nature and progression of chemical changes in the bone matrix due to microbial attack can be analyzed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Intra-osteon variability in elemental concentrations and strontium isotope ratios (Sr-87/Sr-86) indicate the presence of unaltered portions of bone within diagenetically modified bone and suggest that useful data remain accessible. These biogenic signals can potentially be useful for mobility research in broad terms and the smaller timescales within an individual's lifetime (months, years), accessible therein. Laser ablation micro-sampling of femur specimens showed that intra-osteon elemental composition of Ba, Re, and Cs varied within and was correlated between multiple osteons of a single bone. Portions of chemically unaffected bone were identified within, and effectively discriminated from diagenetically altered bone tissue. Areas showing visual alterations and erratic or uncorrelated Ca and Sr elemental results also had anomalous Sr isotope ratios, suggesting diagenetic alteration in those places. Compositional and isotopic analysis of intact portions of bone supports the hypothesis that hunter-gatherer groups in Cis-Baikal made numerous major movements during their lives. Microscopic analysis of long bones clarifies aspects of biodeterioration and correlations between trace elemental results and diagenetic alteration. Micro-sampling of intact portions of bone expands the scope of available materials for research on mobility and other aspects of human past behavior.
... Abundant archaeological evidence for seal hunting (Phoca siberica) is found in sites primarily from the open coastline of the central portion of the lake (on Olkhon's east coast, and the adjacent portions of the main coastline)dbut not the shorelines of the Little Sea itself. Recent work by Nomokonova et al. (2010) as well as earlier work by Weber et al. (1998) suggests that seal hunting occurred in spring. ...
... The intensive Russian-Canadian archaeological research in the Cis-Baikal since the 1990s (e.g. Lam 1994; Katzenberg and Weber 1999;Weber and McKenzie 2003;Weber et al. 1993Weber et al. , 1998Weber et al. , 2002Weber et al. , 2004Weber et al. , 2005 makes the release of original data of more importance for the international scholar community. Here, the issue of a "hiatus" in the Cis-Baikal archaeological chronology is discussed, along with the presentation of the first conventional 14 C dates for burial grounds later dated by Weber et al. (2006). ...
The problem of a hiatus at about 6100-5300 BP (about 4900-4200 cal BC) in the prehistoric chronology of the Cis-Baikal region in Siberia is discussed. Based on a critical evaluation of existing evidence, there was no discontinuity found in the cultural sequence between the Kitoi and Serovo/Glazkovo complexes of the Neolithic, and the proposed "hiatus" may be an artifact based on underestimation of solid data. Conventional 14C dates are presented that were generated in the 1980s to early 2000s for Cis-Baikal prehistoric burial grounds, and were later dated by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS).
... The mortuary site known as Khuzhir or Shamanksii Mys, located on the east coast of Olkhon Island, produced 11 human graves, other pits and features, and stratified deposits containing faunal remains and artifacts (Konopatskii, 1982;Weber et al., 1998). Grave 3 (1972) contained a human burial, numerous implements and other items, and two canids. ...
... In contrast, isotopic variation among the Serovo-Glaskovo samples appears to be minimal across the entire Cis-Baikal, suggesting higher interregional travel, lower isolation among groups, and broader/ more diverse diets. Finally, stable isotope values suggest a greater reliance on fish by the Kitoi people and an increased reliance on terrestrial foods by the Serovo-Glaskovo (Okladnikov, 1950(Okladnikov, , 1955(Okladnikov, , 1959Khlobystin, 1969;Lam, 1994;Weber, 1995;Weber et al., 1998Weber et al., , 2002Katzenberg and Weber, 1999). If Kitoi and Serovo-Glaskovo peoples did indeed employ markedly different adaptive regimes, then the examination of their respective dental records might corroborate these interpretations. ...
This investigation of the Cis-Baikal dental record focuses on health and lifestyle reconstruction of the region's mid-Holocene foragers, with particular interest in an apparent fifth millennium BC biocultural hiatus. The four cemetery populations considered represent two distinct biological and cultural groups separated by an apparent 700-year hiatus: the late Mesolithic-early Neolithic Kitoi culture (6800-4900 BC) and the middle Neolithic-early Bronze Age Serovo-Glaskovo cultural complex (4200-1000 BC). Research focuses on the frequency and severity of seven dental health indicators: enamel hypoplasia, caries, alveolar defects, periodontitis, antemortem tooth loss, dental calculus, and dental attrition. Together, these seven indicators provide a basis not only for better understanding mid-Holocene lifeways in the Cis-Baikal but also for independently assessing the relative effectiveness of the different adaptive strategies employed by pre- and posthiatus peoples. Results reveal some discrepancies between the Kitoi and Serovo-Glaskovo, specifically in their relative vulnerability to physiological stress, providing evidence to support previous interpretations of their distinct adaptive regimes (namely the narrower resource base and decreased mobility of the former). Results also suggest that some of the differences observed among the four sites may reflect geographical or environmental factors rather than simply cultural ones. However, despite these distinctions, the overriding trend appears to be one of general continuity, social equality, and good health among all mid-Holocene occupants of the Cis-Baikal, pre- and posthiatus alike.
Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers (HG) of the Cis-Baikal, Eastern Siberia, display substantial spatiotemporal variation in adaptive strategies highlighted by several cultural transitions. These transitions are examined focusing on the role of the following factors: (1) changes in the distribution of the boreal forest; (2) technological innovations; (3) intensification of fishing; and (4) their combined impacts on subsistence and social structure. The expansion and retreat of boreal forest was important because it directly affected the distribution and abundance of large and medium terrestrial game, the core of subsistence for all Middle Holocene HG in the region. All other things being equal, expanding forests meant less game while shrinking forest meant more game and more living space for HG. The bow was crucial not only due to its technological superiority over the spear and atlatl as a game hunting weapon but also because its flexibility allowed it to work equally well for groups of any size and in any environment – forest or steppe. The much higher return rates associated with bow hunting freed enough labour to be allocated to other activities such as the intensification of fishing. Fishing and fisheries were important because they worked as a differentiating force: the more intensive the fishing, the more limited its spatial distribution and the greater the micro-regional differences between cultural patterns. Intensive fishing and game hunting pulled the adaptive strategies in two opposing directions: fishing towards differences and hunting towards similarities between groups and micro-regions. Social relations were important because they fine-tuned the social fabric to optimize the general strategy. Together, these factors account for all cultural transitions and variation documented for the Middle Holocene HG of Cis-Baikal: Transition 1 – formation of the Late Mesolithic cultural pattern with incipient formal cemeteries ~8630 cal BP; Transition 2 – replacement of the Late Mesolithic system on the Angara and in Southwest Baikal, but not in the Little Sea or on the Upper Lena, by the Early Neolithic Kitoi pattern with its very large cemeteries ~7560 cal BP; Transition 3 – collapse of the Kitoi by ~6660 cal BP followed by the formation of the Middle Neolithic pattern with no cemeteries; Transition 4 – reappearance of cemeteries ~6060 cal BP and the establishment of the Late Neolithic pattern; Transition 5 – formation of the Early Bronze Age system ~4970 cal BP; and lastly, Transition 6 – the end of the Early Bronze Age socio-economic pattern by ~3470 cal BP.
relative time period: Follows the Siberian Late Upper Paleolithic tradition, precedes the historic period
We provide a multi-scalar investigation of interactions among hunter-gatherers in the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia during the transition to the Bronze Age (4900–3700 cal BP). We review and synthesize published data on burial goods and isotopic variation to reconstruct interconnections that existed both within and between hunter-gatherer groups inhabiting the Cis-Baikal's distinct micro-regions, as well as macro-regional interconnections between the Cis-Baikal and neighboring regions of Eurasia. While an extensive body of English-language literature has recently been published on the prehistory of the Cis-Baikal, this literature does not address patterning in the archaeological record at the macro-regional scale. The data we discuss here suggest that by the Bronze Age, Cis-Baikal hunter-gatherers shared several of the hallmark developments that characterized the Bronze Age of the Eurasian Steppe. We attempt to situate the Cis-Baikal within its broader geographic and historical context, and suggest that despite the absence of food production (e.g., herding) in the region at this time, local hunter-gatherers’ mobility practices – involving seasonal movement and periodic aggregation – enabled these groups to participate in networks of interaction that developed throughout the larger region in the Bronze Age.
Skeletal growth is explored between Early Neolithic (EN) (8000 to 6800 BP) and Late Neolithic (LN) (6000 to 5200 BP) foragers from the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. Previous studies suggest that increased systemic stress and smaller adult body size characterize the EN compared to LN. On this basis, greater evidence for stunting and wasting is expected in the EN compared to LN. Skeletal growth parameters assessed here include femoral and tibial lengths, estimated stature and body mass, femoral midshaft cortical thickness, total bone thickness, and medullary width. Forward selection was used to fit polynomial lines to each skeletal growth parameter relative to dental age in the pooled samples, and standardized residuals were compared between groups using t tests. Standardized residuals of body mass and femoral length were significantly lower in the EN compared to LN sample, particularly from late infancy through early adolescence. However, no significant differences in the standardized residuals for cortical thickness, medullary width, total bone thickness, tibial length, or stature were found between the groups. Age ranges for stunting in femoral length and wasting in body mass are consistent with environmental perturbations experienced at the cessation of breast feeding and general resource insecurity in the EN compared to LN sample. Differences in relative femoral but not tibial length may be associated with age-specific variation in growth-acceleration for the distal and proximal limb segments. Similarity in cortical bone growth between the two samples may reflect the combined influences of systemic and mechanical factors on this parameter. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The aim of this study is to look at upper body functional modifications caused by mechanical loading. We look at 4th lumbar vertebra as well as fibrous humeral musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs). This study uses information provided by magnetic resonance images of living individuals from the University of Oulu Hospital data banks (N = 91), archaeological skeletons from Sweden (N = 54) and England (N = 61), and autopsied skeletal collection of early 20th century Finns in Natural History Museum, University of Helsinki (N = 48). The lumbar vertebrae and MSM are subjected to mechanical loading caused by the upper body weight and loads lifted and/or carried. We hypothesized that the vertebral size reflect body size, habitual mechanical loading and the overall skeletal robusticity as mechanical competence to withstand mechanical loading standardized to body size, which has decreased over millennia. For Helsinki material occupation, age and sex is known and the material was used in Niinimäki (2011). In the study by Niinimäki (2011) MSM were found to be affected by the intensity of muscular action as well as body size and age. This study is reviewed here in light of re-analysis of the data to follow the current anatomical understanding of the entheses as well as viewing MSMs as a part of upper body functional complex. Only fibrous entheses were included in the re-analysis. Furthermore, due to small number of females where activity intensity could be assessed, females were dropped from the re-analysis.
The extraordinary record of prehistoric funeral activities in Russia’s Cis-Baikal region provides an opportunity to study changes in political strategies that boreal forest hunter–gatherers employed at these events in the Middle Holocene. I use published data on burial treatments (quantities of grave goods, presence of exotic materials, burial layouts) from 10 Late Neolithic (henceforth referred to as “LN,” 4000–3000 BC) and 11 Early Bronze Age (“EBA,” 3000–2000 BC) cemeteries to explore important and previously undetected shifts in the ways that funerals during these periods articulated with political life. LN groups used funerals to emphasize affiliation with corporate institutions, while EBA funeral participants employed political strategies focused on displaying wealth. Current evidence indicates that groups on the western peripheries of the Cis-Baikal started employing semi-nomadic pastoral subsistence practices at the time of the LN-EBA transition, and I suggest that these groups presented new opportunities for Cis-Baikal inhabitants. Interactions with mobile, food-producing groups may have indirectly stimulated indigenous populations to redefine funeral gatherings as venues appropriate for cultivating long-distance economic and political support through competitive displays of wealth.
Foraging ranges, migrations, and travel among Middle Holocene hunter–gatherers in the Baikal region of Siberia are examined based on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures obtained from 350 human and 203 faunal bone samples. The human materials represent Early Neolithic (8000–6800cal BP), Late Neolithic (6000–5000cal BP), and Early Bronze Age periods (∼5000–4000cal BP) and come from the following four smaller areas of the broader region: the Angara and upper Lena valleys, Little Sea of Baikal’s northwest coast, and southwest Baikal. Forager diets from each area occupy their own distinct position within the stable isotope spectrum. This suggests that foraging ranges were not as large as expected given the distances involved and the lack of geographic obstacles between the micro-regions. All examined individuals followed a similar subsistence strategy: harvesting game and local fishes, and on Lake Baikal also the seal, and to a more limited extent, plant foods. Although well established in their home areas, exchange networks with the other micro-regions appear asymmetrical both in time and direction: more travel and contacts between some micro-regions and less between others. The Angara valley seems to be the only area with the possibility of a temporal change in the foraging strategy from more fishing during the Early Neolithic to more ungulate hunting during the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age. However, the shift in stable isotope values suggesting this change can be viewed also as evidence of climate change affecting primary productivity of the Baikal–Angara freshwater system.
The article presents the results of studies of faunal remains from the Ulan-Khada multilayered settlement – one of key habitation sites in the Cis-Baikal region providing information for reconstructing environmental and cultural changes during the Holocene. A complete analysis of the fauna assemblage obtained over the course of long-term excavations is given. For the fi rst time, the site's ichthyofauna is described. The mammalian species composition is revised. Species diversity is evaluated across the time span from the Final Mesolithic to the Late Iron Age. These studies have demonstrated that the main activities at the site during the Neolithic and Bronze Age included seal and ungulate (roe and red deer) hunting. Fishing was also important, especially 4.2–3.8 thousand years ago (Bronze Age).
Boreal forest hunter-gatherers who lived in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia between 9000 and 3000 years ago left behind a rich record of mortuary and habitation sites. In this article, we employ the results of human osteological, stable isotope, and faunal analyses to formulate an hypothesis about discontinuity in the development of Cis-Baikal hunter-gatherers. These data are further used to arrive at more specific working hypotheses on contrasting subsistence, mobility, and social interaction patterns of the two cultures that inhabited the region at different times. We then provide a new model of culture change and continuity that features an intriguing 700-800-year gap between these two groups' records of occupation within a context of practically no environmental change.
:Roughly 3000 years ago, nomadic pastoralists began to arrive in the Cis-Baikal region of eastern Siberia. While the archaeological record of these groups is quite extensive, most research on pastoralists here has focused on mortuary traditions while questions about subsistence practices have been left largely unaddressed. Few habitation sites from the late Holocene here contain stratified deposits, and virtually none have been subject to modern excavation methods or zooarchaeological analyses. We present new faunal data from the recently excavated Sagan-Zaba II site located on the west coast of Lake Baikal. This site offers a unique opportunity to examine diachronic patterns in diet and subsistence practices of local pastoralists. It contains stratified deposits associated with different periods of pastoralist occupation spanning much of the late Holocene. Significantly, it is the first site of this period in the region to be screened with fine-meshed sieves and to be systematically studied by zooarchaeologists. The results of our research reveal a series of new insights on pastoralist subsistence practices. First, the primary domesticates in all periods were sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. Cattle appear to increase through time at the site while horses remained relatively rare. Second, pastoralists at Sagan-Zaba regularly hunted Lake Baikal's freshwater seals, long after the introduction of domesticated livestock. Third, hunting of terrestrial mammals, particularly roe deer and red deer, was also common at the site. Finally, our data demonstrate that pastoralists here also regularly fished. This subsistence practice was previously unrecognized in the region, likely due to lack of sieving of sites. Furthermore, these data suggest that historically documented fishing by modern local pastoralists and increases in sedentism were not completely the result of Russian-period settlement of the region but instead were occurring in Cis-Baikal long prior to the modern era.
Human and non-human faunal bone from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods of Cis-Baikal were analysed for stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in order to study regional and temporal variation in diet and subsistence. Both prehistoric and modern faunal species were analysed with all fish from the modern context. Results indicate that regional variation is greater than temporal variation and can be attributed to proximity to Lake Baikal and its rich aquatic resources. Stable isotope analyses of fish and seals from Lake Baikal indicate a wide range of variation in isotope values. δ15N values for the freshwater seals of Lake Baikal average 14 ± 1·1 per mil. Freshwater fish are highly variable in the δ13C values ranging from − 24·6 per mil for the pelagic omul (Coregonus autumnalis migratorius) to − 12·9 per mil for littoral species such as ide (Leuciscus idus). Terrestrial herbivores have much lower δ15N values, ranging from 4 to 5 per mil for deer and elk. These data demonstrate that even in temperate, inland regions, there is sufficient variation in stable isotope values of various food resources to provide useful information about variation in human palaeodiet.
This examination of osteoarthritis in Siberia's Cis-Baikal region focuses on the reconstruction of mid-Holocene mobility and activity patterns with particular interest in an alleged fifth millennium BC biocultural hiatus. Five cemetery populations--two representing the pre-hiatus Kitoi culture (6800-4900 BC) and three the post-hiatus Serovo-Glaskovo (4200-1000 BC)-are considered. The objective is to investigate osteoarthritic prevalence and distribution (patterning) within and among these populations in order to reconstruct mobility and activity patterns among the Cis-Baikal foragers, and to test for possible disparities that may reflect differing adaptive strategies. The data reveal that levels of activity remained relatively constant throughout the mid-Holocene but that mobility and specific activity patterns did not. Although results are consistent with the current understanding of distinct Kitoi and Serovo-Glaskovo subsistence regimes, specifically the lower residential mobility and narrower resource base of the former, they also draw attention to adaptive characteristics shared by all occupants of the Cis-Baikal.
Rich settlement and burial evidence from the Baikal/Angara region in Central Siberia provides one of the most promising opportunities in the global boreal forest for studying Holocene foragers. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age prehistory of the region is known to western scholars only through a few English translations of the works of A. P. Okladnikov. Since the publication of Okladnikov's model, the region has witnessed large-scale archaeological fieldwork that has produced abundant quantities of new evidence. Moreover, the model has been partly invalidated by extensive radiocarbon dating. Research advances over the last couple of decades have augmented the area's previous reputation but have also revealed the need for new theoretical perspectives and modern analytical techniques.
A number of archaeological sites on Lake Baikal revealed evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age seal hunting. A collection of 35 canines from four sites was used to develop a methodology for analysing growth increments of canine dentine for the purpose of examining aspects of prehistoric seal hunting. Results from this preliminary analysis indicate that seal hunting at these sites was a seasonal activity confined to spring and early summer. Baikal seals were probably hunted in early spring for their meat, blubber and furs, and later in the season for their meat and skins.
In growing numbers, archeologists are specializing in the analysis of excavated animal bones as clues to the environment and behavior of ancient peoples. This pathbreaking work provides a detailed discussion of the outstanding issues and methods of bone studies that will interest zooarcheologists as well as paleontologists who focus on reconstructing ecologies from bones. Because large samples of bones from archeological sites require tedious and time-consuming analysis, the authors also offer a set of computer programs that will greatly simplify the bone specialist's job. After setting forth the interpretive framework that governs their use of numbers in faunal analysis, Richard G. Klein and Kathryn Cruz-Uribe survey various measures of taxonomic abundance, review methods for estimating the sex and age composition of a fossil species sample, and then give examples to show how these measures and sex/age profiles can provide useful information about the past. In the second part of their book, the authors present the computer programs used to calculate and analyze each numerical measure or count discussed in the earlier chapters. These elegant and original programs, written in BASIC, can easily be used by anyone with a microcomputer or with access to large mainframe computers.
The living site and cemeteries at Sagan-Nuge Cove
- Poselenie
Poselenie i mogil'niki Bukhty Sagan-Nuge [The living site and cemeteries at Sagan-Nuge Cove]. In (V. M. Masson, Ed.) Drevnosti Baikala. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 56–59.
Poselenie i mogil'nik V Bukhte Shide [The living site and cemetery at Shide Cove
- N G Gorbunova
- M N Pshenitsyna
Gorbunova, N. G. & Pshenitsyna, M. N. (1992). Poselenie i mogil'nik V Bukhte Shide [The living site and cemetery at Shide Cove]. In (V. M. Masson, Ed.) Drevnosti Baikala. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 65–69.
Beskeramicheskie kompleksy mnog-osloinogo poseleniia Berloga [Non-ceramic complexes of the multilayered living site Berloga
- O I Goriunova
Goriunova, O. I. (1982). Beskeramicheskie kompleksy mnog-osloinogo poseleniia Berloga [Non-ceramic complexes of the multilayered living site Berloga]. In Paleolit i Mezolit iuga Sibiri. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 174–191.
Kompleks bronzovogo veka mnog-osloinogo poseleniia Tyshkine III [The Bronze Age complex of the multilayered living site of Tyshkine III]. In Po sledam drevnikh kul'tur Zabaikal'ia. Novosibirsk: Nauka
- O I Goriunova
Goriunova, O. I. (1983). Kompleks bronzovogo veka mnog-osloinogo poseleniia Tyshkine III [The Bronze Age complex of the multilayered living site of Tyshkine III]. In Po sledam drevnikh kul'tur Zabaikal'ia. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 70–75.
Kompleksy rannego bronzovogo veka mnogosloinogo poseleniia Tyshkine III [The Early Bronze Age complex of the multilayered living site Tyshkine III
- O I Goriunova
Goriunova, O. I. (1984a). Kompleksy rannego bronzovogo veka mnogosloinogo poseleniia Tyshkine III [The Early Bronze Age complex of the multilayered living site Tyshkine III]. In (V. E. Medvedev, Ed.) Arkheologiia iuga Sibiri i Dal'nego Vostoka. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 57–69.
Eds) Stratigrafiia, plaeogeografiia i arkhe-ologiia iuga Srednei Sibiri
- Ol
- Novosibirsk
- O I Goriunova
Ol'khon [Multilayered sites of the Little Sea and Ol'khon Island]. Ph.D. thesis, USSR Academy of Science, Novosibirsk. Goriunova, O. I. (1990a). Sagan-Nuge. In (G. I. Medvedev, N. A. Savel'ev & V. V. Svinin, Eds) Stratigrafiia, plaeogeografiia i arkhe-ologiia iuga Srednei Sibiri. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 133–136.
Mezoliticheskie pamiatniki Ol'khonskogo raiona [Mesolithic sites of the Ol'khon region
- O I Goriunova
Goriunova, O. I. (1991). Mezoliticheskie pamiatniki Ol'khonskogo raiona [Mesolithic sites of the Ol'khon region]. In (G. I. Medvedev, Ed.) Paleoetnologicheskie issledovaniia na iuge srednei Sibiri. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 62–70.
Tyshkine II—mnogosloinoe poselenie ostrova Ol'khon (Ozero Baikal) [Tyshkine II—a multilayered living site on Ol'khon Island (Lake Baikal)]. In Material'naia kul'tura drevnego naseleniia Vostochnoi Sibiri
- O I Goriunova
- L G Iaroslavtseva
Goriunova, O. I. & Iaroslavtseva, L. G. (1982). Tyshkine II—mnogosloinoe poselenie ostrova Ol'khon (Ozero Baikal) [Tyshkine II—a multilayered living site on Ol'khon Island (Lake Baikal)]. In Material'naia kul'tura drevnego naseleniia Vostochnoi Sibiri. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 37–54.
Raskopki mnog-osloinogo poseleniia Ulan-Khada [Excavation of the multilayered living site at Ulan-Khada
- M P Griaznov
- M N Komarova
Griaznov, M. P. & Komarova, M. N. (1992). Raskopki mnog-osloinogo poseleniia Ulan-Khada [Excavation of the multilayered living site at Ulan-Khada]. In (V. M. Masson, Ed.) Drevnosti Baikala. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 13– 32.
Mogil'niki v okrest-nostiakh poselka Kharansy i ozera Elgai na ostrove Ol'khon [Cemeteries near the Kharansy Settlement and Lake Elgai on Ol'khon Island
- N K Kachalova
- S S Chernikov
Kachalova, N. K. & Chernikov, S. S. (1992). Mogil'niki v okrest-nostiakh poselka Kharansy i ozera Elgai na ostrove Ol'khon [Cemeteries near the Kharansy Settlement and Lake Elgai on Ol'khon Island]. In (V. M. Masson, Ed.) Drevnosti Baikala. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 77–83.
Poseleniia i mogil'niki na mysakh Burkhan, Shibetei, i Niurgon (Ostrov Ol'khon) [Living sites and cemeteries at Burkhan, Shibetei and Niurgon Capes (Ol'khon Island)
- N K Kachalova
- Mandel
- A M Shtam
Kachalova, N. K. & Mandel'shtam, A. M. (1992). Poseleniia i mogil'niki na mysakh Burkhan, Shibetei, i Niurgon (Ostrov Ol'khon) [Living sites and cemeteries at Burkhan, Shibetei and Niurgon Capes (Ol'khon Island)]. In (V. M. Masson, Ed.) Drevnosti Baikala. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 73–77.
Sravnitel'nyi analiz fauny mnogosloinykh arkheologicheskikh pamiatnikov Ityrkhie, Ulan-Khada, Berloga (Pribaikal'e) [A comparative analysis of fauna from multilayered archaeological sites Ityrkhei Paleoetnologicheskie issledova-niia na iuge Srednei Sibiri
- A A Khamzina
Khamzina, A. A. (1991). Sravnitel'nyi analiz fauny mnogosloinykh arkheologicheskikh pamiatnikov Ityrkhie, Ulan-Khada, Berloga (Pribaikal'e) [A comparative analysis of fauna from multilayered archaeological sites Ityrkhei, Ulan-Khada, Berloga (Cis-Baikal region)]. In (G. I. Medvedev, Ed.) Paleoetnologicheskie issledova-niia na iuge Srednei Sibiri. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 70–75.
Drevnie kul'tury Baikala (o. Ol'khon) [Early Cultures of Baikal (Ol'khon Island)]
- A K Konopatskii
Konopatskii, A. K. (1982). Drevnie kul'tury Baikala (o. Ol'khon) [Early Cultures of Baikal (Ol'khon Island)]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Mogil'nik v zalive Kurkut [The cemetery at Kurkut Bay
- G A Maksimenkov
- V S Sorokin
Maksimenkov, G. A. & Sorokin, V. S. (1992). Mogil'nik v zalive Kurkut [The cemetery at Kurkut Bay]. In (V. M. Masson, Ed.) Drevnosti Baikala. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 59–64.
Fauna i radiouglirodnoe datirovanie neoliticheskoi stoianki Sagan-Zaba na Baikal'e [Fauna and radiocarbon dating of the Neolithic site Sagan-Zaba on Lake Baikal
- N D Ovodov
- B A Panychev
Ovodov, N. D. & Panychev, B. A. (1982). Fauna i radiouglirodnoe datirovanie neoliticheskoi stoianki Sagan-Zaba na Baikal'e [Fauna and radiocarbon dating of the Neolithic site Sagan-Zaba on Lake Baikal]. In (I. L. Lezhnenko, Ed.) Problemy arkheologii i etnografii Sibiri. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 66–68.
Nerpa Baikala [The Baikal Seal]. Novosi-birsk: Nauka. Vorob'eva, Golotsen Priol'khon'ia [The Holocene of the Ol'khon area
- V D G A Pastukhov
Pastukhov, V. D. (1993). Nerpa Baikala [The Baikal Seal]. Novosi-birsk: Nauka. Vorob'eva, G. A. (1990). Golotsen Priol'khon'ia [The Holocene of the Ol'khon area]. In (G. I. Medvedev, N. A. Savel'ev & V. V. Svinin, Eds) Stratigrafiia, paleogeografiia i arkheologiia iuga Srednei Sibiri. Irkutsk: Irkutskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, pp. 121–126.