Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the Baikal Region, Siberia (original) (raw)

2010, University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks

T he Neolithic-Bronze Age culture history of the Lake Baikal region of south-central Siberia has been a subject of scientific investigation for more than a century. Recent excavation and analysis of several large mortuary complexes and extensive radiocarbon dating of recovered human skeletal remains reported by the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP) have significantly revised long-held cultural historical models for the area, in addition to revealing an intriguing biocultural discontinuity spanning the 7th millennium BP1 (Weber, Link, and Katzenberg 2002; Weber et al. 2005, 2006, Chapter 2 this volume). These data demonstrate two distinct phases of emergent socioeconomic complexity evidenced by the use of large formal cemeteries, increased sedentism, and resource intensification dating to the Early Neolithic Kitoi and Late Neolithic-Bronze Age Isakovo-Serovo and Glazkovo periods, separated by a c. 1,000-year interval (c. 7,000-6,000 yrs BP) in which large mortuary sites are entirely absent in the region. Archaeological evidence further suggests that cultural groups dating to either side of this Middle Neolithic hiatus differed in subsistence and diet, mobility patterns, social and political relations, and genetic affiliation. Several hypotheses that attempt to explain this Middle Neolithic hiatus in rather strict terms of social processes continue to be investigated. Here, we use results from Holocene climate and environmental change research as a complementary approach for better understanding this biocultural discontinuity and the associated shifts in adaptive strategies by Neolithic huntergatherer populations. Although it has been assumed that the interval spanning the Neolithic-Bronze Age periods was marked by relative ecological stability (Weber, Link, and Katzenberg 2002), the results outlined below ‹ 1 ›