Hunter-Gatherer Culture Change and Continuity in the Middle Holocene of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia

Abstract 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.

[1]  K. Minoura,et al.  Palaeoenvironmental history of Lake Baikal during the last 23000 years , 2000 .

[2]  D. Williams,et al.  A new record of Holocene climate change from the bottom sediments of Lake Baikal , 2000 .

[3]  A. Weber,et al.  Stable Isotope Ecology and Palaeodiet in the Lake Baikal Region of Siberia , 1999 .

[4]  D. Link.  Boreal forest hunter-gatherer demography and health during the Middle Holocene of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia , 1999 .

[5]  S. Colman,et al.  Evidence from Lake Baikal for Siberian Glaciation during Oxygen-Isotope Substage 5d , 1998, Quaternary Research.

[6]  H. Faure,et al.  A new estimate of changing carbon storage on land since the last glacial maximum, based on global land ecosystem reconstruction , 1998 .

[7]  A. Weber,et al.  Patterns of Prehistoric Procurement of Seal at Lake Baikal: A Zooarchaeological Contribution to the Study of Past Foraging Economies in Siberia , 1998 .

[8]  O. Posukh,et al.  [A genetic-demographic study of the South Altaian population of the Mendur-Sokkon village (Altai Republic)]. , 1997, Genetika.

[9]  O. Posukh,et al.  [Genetic-demographic analysis of the population of native inhabitants of the Samburg tundra]. , 1996, Genetika.

[10]  R. Pennington.  Causes of early human population growth. , 1996, American journal of physical anthropology.

[11]  D. Link.  Hunter-gatherer demography and health in the Cis-Baikal Neolithic , 1996 .

[12]  S. Colman,et al.  AMS radiocarbon analyses from Lake Baikal, Siberia: Challanges of dating sediments from a large, oligotrophic lake , 1996 .

[13]  D. A. Herring,et al.  Weaning and infant mortality: Evaluating the skeletal evidence , 1996 .

[14]  R. L. Kelly.  The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways , 1997 .

[15]  R. Hesslein,et al.  Contributions of Benthic Algae to Lake Food Webs as Revealed by Stable Isotope Analysis , 1995, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[16]  A. Weber.  The neolithic and early bronze age of the Lake Baikal Region: A review of recent research , 1995 .

[17]  Y. Lam.  Isotopic Evidence for Change in Dietary Patterns During the Baikal Neolithic , 1994, Current Anthropology.

[18]  Murray Gray,et al.  Global Climates since the Last Glacial Maximum , 1994 .

[19]  S. Colman,et al.  A synthesis of post-glacial diatom records from Lake Baikal , 1994 .

[20]  N. Räihä.  Protein metabolism during infancy , 1994 .

[21]  D. Ubelaker,et al.  Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains , 1994 .

[22]  I. Krupnik.  Arctic Adaptations: Native Whalers and Reindeer Herders of Northern Eurasia. , 1993 .

[23]  A. Weber,et al.  Prehistoric Seal Hunting on Lake Baikal: Methodology and Preliminary Results of the Analysis of Canine Sections , 1993 .

[24]  S. Saunders,et al.  Growth deficit in survivors and non-survivors: Biological mortality bias in subadult skeletal samples , 1993 .

[25]  L. Tieszen,et al.  Effect of Diet Quality and Composition on the Isotopic Composition of Respiratory CO2, Bone Collagen, Bioapatite, and Soft Tissues , 1993 .

[26]  G. Grupe,et al.  Prehistoric human bone : archaeology at the molecular level , 1993 .

[27]  J. Sealy,et al.  On “Approaches to dietary reconstruction in the Western Cape: Are you what you have eaten?”—A reply to Parkington , 1992 .

[28]  Duncan Metcalfe,et al.  A Model for Exploring the Optimal Trade‐off between Field Processing and Transport , 1992 .

[29]  V. Maher.  The Anthropology of Breast-feeding. Natural law or Social Construct , 1992 .

[30]  R. Bettinger.  Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory , 1991 .

[31]  V. Maher.  Breast-feeding in cross-cultural perspective; paradoxes and proposals , 1991 .

[32]  T. Boutton.  11 – Stable Carbon Isotope Ratios of Natural Materials: II. Atmospheric, Terrestrial, Marine, and Freshwater Environments , 1991 .

[33]  D. Coleman,et al.  Carbon isotope techniques , 1991 .

[34]  A. Meyers,et al.  Health and the Rise of Civilization , 1990 .

[35]  A. Goodman,et al.  Infant and childhood morbidity and mortality risks in archaeological populations. , 1989, World archaeology.

[36]  C. Renfrew,et al.  Searching for the Origins of Indo-European Languages@@@Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins , 1988 .

[37]  John R. Johnson,et al.  Age and sex biases in the preservation of human skeletal remains. , 1988, American journal of physical anthropology.

[38]  F. Lifshitz.  Nutrition in chronic diarrhea of infancy. , 1987 .

[39]  L. Stern,et al.  Feeding the sick infant , 1987 .

[40]  V. Fildes.  Breasts, bottles, and babies: A history of infant feeding , 1986 .

[41]  H. E. Wright,et al.  Late Quaternary environments of the Soviet Union , 1985 .

[42]  M. J. Deniro,et al.  Nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition of bone collagen from marine and terrestrial animals , 1984 .

[43]  L. Sattenspiel,et al.  Stable Populations and Skeletal Age , 1983, American Antiquity.

[44]  van der Merwe,et al.  Carbon Isotopes, Photosynthesis and Archaeology , 1982 .

[45]  R. Bettinger,et al.  The Numic Spread: Great Basin Cultures in Competition , 1982, American Antiquity.

[46]  L. Binford.  Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation , 1980, American Antiquity.

[47]  P. Ogra,et al.  Immunology Of Breast Milk , 1979 .

[48]  S. Preston,et al.  The Effects of Infant and Child Mortality on Fertility. , 1981 .

[49]  J. Vogel.  Isotopic assessment of the dietary habits of ungulates , 1978 .

[50]  J. Mondot-Bernard.  Relationships between fertility, child mortality and nutrition in Africa : tentative analysis , 1978 .

[51]  Paul E. Lydolph,et al.  Climates of the Soviet Union , 1977 .

[52]  K. Weiss.  Demographic Models for Anthropology , 1973 .

[53]  P J Ucko,et al.  Ethnography and archaeological interpretation of funerary remains. , 1969, World archaeology.

[54]  M. Czaplicka.  Aboriginal Siberia: A Study in Social Anthropology , 1969 .

[55]  M. Kozhov.  Lake Baikal and Its Life , 1963, Monographiae Biologicae.

[56]  A. P. Okladnikov.  ANCIENT POPULATION OF SIBERIA AND ITS CULTURES , 1960, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[57]  Waldemar . Bogoras.  THE CHUKCHI OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA , 1901 .