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Introduction

The Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP) is an international and multi-disciplinary team of scholars investigating Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer culture dynamics in two Russian regions: Baikal in Siberia (8,300–3,500 years ago) and Karelia in European Russia (8,700–8,000 years ago).

Project headquarters are based in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta.

Our research is primarily supported by the Partnership Grants program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as through generous contributions from the sponsors and collaborating institutions listed below.

If you are interested in our previous research in the Baikal Region and Hokkaido, Japan, please visit our archived websites:

2001–2011: https://bap.artsrn.ualberta.ca/

2011–2018: https://bhaparchive.artsrn.ualberta.ca/

News

Our second BAP MORS of 2025! These seminars are a great way to learn and connect with our international team on a regular basis. April 1, 2025: Jennifer Laughton (University of Alberta).“Dental Sex Estimation: creating regression formulae for the Cis-Baikal region” Thank you to Jennifer for presenting her interesting [...]

Team Member

TEMPLE Daniel

Mortuary Variation at the Early Neolithic Hunter-Gatherer Cemetery Shamanka II on Lake Baikal

In this version of the monograph on the Shamanka II cemetery the focus is on chronology, dietary patterns, and variation in Kitoi mortuary practices. Chapter 1 gives background archaeological information relevant to the analytical chapters, reviews the history of fieldwork at Shamanka II, and presents excavation methods. Chapter 2 explores cemetery chronology, its history of use, and dietary patterns based on extensive radiocarbon and stable isotope data. Chapter 3 presents the approach to the examination of variation in mortuary practices. Results of this examination (including the chronology and spatial organization of mortuary features; the position, orientation and integrity of […]