Northern Hunter-Gatherers Research Series Volume 3

This volume in the Baikal Archaeology Project’s Northern Hunter-Gatherers Series presents comprehensive human osteological data from fieldwork conducted by the project a the mortuary site Khuzhir-Nuge XIV on Lake Baikal in Siberia.

The goal of the BAP has been to identify and understand the processes associated with culture change and continuity among prehistoric boreal forest hunter-gatherers in Siberia’s Cis-Baikal region. The Little Sea area has more documented archaeological sites and has seen more fieldwork than any other part of the Lake Baikal coast. Mortuary sites have provided the primary data that inform a number of modules designed by the project. Of the several gravesites dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age located and excavated in the Little Sea of the Lake Baikal coast, Khuzhir-Nuge XIV is by far the largest. Funded in large part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), six seasons of excavation at KN XIV produced a wealth of material on 79 graves, including the remains of 89 individuals.

KN XIV plays a prominent role in the investigations of the BAP, and the cemetery yields – particularly the archaeological and osteological materials – have been subjected to a number of analyses. The present monograph (to be complemented by a subsequent volume of Archaeological Materials) is dedicated to a descriptive account of the human osteological collection acquired from the KN XIV graves, and includes the entire KN XIV human taphonomy dataset and extensive photographic documentation on an accompanying CD-ROM.