Congratulations to Dr. Olga I Goriunova on the recent publication of her article in Archaeological Research in Asia!
Title: Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer mortuary practices in the Little Sea microregion of Lake Baikal, part 1: Early Neolithic
Authors: Goriunova OI, Novikov AG, Turkin GV, Weber AW
Abstract: Archaeological research on Cis-Baikal Early Neolithic mortuary practices has traditionally focused on the Kitoi mortuary tradition with its rich materials known from several large cemeteries of the Angara Valley and Southwest Baikal. Assemblages that do not fit that description have attracted much less attention. Currently, in Cis-Baikal, the Little Sea microregion has the highest number of such graves. The mortuary variation displayed by this material (31 burials from 26 graves at 8 localities) allows their provisional classification into two mortuary groups: the Khotoruk Group, which shows a few similarities with the Kitoi pattern, and the Kurma Group, which does not. Both groups also share a few characteristics, primarily their “Mesolithic” character of many grave inclusions. Not a single grave of the Khotoruk Group displays a complete package of classic Kitoi mortuary pattern, giving an overall impression of being its much impoverished and limited version. It seems that while on the Angara and Southwest Baikal the Kitoi cultural pattern was going through a period of rather dynamic cultural developments, the Little Sea microregion was not much affected by these processes. The evidence suggests a fusion of a few typical Kitoi mortuary characteristics with those of local origin. Based on the set of 15 radiocarbon dates, both groups coexisted roughly at the same time and together date from 8154±153 to 7277±103 modelled cal. BP. As such, the origin of the Khotoruk and Kurma Groups appears to predate the formation of the Kitoi cultural pattern by a few centuries and their end seems to be also earlier than that of the Kitoi.
Congratulations to Dr. Goriunova and all co-authors!