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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

Congratulations to Drs. Alexei Novikov, Olga Goriunova and Andrzej Weber on the recent publication of their monograph by Irkutsk State University Press! А. Г. НОВИКОВ, О. И. ГОРЮНОВА, А. В. ВЕБЕР: Могильник Туаханэ IX на побережье Байкала: неолит – бронзовый век. Иркутск: ИГУ. 2025. 320 сс. A.G. Novikov, [...]

Team Member

GORIUNOVA Olga

Environmental and cultural transformations in the Lake Baikal Region reflect hemispheric-scale changes in temperature and atmospheric circulation over the past 8800 years

Characterised by heterogeneous microclimatic conditions, a sharp vegetation gradient and a rich archaeological record, Olkhon Island offers a unique setting to investigate past climate change and its potential influence on cultural trajectories in the Lake Baikal Region (LBR). Palynological and geochemical analyses of the uppermost 556 cm section of the 750 cm long, radiocarbon-dated sediment core (Nur-II) from Lake Nurskoye (53°3’N, 106°58’E; 456 m a.s.l.) at the western end of Olkhon Island reveal several long- and short-term climate shifts over the last 8800 years. Forest expansion beginning in the Early Holocene peaked during the second half of the 7th […]