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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 Dr. Corrie Hyland, BAP PhD student at University of Oxford, for successfully defending her PhD dissertation on August 19th, 2025! Title: Extricating the importance of freshwater resource use within prehistoric diets: combining the power of bulk and compound specific stable isotope analysis with established freshwater reservoir effects on [...]

Team Member

JAOUEN Klervia

Shamanka II: An Early Neolithic cemetery on the southwest shore of Lake Baikal, Siberia. Archaeological and Osteological Materials

Archaeology in China and East Asia Volume 9

This three-volume book presents the long-awaited comprehensive archaeological, chronological, and bioarchaeological studies of Shamanka II site, the largest completely excavated cemetery of the Early Neolithic Kitoi culture dated to ca. 7,560–6,660 years cal BP. It is a monument to some thirty years of research by the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP). This multidisciplinary international project provides insights into the individual life histories of Holocene hunter-gatherers in Northern Eurasia during times of climate change. The 156 people buried in 97 graves with around 15,000 goods at Shamanka II experienced a fundamental alteration of their […]