Publications - Page 3 of 8 - Baikal Archaeology Project

Turning eastward: New radiocarbon and stable isotopic data for Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers from Fofanovo, Trans-Baikal, Siberia

A considerable amount of bioarchaeological research – including AMS 14C dating and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses (δ13C and δ15N) – has been undertaken on the hunter-gatherers from the area west of Lake Baikal, known as Cis-Baikal. No such work has previously been reported for the east side of the lake, Trans-Baikal. Here, we present new radiocarbon dates and isotopic results for twenty individuals from the Fofanovo cemetery, located along the Selenga River on the southeast coast of [...]

Erin2022-12-06T10:20:51-07:00Categories: Journal Articles, Publications|Tags: Schulting, Ramsey, Weber, White|

Lateglacial–Holocene environments and human occupation in the Upper Lena region of Eastern Siberia derived from sedimentary and zooarchaeological data from Lake Ochaul

In the current study, different geochemical and biological proxies, including pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, ostracods and molluscs, from an AMS radiocarbon-dated sediment core from Lake Ochaul (54°14′N, 106°28′E; 641 m a.s.l.) are presented and discussed. Ochaul is a fresh-water lake and an archaeological site situated ca. 100 km northwest of Lake Baikal in the upper reaches of the Lena River. The 260-cm-long sedimentary record presented here spans the Lateglacial–Holocene interval, between ca. 13,500 cal yr BP and the present. [...]

Andrea Hiob2022-11-01T10:45:51-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Leipe, Kobe, Tarasov|

An integrative examination of elk imagery in Middle Holocene Cis-Baikal, Siberia

Elk are common in forager archaeological artwork of northern Eurasia. During the Middle Holocene, the peoples of Cis-Baikal produced numerous elk depictions in rock art and mobiliary items. Most of the rock art has now been destroyed. However, Cis-Baikal’s cemeteries and habitation sites are increasingly well documented, with the former generating numerous elk images. To better understand this imagery, we first discuss elk biology and behavior. We then contextualize the imagery within other forms of archaeological data, including [...]

Erin2022-10-04T10:10:43-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Bazaliiskii|

Lateglacial and Holocene changes in vegetation and human subsistence around Lake Zhizhitskoye, East European midlatitudes, derived from radiocarbon-dated pollen and archaeological records

The numerous lake and peat sedimentary archives of Central European Russia are ideal for studying the Lateglacial–Holocene climate and vegetation history of the region. However, robustly dated palaeoenvironmental records have only become available in the last decade and are still few and far between. Together with the continuously growing archaeological record and increasing focus on absolute dating of cultural assemblages, such records, where available, offer an excellent opportunity to study human-environment interactions in the region. For this study [...]

Erin2022-09-01T10:25:05-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Leipe, Kobe, Tarasov|

Morphological Analysis of the Bone Serrated Points from Early Neolithic Complexes of Shamanka 2 Burial Ground [in Russian]

An analysis of the bone serrated points from the burial complexes of Shamanka 2 burial ground is presented. The origin of the collection makes it “ritual”, which may explain the large number of undamaged items. Several spikes have been broken intentionally at the time of their interment. Supposedly, several points have been specifically made for interment. In accordance with the morphological analysis, we have identified two groups of serrated spikes: (I) detachable tools and (II) non-detachable tools. Differences [...]

Erin2022-08-02T10:49:35-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Bazaliiskii, Weber|

Middle Holocene hunter–gatherer mortuary practices in the Little Sea microregion on Lake Baikal, part I: Early Neolithic

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 [...]

Erin2022-07-12T13:01:12-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Weber, Novikov, Goriunova|

A four-stage approach to re-associating fragmented and commingled human remains

Bioarchaeological and forensic anthropological methods are limited in their ability to re-associate human skeletal remains that have been both fragmented and commingled. Although many methods for individualizing commingled remains exist, they are rendered ineffective when the level of fragmentation is high. In these contexts, human remains are often approached similarly to faunal assemblages, regarded as sets of fragmented elements rather than as groups of fragments representing an individual. This paper introduces a new, four-stage approach to identifying discrete [...]

Erin2022-06-08T10:08:06-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Bazaliiskii, Lieverse, McKenzie, Bourgeois|

Breakthrough in purification of fossil pollen for dating of sediments by a new large-particle on-chip sorter

Particle sorting is a fundamental method in various fields of medical and biological research. However, existing sorting applications are not capable for high-throughput sorting of large-size (>100 micrometers) particles. Here, we present a novel on-chip sorting method using traveling vortices generated by on-demand microjet flows, which locally exceed laminar flow condition, allowing for high-throughput sorting (5 kilohertz) with a record-wide sorting area of 520 micrometers. Using an activation system based on fluorescence detection, the method successfully sorted 160-micrometer [...]

Andrea Hiob2022-05-03T12:17:48-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Leipe, Tarasov|

Building a high-resolution chronology for northern Hokkaido – A case study of the Late Holocene Hamanaka 2 site on Rebun Island, Hokkaido (Japan)

Archaeological radiocarbon dating in coastal northern Hokkaido is challenged by the marine reservoir effect and the scarcity of materials with terrestrial carbon sources. This has contributed to gaps and general uncertainty in the timing of the region's culture-historical periods. The Late Holocene site of Hamanaka 2 on Rebun Island, featuring a stratified shell midden context with excellent preservation of organic remains, provides an ideal setting for addressing this issue. A Bayesian chronological model was deployed to study the [...]

Erin2022-04-05T11:47:17-06:00Categories: Publications, Journal Articles|Tags: Leipe, Jordan, Tarasov, Wagner|

Not herbs and forbs alone: pollen‐based evidence for the presence of boreal trees and shrubs in Cis‐Baikal (Eastern Siberia) derived from the Last Glacial Maximum sediment of Lake Ochaul

A new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)‐dated sedimentary record from Lake Ochaul (54°14′N, 106°28′E; 641 m a.s.l.) in Eastern Siberia covers the interval from ca. 27 850 to 20 400 cal a bp at ca. 180‐year resolution and contributes to a better understanding of the complex spatial vegetation pattern during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Non‐arboreal pollen taxa are abundant in the pollen assemblages (mean value ca. 92.6%), but boreal trees are represented by all major taxa that grow in the lake catchment today, [...]

Erin2022-03-01T13:10:22-07:00Categories: Journal Articles, Publications|Tags: Leipe, Kobe, Tarasov, Wagner|