Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal, Siberia: An overview for the new century

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Abstract

The paper examines Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies in the Baikal region of Siberia based on diverse data (radiocarbon, mortuary, geochemical, genetic, human osteological, and zooarchaeological) accumulated over the last 10–15 years. The new model emphasizes the cyclical nature of the long-term changes and recognizes similarities between the Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age cultures. The overall impression seems to be that change in the region was rapid rather than gradual. A number of interesting correlations between various cultural and environmental variables have been identified. During the Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic–Bronze Age, the spatial distributions of mortuary sites, open landscape, and good fisheries are all correlated and both intervals are coeval with periods of environmental stability. For the Early Neolithic two additional sets of correlated variables have been identified: (1) the uneven distribution of fish resources, uneven distribution of the human population, and cultural heterogeneity; and (2) poorer overall community health, more extensive male travel and heavier workloads, and higher reliance on fishing. For the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age, the sets of correlated variables are somewhat different: (1) more even distribution of terrestrial game resources (herbivores), more even distribution of the human population, and cultural homogeneity; and (2) better overall community health, less travel and lighter workloads, more equitable distribution of labor between males and females, and higher reliance on game hunting. Viewed together, these patterns emphasize the much more dynamic pattern of hunter-gatherer cultural variability, temporally and spatially, compared to what was known before.

Research highlights

► Through the study of many different types of data collected over 15 years, the cultures between the Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age of the Cis-Baikal are shown to have a cyclical nature of long-term changes. ► Culture change was rapid. ► For the Early Neolithic two sets of correlated variables have been identified: (a) the uneven distribution of fish resources, uneven distribution of the human population, and cultural heterogeneity; and (b) poorer overall community health, more extensive male travel and heavier workloads, and higher reliance on fishing. ► For the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age, the sets of correlated variables are somewhat different: (a) more even distribution of terrestrial game resources (herbivores), more even distribution of the human population, and cultural homogeneity; and (b) better overall community health, less travel and lighter workloads, more equitable distribution of labor between males and females, and higher reliance on game hunting.

Introduction

Hunter-gatherer studies have played an important role in the original formulation in the 1980s and subsequent growth of the modern evolutionary approaches both in anthropology and in archaeology (e.g., Shennan, 2008, Winterhalder and Smith, 2000). The evolutionary school of thought continues to form theoretical foundations of numerous specific and generalizing studies providing in both cases many fresh insights on hunter-gatherer past. In most general terms research conducted from the evolutionary perspective involves the following three elements: documentation of behavioral (cultural) and environmental variability in space and time, identification of patterns within the documented variability, and employment of evolutionary mechanisms to explain both the variability and the existing patterns.

Explicit emphasis on documentation of spatio-temporal variability has been an important element of the research on Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region conducted since the mid-1990s by the scholars associated with the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP). The essays in the recently published book titled Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region, Siberia: Bioarchaeological studies of past life ways (Weber et al., 2010a) provide comprehensive summaries of this work while numerous research papers referenced therein and herewith contain more specific details. This paper is concerned with the second element of the evolutionary approach, i.e., pattern recognition, leaving the final one for a different occasion.

Section snippets

Review of most relevant research findings

The review follows a traditional progression beginning with an account of culture history, it proceeds next to the discussion of the natural environment and current views on its role in the process of culture change in the region, followed by the presentation of mortuary behavior, population distribution, and genetic characteristics to finish with assessment of additional cultural variables, including subsistence and mobility.

Summary

Overall, the data in Table 3 suggest that Cis-Baikal hunter-gatherer groups changed significantly in size, distribution, and organization during the Middle Holocene. The EN population was clearly concentrated in the upper Angara valley, and likely also South Baikal, where it formed a few rather large centers, each highlighted by a major cemetery mostly made up of graves with multiple burials that may represent important social, economic, or political subdivisions within the group as a whole.

Summary and conclusion

The work completed to date on the Cis-Baikal materials, leads to a revised assessment of the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies, which is most succinctly presented in Table 5. The new model emphasizes the cyclical nature of the long-term changes and recognizes similarities between the Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic–Bronze Age cultures in addition to the differences, which were at the center of our attention earlier (Weber, 1995, Weber et al., 2002, Weber et al., 2003). With

Acknowledgments

This research is part of the Baikal Archaeology Project based at the University of Alberta and funded by two Major Collaborative Research Initiative Grants Nos. 412-2000-1000 and 412-2005-1004 awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Special thanks go to all researchers, support staff, graduate and undergraduate students associated with the Baikal Archaeology Project since the 1990s. Tara Young is to be thanked for the technical assistance during the final

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