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A dataset of 256 AMS radiocarbon dates on human skeletal remains from middle Holocene cemeteries in the Cis-Baikal region, Siberia, and associated carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values are analyzed for new insights about culture history and processes of culture change. First, based on the typological criteria all dated human burials are assigned to mortuary traditions and typochronological units–Late Mesolithic, Early Neolithic, Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Next, all dates are corrected for the Freshwater Reservoir Effect (FRE) according to the regression equations developed using paired radiocarbon dates on human and terrestrial faunal remains from the same graves and examined for chronological trends using a Bayesian approach. While the entire corrected culture historical sequence is younger by roughly 200–400 years relative to the previous model the shift of the specific period boundaries is not systematic due to the varying proportion of aquatic food in the diets of the relevant groups. Examination of the dataset subdivided into smaller spatio-temporal units provides additional insights. During the Early Neolithic, in the Angara and Southwest Baikal micro-regions there is a chronological trend toward increased reliance on aquatic food. During the Early Bronze Age in the Little Sea micro-region, there appears to be a trend toward increased reliance on the Baikal seal. This shift, however, can also be interpreted as increasing migration over time of new groups from the Upper Lena. The sample from the Early Neolithic Shamanka II cemetery in Southwest Baikal shows two non-abutting phases of use each displaying a trend toward greater consumption of aquatic foods. These findings provide new chronological framework for the study of other cultural changes affecting middle Holocene hunter–gatherers in the region. The results may also allow better correlation with other sequences, cultural and environmental, that are not affected by the FRE.

International audience; A data set of 116 AMS radiocarbon dates on human skeletal remains from an Early Neolithic (c. 7500-6700 cal BP) Shamanka II cemetery on Lake Baikal, Siberia, and associated carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values are analyzed for insights about site chronology and dietary variation of this group of hunteregatherers. All dates are corrected for the Freshwater Reservoir Effect (FRE) according to the correction equations developed using paired radiocarbon dates on human and terrestrial faunal remains from the same graves (Bronk Ramsey et al., 2014; Schulting et al., 2014). Further examination of the data set provides the following main findings. First, it identified the presence of two phases of cemetery use at Shamanka II, each of quite different duration, separated by a relatively long period of disuse lasting as much as 300-550 years. Second, it demonstrated presence of four groups of people during the long Phase 1 each with a slightly different dietary pattern: three displaying a temporal change toward greater reliance on aquatic foods and one group, which apparently did not experience a diet shift. Third, the results show that all individuals from the short Phase 2 evince a clear chronological trend towards increased dietary contribution of aquatic food and that this pattern repeats closely one of the three trends present in Phase 1. While a generally similar chronological dietary trend has been found recently also among the Early Neolithic groups from the nearby Angara valley (Weber et al., 2015), the Shamanka II population appears to be much more diverse in dietary terms than its neighbours to the northeast