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In 2020, a unique bone assemblage was found at the Late Paleolithic site Volchia Griva. Its base is made of a distal mammoth femur minus epiphysis, in which a cavity has been hollowed out. Impact notches along the edges of the cavity and holes in the metaphysis prove the human-made nature of this specimen. A portion of a polar fox cranium, half of a fox hemimandible, a fox tooth, and a large mammal rib fragment were enclosed in the cavity. The mammoth femur was previously used as a retoucher, as evinced by the impressions and cut marks. Incisions were detected on the polar fox cranium, indicating skinning. According to two 14C dates, the age of the remains is 19.3–19.1 ka BP. Palynological analysis of the cavity fill shows a forb-grass steppe at that time. The assemblage, which has no known analogues, is a reflection of prehistoric culture. This extraordinary find most likely is evidence of the ritual behavior of people who lived in the south of Western Siberia during the last glacial maximum. The assemblage was accompanied by a large number of fox remains, and lithic artifacts identical to bladelet-based Late Paleolithic industries of Siberia and the Middle Urals.

Chronological and stratigraphic frameworks are of the utmost importance for Upper Paleolithic archaeology, physical anthropology, and ecology. Wide ranging radiocarbon (14C) dates were previously obtained for the Sungir burial complex in the central part of European Russia, which is well-known as the richest funeral Paleolithic assemblage in the world yet recorded. The major problem was the contamination caused by consolidants used during the recovery of human bones in the 1960s. The stratigraphy and spatial structure of the Sungir site were also not well understood previously. New radiocarbon and stable isotope data are generated for the Sungir burials. While some dates were younger due to incomplete removal of contamination, the XAD 14C age on S-1 burial (ca. 29,780 BP) was found to be statistically the same as the previously performed HYP 14C age for this burial (ca. 28,890 BP). Four animal bones found in cultural layer below the burial date to ca. 28,800–30,140 BP, suggesting that both this layer and human burials date to roughly this age range. Narrowing these ages further is difficult considering the larger errors of the 14C dates. This shows that future research attempting to 14C date material excavated many years ago needs to eliminate potential contamination from consolidants through analyses such as FTIR, prior to 14C dating. The chronology and stratigraphy of Sungir do not contradict to correlation of its lithic artifacts with the Streletskian assemblage as the East European variant of the Final Szeletian technocomplex (Early Upper Paleolithic).

We present an overview of the beginning and early years of radiocarbon dating in Russia. Achievements of several major scholars in this field from Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Moscow and Novosibirsk are briefly described. The existing and closed Russian laboratories are also mentioned.

An overview of current knowledge on the human paleodiet of the southern Russian Far East is presented. The earliest data are available for the Neolithic complexes of Primorye Province, dated to ~7000–5800 BP. For 10 humans from the coastal site of Boisman 2, a heavy reliance on marine fish and mammals (~70–80% of the total diet) has been established; this is similar to the Jomon and Chulmun complexes of Hokkaido Island and Korea. For two individuals from the inland site of Chertovy Vorota, a mixture of terrestrial and riverine (including anadromous species such as salmon, ~25% of the total diet) food resources is evident. In the Amur River basin, the diet of the Paleometal (i.e. Bronze/Early Iron Ages) population (dated to ~2500–1800 BP) was probably based on a mixture of C4 plants (millet, ~50–60% of the total diet), C3 plants, and terrestrial animals, while in the Middle Ages (~1500–300 BP) the contribution of C4 food was lower at ~20–25%. On Sakhalin Island, the maritime-oriented economy existed for a long time, at least since the Late Neolithic/Paleometal Age (dated to ~2500–1800 BP) and until the ethnographic time period (from the 17th–18th centuries AD onwards). Up to ~80–90% of the diet consisted of marine mammals and fish, and this is in accord with dietary patterns of the Epi-Jomon and Okhotsk cultural complexes on Hokkaido Island. Information on the paleodiet of the coastal populations of the Japan and Okhotsk Seas should be taken into account when calibration of 14C dates run on human bones from these regions is undertaken, because the predominant consumption of marine food caused a distortion of the true 14C age.

The updated chronology of the earliest pottery-containing complexes in Siberia and the Russian Far East is presented herein. The appearance of pottery (i.e. the process of Neolithization) in this vast region of Eurasia is discussed based on a model that represents a simple approximation of calendar ages between key sites as isolines. No clear spatiotemporal patterns for the origin and spread of pottery in northern Asia can be observed because pottery-making (unlike agriculture) could have emerged in different parts of the Old World at various times. Before modeling of pottery dispersal is conducted, careful evaluation of typology and technology of ceramics and stone artifacts should be done, in order to avoid the confusing situation when the results of modeling contradict the basic archaeological information. DOI: 10.2458/56.16938

The corpus of radiocarbon dates run directly on Pleistocene-age human remains in Eurasia (∼120 values, with ∼80 of them found to be reliable) is analyzed and interpreted. The latest Neanderthals are dated to ∼34,000–30,500 BP (∼38,800–35,400 cal BP). They probably coexisted with the first modern humans at ∼36,200–30,200 BP (∼42,500–32,800 cal BP) in the western and central parts of Europe. The earliest direct14C dates on modern humans in Eurasia are ∼34,950–33,300 BP (∼40,400–37,800 cal BP). A paucity of14C dates corresponding to the LGM is evident for Europe, but Asia perhaps had larger populations during this timespan. The main criteria for the selection of bone/tooth material for direct14C dating as now widely accepted are (1) the collagen yield (generally, 1% or more) and (2) the C:N ratio (within the 2.9–3.4 range).

Intriguing wooden objects, excavated (mostly unstratigraphically) from peat bogs in the Trans-Urals region of Russia, are here dated by AMS and found to belong to the Aeneolithic and Bronze Age. In spite of a long sojourn in museums, and conservation with various chemicals, the dates obtained were consistent and reliable.

Data on the emergence of pottery and agriculture in Eurasia were analyzed from the view of their spatiotemporal relationship. It was found that there are 2 major types of association between pottery and agriculture: 1) East Asian, with pottery as the main criterion of the Neolithization; and 2) Levantine, with agriculture as the phenomenon most closely related to the emergence of the Neolithic. Some regions of Eurasia have intermediate characteristics. The concept of a single area for pottery origin in eastern Eurasia and its subsequent spread to the west, still used by some scholars, is the revival of the old diffusionist paradigm and does not seem to advance the analysis of the Neolithization process. If the wheat/barley agriculture definitely originated in the Levantine “core” and spread toward Anatolia and central/western Europe, it is impossible to apply the same approach to pottery. The latest developments in chronology of the earliest ceramics in China, one of the key regions in the world in terms of the origin of pottery-making, are critically evaluated. DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16201

Carbonised textiles were found in a burnt down building inside a cave 30km from the far eastern coast of Russia. The textiles were made from untwisted or hand-twisted blades of sedge grass to form ropes, nets and woven mats. Dated by AMS toc. 9400–8400 cal BP these are the earliest textiles so far known from East Asia.

The recent progress in radiocarbon dating of the prehistoric cultural complexes in the Russian Far East is discussed against the background of ancient chronologies for greater East Asia. Since 1997, the wide use of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating along with the continuation of conventional dating has allowed us to establish the age of several key Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Paleometal sites. It has also contributed to advancing a deeper understanding of the timing for the beginning of pottery production, maritime adaptation, and agriculture, and several other important issues in prehistoric chronology for the studied region. Reservoir age correction values for the Japan and Okhotsk seas are now used to adjust the age for samples of marine origin. Some of the cultural-chronological models for prehistoric far eastern Russian complexes put forward in the last 10 yr lack a solid basis, and are critically evaluated herein. DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i3–4.16125

This paper focuses on the chronology of Middle Bronze Age complexes in the Baraba forest steppe (western Siberia). Three sites were radiocarbon dated, Stary Tartas 4, Sopka 2, and Tartas 1. The Late Krotovo culture was dated to the 18–19th centuries BC, the Andronovo complex (Fedorovo stage) to the 15–18th centuries BC, and the Mixed Andronovo complex dated to the 15–17th centuries BC. These values are some 300–500 yr older than previously thought, and the new results are consistent with 14C dates of the Andronovo cultural complex in northern Eurasia. Based on these data, the 15th century BC is the upper chronological limit of the Andronovo period. DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i3–4.16139

A compilation of direct age determinations for Late Pleistocene human fossils in eastern Europe and Asia is presented in this paper, and current problems with the dating of hominids in these regions are discussed. Only 25 human finds (4 Neanderthals and 21 modern humans) have been directly dated from Pleistocene eastern Europe and Asia. Indirect dating of human remains (using presumably associated organics) often is insecure, especially when information about the exact provenance of human fossils is lacking. Continuation of direct dating of Late Pleistocene humans in Eurasia, primarily with the help of the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C method, is therefore an urgent task. DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i3–4.16167

The Obi-Rakhmat Grotto is one of the key Paleolithic sites in Central Asia. Archaeological excavations have revealed 22 strata containing archaeological materials. Lithic assemblages from all cultural layers display features similar to both late Middle Paleolithic blade industries and early Upper Paleolithic complexes in Southwest Asia and the Siberian Altai Mountains; this suggests a gradual Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition occurred in western Central Asia. Hominid remains found at Obi-Rakhmat (layer 16) show a mixture of archaic and modern traits. Different chronometric methods (radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence [OSL], U-series, and electron spin resonance [ESR]) were applied to the site's deposits. It appears that 14C dates are more reliable in terms of correspondence to the general framework of the Paleolithic of Central Asia and neighboring regions, and after critical analysis and the deletion of outliers, the upper part of the site's cultural sequence can be dated between 36,000–41,400 BP (layer 7) and ∼48,800 BP (layer 14.1). The U-series dating results are less secure due to the high uranium content and the presence of detritus, which contaminates dated sediments (travertine). The OSL dating gave uniform ages for all cultural succession (∼8 m of deposits), and confirms a very rapid sedimentation rate. Results of ESR dating depend greatly on the choice of uptake model. Dates calculated for the early uptake to some extent correspond to 14C data. The linear uptake chosen by Skinner et al. (2007) makes sediments very old (about 55,000–90,000 yr ago), which contradicts 14C dates and does not correspond well to the regional archaeological context.

Recent efforts to precisely date the florescence of the Clovis culture in North America have been hampered by both practical and theoretical problems: 1) The era of Clovis expansion (about 11,200–10,700 BP or 13,200–12,700 cal BP) coincides with the gap between the anchored central European tree-ring sequence (back to 12,400 cal BP) and the floating Bølling-Allerød sequence; 2) Clovis seems to immediately precede the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) stadial. The “black mats” of the US Southwest appear to mark the regional occurrence of this climatic downturn. However, the timing and means of long-distance propagation of this climatic event are not yet well understood. Greenland ice cores (GISP2, GRIP, and NGRIP) remain poorly synchronized, with a discrepancy of 100 to 250 yr for the date of onset (as late as 12,700 cal BP, or as early as 12,950 cal BP); 3) The YD onset was accompanied by a rapid drop of radiocarbon ages from 11,000 to 10,600 BP in less than a century. The mechanism causing this was probably a change in overturning circulation in the North Atlantic. Do variable Clovis ages, often from what appear to be single-occupation contexts, reflect this “cliff” effect, slightly earlier minor reversals during the late Allerød, or simply the practical limitations of precision of the 14C method? 4) Dates for Fishtail or Fell I sites (with fluted, stemmed points) in southern South America are statistically indistinguishable from Clovis dates in North America. Does this imply very rapid population expansion, diffusion of tool-making techniques through long-established local populations (as argued by Waters and Stafford 2007), or abnormally large interhemispheric 14C offsets? 5) Are recent ostensibly high-precision collagen-derived dates for Paleoindian-associated fauna (e.g. horse and mammoth) reliable? Are interlaboratory blind tests of the new filtration processes necessary?

Changes of the Aral Sea level have been observed in 3 sediment boreholes, 2 outcrops, and associated archaeological sites. The obtained results are supported by 25 radiocarbon dates. Major trends of lake-level changes have been reconstructed in some detail for the last 2000 yr, and additional data provide an outline of fluctuations throughout the Holocene. Several distinct changes are shown to precede the modern, human-induced regression of the Aral Sea. These include: 1) the latest maximum in the 16th–20th centuries AD (53 m asl); 2) a Medieval “Kerderi” minimum of the 12th–15th centuries AD (29 m asl); 3) the early Medieval maximum of the 4th–11th centuries AD (52 m asl); and 4) a near BC/AD low-stand, whose level is not well established. Since then, events are only inferred from sparse data. The studied cores contain several sandy layers representing the lowering of the lake level within the Holocene, including the buried shore-bar of ∼4500 cal BP (38 m asl), and shallow-water sediments of ∼5600 cal BP (44 m asl), 7200 cal BP (28 m asl), and 8000 cal BP (26.5 m asl).

The chronometry of the origin of pottery in East Asia can give some insights to the question: did environmental changes trigger and/or accelerate innovations such as pottery-making, maritime adaptation, and agriculture? Recent results show that pottery emerged in 3 regions of East Asia: south China (up to ∼14,800 BP), the Japanese Islands (about 13,800–13,500 BP), and the Russian Far East (∼13,300 BP). The earliest pottery in the Old World preceded the Bølling-Allerød warm period (about 13,000–11,500 BP). Thus, the relationship between climate and pottery origin was not “linear.” It seems that the combination of environmental changes and the necessity to process freshwater fish and mollusks and terrestrial plants (including acorns and nuts) resulted in the introduction of pottery-making in East Asia. An important feature is the quite nonuniform nature of the Neolithization process in the eastern part of Asia, where often in 2 neighboring regions pottery appeared at very different times: approximately 15,000–14,000 BP in south China and ∼4000 BP in mainland Southeast Asia. Thus, the kind of eternal question like “What caused what?” still stands in terms of what were the driving forces for the emergence of pottery in East Asia and worldwide.

General chronological frameworks created recently for the Neolithic complexes of China, Japan, Korea, and far eastern Russia allow us to reveal temporal patterns of Neolithization, origin of food production, and the emergence of civilizations. Pottery originated in East Asia, most probably independently in different parts of it, in the terminal Pleistocene, about 14,800–13,300 BP (uncalibrated), and this marks the beginning of the Neolithic. Agriculture in the eastern part of Asia emerged only in the Holocene. The earliest trace of millet cultivation in north China can now be placed at ∼9200 BP, and rice domestication in south China is dated to ∼8000 BP. Pottery in East Asia definitely preceded agriculture. The term “civilization,” which implies the presence of a state level of social organization and written language, has been misused by scholars who assert the existence of a very early “Yangtze River civilization” at about 6400–4200 cal BP. The earliest reliable evidence of writing in China is dated only to about 3900–3000 cal BP, and no “civilization” existed in East Asia prior to this time.

Book Review: Human Ecology of Beringia, John F. Hoffecker and Scott A. Elias. 2007. New York: Columbia University Press (2007).

SUMMARYForty-one newly sequenced isolates of Arctic and Arctic-like rabies viruses, were genetically compared to each other and to those available from GenBank. Four phylogenetic lineages of Arctic viruses were identified. Arctic-1 viruses circulate in Ontario, Arctic-2 viruses circulate in Siberia and Alaska, Arctic-3 viruses circulate circumpolarly, and a newly described lineage Arctic-4 circulates locally in Alaska. The oldest available isolates from Siberia (between 1950 and 1960) belong to the Arctic-2 and Arctic-3 lineages and share 98·6–99·2% N gene identity with contemporary viruses. Two lineages of Arctic-like viruses were identified in southern Asia and the Middle East (Arctic-like-1) and eastern Asia (Arctic-like-2). A time-scaled tree demonstrates that the time of the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of Arctic and Arctic-like viruses is dated between 1255 and 1786. Evolution of the Arctic viruses has occurred through a northerly spread. The Arctic-like-2 lineage diverged first, whereas Arctic viruses share a TMRCA with Arctic-like-1 viruses.

In Siberia, the accumulation of radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites since the 1960s makes it possible to compile a general Paleolithic 14C database, which contains about 440 entries as of late 2005. With these data, we can reveal the main chronological patterns of Paleolithic complexes, with a focus on the late Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) and Upper Paleolithic. The 14C dates for late Middle Paleolithic industries in Siberia are quite “young,” up to about 30,000–28,500 BP and perhaps ∼27,000 BP. The emergence of the Upper Paleolithic in Siberia took place relatively early compared with Eastern Europe. At about 43,000–35,000 BP, blade-dominated industries existed in the Altai Mountains and Lake Baikal region, and numerous adornments are known from several sites of that age. The late Upper Paleolithic complexes with microblade technology from the Altai Mountains are 14C dated to about 35,000–28,000 BP, and represent the earliest unequivocal evidence of microblade manufacture in northern Eurasia. The end of the Paleolithic in Siberia is related to the appearance of pottery, which indicates the beginning of the Neolithic period. In northern Transbaikal, the earliest pottery complexes are dated to about 12,000–11,000 BP and in the Russian Far East even to ∼13,000 BP, while in most of Siberia they date to approximately 8000–6000 BP. The most important features of the Siberian Paleolithic chronology are: a) the long persistence of Middle Paleolithic complexes, until about 30,000–27,000 BP; b) very early Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, ∼43,000 BP, closely connected with the emergence of art and symbolic behavior in the earliest Upper Paleolithic at this time; c) the very early origin of microblade complexes, at least at about 35,000 BP; and d) a gradual Paleolithic–Neolithic transition, beginning in the Russian Far East at ∼13,000 BP and in Transbaikal about 12,000–11,000 BP, in most of Siberia at about 8000–6000 BP, and even later in some northern regions.

Book Review: Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, Paul S. Martin. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press (2005).

The problem of a hiatus at about 6100–5300 BP (about 4900–4200 cal BC) in the prehistoric chronology of the Cis-Baikal region in Siberia is discussed. Based on a critical evaluation of existing evidence, there was no discontinuity found in the cultural sequence between the Kitoi and Serovo/Glazkovo complexes of the Neolithic, and the proposed “hiatus” may be an artifact based on underestimation of solid data. Conventional 14C dates are presented that were generated in the 1980s to early 2000s for Cis-Baikal prehistoric burial grounds, and were later dated by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS).

Upper Paleolithic humans occupied southern Siberia by about 43,000–38,000 BP (14C yr), and afterward continued to live there despite the very cold climate. If climatic conditions limited expansion of the colonizing population in northern Siberia, the Paleolithic ecumene should have contracted during the coldest episodes within the last 40,000 yr, and fewer 14C-dated sites should be known from those periods. In fact, the human population seems to have remained stable or even expanded during cold periods. Comparison of calibrated 14C dates for Siberian occupations with Greenland ice cores fails to demonstrate a simple correlation between climatic fluctuations and the dynamics of human colonization and persistence in Siberia between about 36,000 and 12,000 BP. Cold climate does not appear to have posed any significant challenge to humans in Siberia in the Late Pleistocene, and a supposed Last Glacial Maximum “hiatus” in population dynamics seems illusory.

The origin of pottery is among the most important questions in Old World archaeology. The author undertakes a critical review of radiocarbon dates associated with the earliest pottery-making and eliminates a number of them where the material or its context are unreliable. Using those that survive this process of ‘chronometric hygiene’, he proposes that food-containers made of burnt clay originated in East Asia in the Late Glacial, c. 13 700-13 300 BP, and appeared in three separate regions, in Japan, China and far eastern Russia, at about the same time.

The large radiocarbon database now established for Paleolithic sites in Siberia and the Russian Far East can be used to build up a picture of relative population size in these regions. We consider the time period of ca. 46,000 to 12,000 B.P. for which we have assembled and critically studied 437 radiocarbon dates. All dates from individual sites that fall within 1,00014C years are considered as a single event and called occupation episode. The results of our analysis show that the number of14C dates until ca. 28,000 B.P. is small and increases at ca. 28,000–20,000 B.P, and dates decrease in frequency for the ca. 20,000–16,000 B.P. time range. It is after ca. 16,000 B.P. that we see a substantial rise in the number of14C dates. In terms of the relative size of Siberian Paleolithic populations based on the frequency of occupation episodes, population density was small until ca. 36,000 B.P. Subsequently, population size increased gradually at ca. 36,000–16,000 B.P., and the growth rate became almost exponential at ca. 16,000–12,000 B.P. The number of occupations from ca. 20,000 to 18,000 B.P. did not decrease, running counter to arguments that Siberia was completely or considerably depopulated during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Recently, an article was published in this journal (Hartz et al. 2012), presenting new data on the age of early ceramics in eastern Europe (in particular, the central Russian Plain) and discussing the issues related to the appearance of pottery (i.e. Neolithization) in this region, with wider implications of the results for northern Eurasia. I was one of the reviewers of this paper, which is acknowledged by the authors. However, despite my numerous remarks and comments, many of them were not taken into account. As a result, the work by Hartz et al. (2012) suffers from several flaws; here I point them out and briefly discuss the issue of the Neolithization of Eurasia.

Two independent 14C data sets of 10 tree-ring samples from the longest master chronology of the Pazyryk cultural complex were obtained and wiggle-matched to the absolute timescale. The results show very good agreement, within 10–15 calendar yr. The Ulandryk-4 burial ground (mound 1) was dated to about 320–310 cal BC, and this is consistent with wiggle-matching of the Pazyryk burial ground date series.

New radiocarbon dates obtained from Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of the southern, eastern, and northern shores of Lake Baikal in 1995-2001 are presented, and the most important results of paleoenvironmental studies based on (super 14) C data are discussed. The following paleogeographic events were verified with the help of (super 14) C dating: 1) first Late Pleistocene glaciation (Early Zyryan); 2) Middle Zyryan interstadial; 3) loess formation during the Late Zyryan (Sartan) deglaciation; 4) warm and cold events in the Late Glacial; and 5) vegetation changes and forest successions during the Late Glacial and Holocene.

A review of the radiocarbon chronology of some late Upper Pleistocene mammals from Siberia is presented. Previously published data has been supplemented by new 14C dates for 5 species (woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, horse, and muskox) to reconstruct chronological extinction patterns. The final extinction of woolly rhinoceros and bison in Siberia can be dated to approximately 11,000–9700 BP, but some megafaunal species (woolly mammoth, horse, and muskox) survived into the Late Holocene, about 3700–2200 BP.

Eleven woolly mammoth bone samples from Lugovskoe (central West Siberian Plain, Russia) were radiocarbon dated in 3 laboratories: Institute of Geology, Novosibirsk; Oxford University, Oxford; and Christian Albrechts University, Kiel. Each laboratory used its own protocol for collagen extraction. Parallel dating was carried out on 3 samples in Novosibirsk and Oxford. Two results are in good agreement. However, there is a major discrepancy between 2 dates obtained for the third sample. The dates obtained so far on the Lugovskoe mammoths range from about 18,250 BP to about 10,210 BP. The Lugovskoe results thus far confirm the possibility of woolly mammoth survival south of Arctic Siberia in the Late Glacial after about 12,000 BP, which has important implications for interpreting the process of mammoth extinction. The site has also produced the first reliable traces of human occupation from central Western Siberia at the Late Glacial, including unique direct evidence of mammoth hunting.

This paper presents an updated radiocarbon chronology of the earliest pottery sites in the Old World. Ceramic production originated in the Late Glacial period in several regions of East Asiathe Japanese Islands, the Russian Far East, and southern Chinaat approximately the same time, about 13,70013,300 BP (about 17,20014,900 cal BP).

A chronological framework for the prehistoric cultural complexes of Sakhalin Island is presented based on 160 radiocarbon dates from 74 sites. The earliest 14C-dated site, Ogonki 5, corresponds to the Upper Paleolithic, about 19,500–17,800 BP. According to the 14C data, since about 8800 BP, there is a continuous sequence of Neolithic, Early Iron Age, and Medieval complexes. The Neolithic existed during approximately 8800–2800 BP. Transitional Neolithic-Early Iron Age complexes are dated to about 2800–2300 BP. The Early Iron Age may be dated to about 2500–1300 BP. The Middle Ages period is dated to approximately 1300–300 BP (VII–XVII centuries AD).

The territory of Siberia is of crucial importance for the study of early human dispersal and the peopling of the New World. A Siberian Paleolithic Radiocarbon Database has been compiled. The Database allows us to compile a chronolgical framework for human colonization of Northern Asia. There are 446 14C dates for 13 Middle and 111 Upper Paleolithic sites older than around 12,000 BP. Seventeen percent of the dates were obtained by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technique, and the remaining 83% are conventional. From the viewpoint of the spatial distribution of the 14C-dated sites, the majority of these are located at the Yenisey River Basin, Transbaikal, and the Altai Mountains. The general outline of the Upper Paleolithic colonization of Siberia is given here. The earliest traces of modern human occupation are dated to around 43,000–39,000 BP in the southern part of Siberia. It seems that by around 13,000 BP, almost all of northern Asia, including the extreme northeastern Siberia had been colonized by modern humans. We discuss some controversial problems that have provoked heated debates in current Russian archaeology. Notable among these are the surprisingly early AMS dates for the Early Upper Paleolithic, the age of the Dyuktai culture of Yakutia, the problem of human presence in Siberia at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum (20,000–18,000 BP), and the timing of the initial settling of the Chukchi Peninsula and northeastern Siberia.

The radiocarbon reservoir age correction values (R) for the Russian Far East are estimated as 370 ± 26 yr for the northwestern Sea of Japan, and 711 ± 46 yr for the southern Kurile Islands.

The Bayesian approach to calibration of radiocarbon dates was used to wiggle-match the “floating” tree-ring chronology from a Pazyryk culture (Scythian-type complex from Sayan-Altai Mountain system, southern Siberia) burial ground in order to estimate the calendar age of its construction. Seventeen bidecadal tree-ring samples were 14C dated with high precision (±20–30 yr). The results of wiggle-matching show that the Pazyryk-type burial mounds in the southern Altai Mountains were created in the first part of 3rd century BC.

The radiocarbon age of the earliest pottery from Russian Far East—Gromatukha and Osipovka cultures—is between around 13,300 BP and around 10,400 BP. This shows that the Amur River basin was one of the centers of origin of pottery in East Asia, at the end of the Pleistocene. Today, there are three areas within East Asia with pottery-associated 14C dates between around 14,000 BP and 13,000 BP—southern China, the Japanese Isles, and Russian Far East.

Results of recent excavations and radiocarbon dating show that several places in Siberia and the Russian Far East, such as the Lower Amur River basin and the Transbaikal, represent independent centres of pottery invention, and all pre-date 10,000 BP. These two areas should be considered among the earliest centres of pottery origins in East Asia and the Old World. The rest of Siberia is characterized by significantly later appearance of Neolithic cultures, between c. 8000 BP and c. 4600–2600 BP.

Book Review: Environmental Archaeology: Theoretical and Practical Approaches, Nick Branch, Matthew Canti, Peter Clark, Chris Turney (Book in series: Key Issues in Environmental Change. John a Matthews, Coordinating Editor). London: Hodder Arnold (2005).

We illustrate here the combined use of geographic information system (GIS) technology and a radiocarbon database for analysis of the environmental components and ancient sites in Western Siberia during the period 10–45 ka bp. In total, 230 14C dates from 75 Late Pleistocene outcrops and Paleolithic sites were used to generate paleolandscape maps and to establish the features of the spatiotemporal distribution of Paleolithic sites.

Ca. 150 unequivocal 14C dates from the prehistoric cultures in the Russian Far East can be used to elucidate chrono-cultural boundaries in that region. Microblade technology started as early as ca. 20,000 bp, and continued to exist in the middle Amur River basin until ca. 10,500 bp, and in Primorye until ca. 7800 bp. The emergence of pottery-making in the lower Amur River basin goes back to ca. 13,300 bp. The transition from Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic took place during the time interval 13,300–7800 bp and pottery was widely spread in the Russian Far East by ca. 6700–8400 bp. The first evidence of shellfish collection is estimated to ca. 6400 bp at Peter the Great Gulf coast, Sea of Japan. The beginning of agriculture in Primorye, based on finding of both millet seeds (Setaria italica L.) and pollen of cultivated cereals (Cerealia), is 14C-dated to ca. 4200–3700 bp (ca. 1980–2900 cal BC). The Neolithic/Early Iron Age boundary was estimated at ca. 3100–3300 bp (1400–1600 cal BC) in the mainland Russian Far East, and to ca. 1800–2300 bp (400 cal BC–200 cal ad) on the Sakhalin and southern Kuril Islands.

Cette presentations des donnees radiocarbone de la Siberie du nord-est provenant de sites paleolithiques a fourni des donnees qui peuvent etre appliquees a etablir une chronologie des implantations humaines, et contribue a estimer le moment du peuplement initial du Nouveau Monde

The first results of radiocarbon dating of the ancient sites in the Russian Far East were published early in the 1960s (Okladnikov 1964). We now have enough data to establish the main features in the 14C chronology of the Stone and Bronze Age cultures in Primorye, one of the archaeologically well-studied regions of the Russian Far East.