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A considerable amount of bioarchaeological research – including AMS14C 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 Lake Baikal. Once corrected for an old carbon effect using regression equations developed for Cis-Baikal, the radiocarbon results form 4 chronological clusters: 1) Late Mesolithic (LM), around 7950cal BP (n=3); 2) Late Neolithic (LN), between ca. 6000 and 5500cal BP (n=5); 3) LN to EarlyBronze Age(EBA), between ca. 4900 and 4500cal BP (n=2); and the largest cluster 4) later EBA, around 3700cal BP (n=10). The LM Cluster 1 dates indicate that formal cemetery use in Trans-Baikal may have begun earlier than in Cis-Baikal. Clusters 2 and 3 reveal a previously unidentified LN component to the cemetery. Additionally, the EBA Cluster 4 appears to be largely synchronous with the EBA in Cis-Baikal. As a group, the Fofanovo individuals are isotopically distinct from the Middle-Holocene hunter–gatherers in the microregions of Cis-Baikal, exhibiting a combination of low δ13C values (−19.4±0.9‰) but high δ15N values (15.2±0.8‰). This likely reflects the distinctive isotopic ecology of the lower Selenga River, combined with use of aquatic resources from Lake Baikal itself. While further sampling is needed to test its robustness, a statistically significant difference between the LN (n=6) and EBA (n=11) was found, suggesting a greater reliance on the seasonal resources of the Selenga River during the EBA. Further analyses on these and other individuals from the cemetery are planned and will undoubtably provide additional insights into hunter-gatherer subsistence adaptations and dietary variation in Trans-Baikal, highlighting both differences and similarities with those of Cis-Baikal.

The Lake Baikal region of southern Siberia has a rich mortuary record that has provided the most comprehensive isotopic database for palaeodietary studies of north-temperate hunter-gatherers in the world, permitting more detailed reconstructions and finer-grained research questions than are usually possible. Building on previous work, this study contributes new δ13C, δ15N, and AMS radiocarbon dating results from the cemeteries of Verkholensk (n = 44) in the Upper Lena River micro-region and Ulan-Khada (n = 19) in the Little Sea micro-region. Our results reveal that the Late Neolithic (LN, 5570–4600 cal BP) individuals at Verkholensk exhibit higher δ15N values than in the Early Bronze Age (EBA, 4600–3700 cal BP), suggesting a shift to a more terrestrial diet, possibly in response to climate-induced environmental changes. In addition, EBA individuals at Verkholensk differ in both δ13C and δ15N from those at the nearby site of Obkhoi, suggesting territorial divisions at a surprisingly small scale, although there is a diachronic component that needs to be considered, highlighting the need for additional work on freshwater reservoir corrections for the Upper Lena micro-region. The Ulan-Khada EBA results are consistent with the ‘Game-Fish’ and ‘Game-Fish-Seal’ dietary patterns previously identified in the Little Sea micro-region. The now substantial Little Sea micro-region EBA dataset—— allows for more subtle differences in diet to be identified, namely that EBA females with Game-Fish-Seal diets for the whole of the Little Sea sample display significantly lower mean δ13C values than their male counterparts, providing some of the first evidence for sex-based dietary distinctions in Lake Baikal. A small number of δ13C and/or δ15N outliers were identified at both Verkholensk and Ulan-Khada that may support previous suggestions of individual mobility between the Upper Lena and Little Sea micro-regions. Exploratory use of δ18O isotopes in bone collagen offers a novel line of support for this scenario, confirming a number of independently identified outliers.

The Bronze Age of northern Eurasia is characterised by major socio-economic changes. A secondary products revolution defined an overall trajectory in these global economic transformations. Innovative changes in fibre technologies led to the appearance of woven wool textiles and the production and consumption of new types of garment. Analysis of the first direct AMS 14C dates from woven wool fibres from Bronze Age sites across northern Eurasia allow us to define key stages in the directional spread of woven wool textiles and to determine the cultural context of this process of technological transmission.

The ‘Monumental Myopia’ project uses multiscalar remote-sensing techniques to identify potential prehistoric nomadic settlements in the Siberian landscape. Eschewing the monumental burial mounds, the project aims to explore the everyday life of pastoral societies in the first millennium BC.

Copyright © 2016 Antiquity Publications Ltd. Where did pottery first appear in the Old World? Statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates suggests that ceramic vessel technology had independent origins in two different hunter-gatherer societies. Regression models were used to estimate average rates of spread and geographic dispersal of the new technology. The models confirm independent origins in East Asia (c. 16000 cal BP) and North Africa (c. 12000 cal BP). The North African tradition may have later influenced the emergence of Near Eastern pottery, which then flowed west into Mediterranean Europe as part of a Western Neolithic, closely associated with the uptake of farming.

Early Iron Age pastoralists of the Eurasian steppes relied heavily on copper for weapons and ornaments, and new analysis of metal composition enables long-distance networks to be identified. Primary circulation from source areas where copper was mined can be distinguished alongside the secondary circulation of alloy types with high proportions of tin-bronze or leaded tin-bronze. The relative presence of trace elements, depleted during recycling events, provides a proxy for the flow of metal between regions. The localised seasonal movements characteristic of these mobile steppe societies underlie some of these patterns, but the evidence also indicates more extensive transfers, including the direct movement of finished objects over considerable distances.

The analysis and interpretation of the chemical composition of copper-alloys is one of the longest ongoing research projects within archaeological science. Beginning in the late 18th century these data have been consistently used to try and link objects with distinct metal sources. This paper argues the traditional provenance model for copper alloys is fatally flawed. Through pursuing a 'pure' source signal, chemical and isotopic datasets have been removed from their context and history. Social engagement with metal through processes such as reuse, recycling, and curation were rarely considered important by analysts. We offer an alternative model that unites the available legacy scientific datasets with process-metallurgy, archaeological and geographical context, and new conceptual approaches. Rather than provenance, we offer an empirical model of metal flow. Here objects are seen as snapshots of a wider metal stream; their final scientific characterisation including echoes of their previous forms and contexts. Through a series of case studies we highlight how the reinterpretation of existing datasets can disentangle the complex life histories of units of copper.

Academic interest in the elaborate bead assemblages recovered from graves of the Western Zhou elite has grown in recent years. Beads and beaded ornaments have been seen as both markers of external contact and evidence of change in the Zhou ritual system. Recent study of these bead assemblages, however, indicates that they may also have reflected shifting political circumstances. The use of different bead materials and forms suggests a trend to centralised production and control of manufacture, particularly from the later tenth century BC. The authors correlate a move towards readily manufactured materials with evidence for widespread elite intermarriage, and consider a possible tension between production and the socio-political strategies of the Zhou court.

In recent years, several research groups have concluded that traditional ‘provenance studies’ of metals, in which an object is linearly related to a single source, do not represent the reality of many archaeological assemblages. This paper sets out a new systematic approach to metal chemistry designed to characterize, using trace elements and isotopes in an assemblage of material, the underlying circulation of metal. When applied in China to the use of leaded tin bronze to cast the large and numerous ritual vessels of the Shang (c. 1500-1045 BC) and the Zhou dynasties (c. 1045-771 BC), the methodology reveals the complexity of the copper sources on which the major late Shang capital at Anyang depended for its bronze workshops. This has been recognised by many in the past, but has yet to prompt a full reassessment of the organisation of the Shang bronze industry. Here we point out the possibility of a need to transport copper from distant regions in the south, on the Yangzi, and even from far to the north, in northeast China. Using lead isotope data, presented in a new format, we attempt to enlarge the understanding of this organisation, demonstrating that, while the Zhou took over some of the range of copper available to the middle Anyang period, the lead sources exploited in early and middle Anyang phases differed from those taken up by the Zhou. The methodology enables a further understanding of the network on which the major dynasties depended for supplies of copper, lead and tin, and can thus lead us towards one of the major objectives of the new interpretational system - to give equal weight to archaeological and chemical data.

© The Prehistoric Society 2017 This paper provides a contextual summary of a diachronic analysis of ceramic vessels and hunter-gatherer societies from the final Pleistocene to the later Holocene in a remote corner of the Vitim Basin in Eastern Siberia. An integrated programme of ceramic analysis, raw materials survey, and archaeological investigation is drawn into new models of group mobility and social behaviour. The results challenge widespread assumptions about the relationship between ceramics, sedentarisation, and social complexity. Evidence of these transformations, though potentially identifiable in the archaeological record, could not be associated with the adoption of pottery.

This paper presents the initial results of a new phase of absolute dating at Ust'-Karenga. Three Optically-Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dates were obtained on quartz grains extracted from Ust'-Karenga type ceramic sherds from Layers 4, 6 and 7 at Ust'-Karenga XII. These dates are used to test the reliability of the existing radiocarbon sequence and evaluate counter claims that sought to reject early dates for ceramics in the Transbaikal on the basis of a putative carbon cycle anomaly in the Transbaikal region. Our results strongly uphold the excavator's original interpretation of the site and independently confirm both the Late Pleistocene age and the long duration of the Ust'-Karenga pottery phase. The paper demonstrates the value of using independent absolute dating methods to test contested radiocarbon chronologies.

The primary aim of this paper is to track the history of quantitative chemical analysis on Chinese copper-based metal objects and suggest a future outlook. The beginnings of this subject can be traced to the 1770s. Its overall history can be divided into five stages. By considering the different interpretational contexts in each of these stages, we show that all have made a significant contribution to our knowledge of the chemistry of copper alloy objects in China, and in broader terms to understanding the archaeology of China. Thanks to the sustained efforts of our predecessors, a substantial database of chemical and isotopic information has been created for present scholars, which we summarize here. We suggest, however, that this database contains a great deal of invaluable information which has yet to be fully explored. Moreover, given the scale of the Bronze Age in China, we also suggest that there is a great deal of more analytical work required before we can truly interpret the role of metal in Bronze Age Chinese society. This historical review also suggests that dialogue between related disciplines is a crucial factor in this area, and one which is vital in capitalizing the work already achieved.

In the article by Pollard et al. (2017), Figure 2 was incorrectly duplicated as Figure 5.