Review of the Cambrian acrotretid brachiopod Neotreta

The Cambrian acrotretid brachiopod Neotreta Sobolev 1976 is reviewed and re-illustrated, based on new material of the type species, N. tumida Sobolev 1976, from the lower Upper Cambrian of Siberia; Neotreta orbiculata Koneva 1990, originally described from the Middle Cambrian of Kazakhstan, has been obtained from roughly coeval beds in Shropshire, England; Neotreta pusilla Koneva 1986 was unavailable for study. Two new species, N. davidi and N. karagailensis, are described from Queensland, Australia, and Kirgizia, Central Asia respectively.     

旧石器时代亚欧大陆高纬度地区人群的扩散及其对中国旧石器文化格局的影响

欧亚大陆高纬度地区气候与资源环境迥异于人类的起源地——热带非洲。人类需要具备更多的文化适应手段才能适应高纬度地区的生存。在旧石器时代早中期,人类向该地区的迁移扩散极为有限,而旧石器时代晚期,随着技术、社会组织等文化层面的进步,人类开始广泛向高纬度地区扩散,打破了东亚地区与欧亚大陆西侧的文化隔离屏障,对中国旧石器时代西北、东北及华北地区的文化格局产生了不同程度的影响。本文拟通过人类适应的视角,结合考古材料,分析人类向欧亚大陆高纬度地带的扩散历程及由此而引发的人类迁徙、交流对中国旧石器时代文化面貌格局产生的具体影响。     

俄罗斯西伯利亚人口状况及其地理分析

西伯利亚人口问题一直非常尖锐,20世纪90年代以来更有不断恶化趋势。基于1989年和2002年俄罗斯人口普查资料,对西伯利亚人口状况及其动态变化进行了分析,得出了一些重要结论:1989-2002年间西伯利亚人口减少了95.9万,减少幅度达3.7%,远高于全俄1.5%的平均减幅;出生率降低、死亡率提高和人口大量迁移导致多数城市和区域人口持续减少,劳动力短缺问题日趋严重,制约了地区经济的发展;实现人口自然增长、调节人口迁移、引进合法移民乃西伯利亚人口和经济社会发展的当务之急。     

The Upper Paleolithic of Northern Asia: Achievements,problems, and perspectives. III. Northeastern Siberia and the Russian Far East

Research into the Upper Paleolithic of northeastern Asia began in the 1940s. Recent work has led to the discovery of numbers of sites, some of them more than 30,000 years old, which are assigned to the D'uktai culture. The material recovered from these sites indicates relationships between the D'uktai culture and other cultures in Europe, Japan, Korea, China, and North America. For the most part, however, these similarities do not result from a spread of cultural traits from Europe into Asia. Instead, most of them reflect local development of the Upper Paleolithic, within both Asia and Europe, out of local Middle Paleolithic industries, which were themselves originally similar in technology and typology.     

The neolithic and early bronze age of the Lake Baikal Region: A review of recent research

Rich settlement and burial evidence from the Baikal/Angara region in Central Siberia provides one of the most promising opportunities in the global boreal forest for studying Holocene foragers. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age prehistory of the region is known to western scholars only through a few English translations of the works of A. P. Okladnikov. Since the publication of Okladnikov's model, the region has witnessed large-scale archaeological fieldwork that has produced abundant quantities of new evidence. Moreover, the model has been partly invalidated by extensive radiocarbon dating. Research advances over the last couple of decades have augmented the area's previous reputation but have also revealed the need for new theoretical perspectives and modern analytical techniques.     

Prehistory of the Upper Yenisei area (southern Siberia)

Our understanding of the prehistory of the Upper Yenisei area is based on several key multilayered sites, which provide an excellent opportunity for the investigation of long-term culture change and the reconstruction of culture history. The earliest traces of prehistoric people in the region date to the Sartan glacial. Ui I is dated to ca. 22,000–17,000 B.P. and belongs to the middle phase of the Yenisei Upper Paleolithic, predating the period of the Final Paleolithic Afontova culture (16,000–10,000 B.P.). The Early Holocene period remains little known; there is only one assemblage (the lower cultural layer of Sosnovka Golovan'skaya) which may be attributed to the Epipaleolithic. In the seventh and sixth millennia B.P., the aceramic Early Neolithic (the uppermost cultural horizons of Maina and Ui II, Ust'Khemchik 3, etc.) was widespread and was replaced by the Late Neolithic Verkhneeniseisk culture in the fifth millennium B.P. This was succeeded by the Eneolithic Afanas'eva culture at the end of the fifth millennium B.P. and, later, by the Bronze Age Okunev culture (until the twelfth century B.C.). From the eighth to the second centuries B.C., Scythian cultures flourished in the area, until the invasion of the Huns. All of these stages of the Holocene culture sequence are represented in the stratified site of Toora-Dash.     

Comments on Graf, Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 2009 “ “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”: evaluating the radiocarbon chronology of the middle and late Upper Paleolithic in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia”

Here I present a critical evaluation of the analysis conducted by Graf [Graf, K.E., 2009. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”: Evaluating the radiocarbon chronology of the middle and late Upper Paleolithic in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 694–707] of the Paleolithic radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dataset for the Upper Paleolithic sites in the Yenisei River basin of Central Siberia. Graf applied a rating system to the corpus of existing ¹⁴C data for the region, and announced some new ¹⁴C dates. The results obtained, however, are highly biased due to several factors, including prejudice concerning the higher accuracy of the AMS technique in ¹⁴C dating and that ¹⁴C dates from the same cultural component should overlap with plus–minus two sigmas; ambiguities with the subdivision of the Lateglacial period; artificially high sample selection criteria; incomplete factual material; and unjustifiable and misleading statements on the ¹⁴C dating of fossil bones and the issue of Last Glacial Maximum human presence in Siberia. As a result, the conclusions made by Graf [Graf, K.E., 2009. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”: Evaluating the radiocarbon chronology of the middle and late Upper Paleolithic in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 694–707] are unconvincing. New analysis is necessary in order to improve the quality of treatment of the original data for the Upper Paleolithic ¹⁴C chronology in the Yenisei River basin.     

Lower and middle paleolithic of northern Asia: Achievements,problems, and perspectives

Considerable progress has been made in recent years in the study of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of northern Asia. There is growing evidence for initial human occupation before 700,000 years ago—as early as elsewhere in Asia—and for a very early adaptation to the arctic desert environment. New models of Lower Paleolithic settlement involve expansion and reduction of occupation in response to climatic variation, rather than simple colonization followed by steady occupation. The Middle Paleolithic of northern Asia is better documented, including actual finds of archaicHomo sapiens. The transition to the Upper Paleolithic seems to involve the survival of earlier cultural traits, but the mechanisms and processes are not well understood. Further significant knowledge concerning these periods awaits the development of common methodologies for classification and analysis.     

The Late Paleolithic of the Yenisei: A new outline

The area of the Middle and Upper Yenisei is one of the most important concentrations of Paleolithic sites in Northern Asia. More than 200 localities, belonging to various stages of the Paleolithic, are now known. The initial phase of the Late Paleolithic is represented by Malaya Syiya, which is dated to approximately 34,000–33,000 B.P. The middle phase of the Late Paleolithic is marked by the blade industries of Early Sartan age (24,000–18,000 B.P.), as at Shlenka, Tarachikha, Ui I, and elsewhere. At 18,000–16,000 B.P., these were replaced by the Final Paleolithic Afontova and Kokorevo cultures, although some of the earlier blade industries continued into this period (Golubaya I).     

Iron Age pastoral nomadism and agriculture in the eastern Eurasian steppe: implications from dental palaeopathology and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes

Iron Age societies of the eastern Eurasian steppe are traditionally viewed as nomadic pastoralists. However, recent archaeological and anthropological research in Kazakhstan has reminded us that pastoralist economies can be highly complex and involve agriculture. This paper explores the nature of the pastoralist economies in two Early Iron Age populations from the burial grounds of Ai-Dai and Aymyrlyg in Southern Siberia. These populations represent two cultural groups of the Scythian World – the Tagar Culture of the Minusinsk Basin and the Uyuk Culture of Tuva. Analysis of dental palaeopathology and carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes suggests that domesticated cereals, particularly millet, and fish formed a major component of the diet of both groups. The findings contribute to the emerging picture of the nuances of Early Iron Age subsistence strategies on the eastern steppe.     

Radiocarbon Chronology of the Siberian Paleolithic

We have compiled 462 C-14 determinations for 120 Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites from Siberia and the Russian Far East. The Mousterian sites are dated to ca. 46,000–28,500 BP. The Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition dates to ca. 43,300–28,500 BP. Although there are a few earlier sites, most of the Upper Paleolithic sites are dated to the time interval between ca. 34,000 BP and 10,000 BP. The earlier Upper Paleolithic stage is characterized by macroblade technology and is radiocarbon-dated to ca. 34,000–20,000 BP. The earliest microblade technology occurs in the late stage of the Upper Paleolithic, dated to ca. 23,000–20,000 BP, but the majority of microblade sites is dated to ca. 20,000–11,000 BP. The Final Paleolithic (Mesolithic) sites date to ca. 12,000–6000 BP. At ca. 13,000–11,000 BP, the earliest Neolithic appeared in both the Russian Far East (Amur River basin) and the Transbaikal. The Paleolithic–Neolithic transition occurred ca. 13,000–6000 BP.     

‘Between All Parts of the Universe’: Russian Cosmographies and Imperial Strategies in Early Modern Siberia and Ukraine

In the early seventeenth century, learned Muscovites, as they set themselves to the task of working out a Russian and Orthodox vision of their place in the world, began to read, translate and modify the atlases produced by their slightly earlier European counterparts: Ortelius, Mercator, Blaeu and others. The Russian solution to this geographical puzzle grew out of and reflected a sense of the tsardom's unique location and imperial ambitions. The position that Muscovite cosmographers and geographers generally assigned to their realm was a connective one: the tsardom lay proudly between points on the globe; it linked vastly different lands and peoples; and it contained within its purview a heterogeneous assortment of peoples, faiths, tongues and cultures. In this article, I examine the different manifestations of that thinking and of Muscovite ideological conceptions of empire in two widely separated parts of the tsardom—Siberia, at some length, and then, more briefly, Ukraine/Belarus—and explore how their ideological frameworks affected the subject populations of those two areas.