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.
The paper is devoted to the critical analysis of the radiocarbon dating results of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic complexes of the northeastern part of the East European Plain (Republic of ...Komi, Arkhangelsk and Vologda Regions and the Nenets Autonomous Area, Russian Federation). The comprehensive evaluation of all available geochronometric data in relation with the studied archaeological events highlighted the following three data sets: reliable, ambiguous and invalid dates. A new chronological model of Far Northeast of Europe colonization and dispersal of innovations over the Holocene is proposed based upon reliable radiocarbon dating results.
We present a multi-proxy reconstruction of the Holocene environment in the northern upper Kama region of Russia (59°52'-60°28'N, 54°28'-56°28'E) based upon the pollen, plant macrofossil and ...radiocarbon records of the sedimentary successions from the floodplain deposits of the river Kama. Palaeochannel and geochronological investigations allowed us to identify seven stages of floodplain development, which were formed through increases or decreases in the water flow of this actively meandering river during the Holocene. These changes in river flow and channel activity in the upper Kama valley most probably influenced the choice of ancient people for places to settle. Pollen records from the palaeochannel sediments reflect three phases of regional vegetation changes in the study area: (1) predominance of sparse taiga forests with
Pinus
(pine),
Betula
(birch),
Picea obovata
(Siberian spruce) and
Larix
(larch) in the early and beginning of the middle Holocene (9,800–6,400 cal
bp
); (2) expansion of
P. obovata
and penetration and spread of the temperate-climate broad-leaved trees
Ulmus
,
Quercus
,
Tilia
and
Alnus
in the middle Holocene (6,400–4,200 cal
bp
), and (3) appearance and spread of
Abies sibirica
(Siberian fir) between 4,200 and 3,400 cal
bp
, and formation of closed canopy
Abies
-
Picea
forest without broad-leaved trees from ca. 2,700 cal
bp
. Plant macrofossil assemblages from these palaeochannel sediments indicate local vegetation of wetland or semi-aquatic plant communities in this area. Our results showed that the increase in
Betula
and decrease of the conifers
Picea
,
Pinus
and
Abies
with synchronous increases of ruderal plants such as Chenopodiaceae and
Artemisia
and also grassland taxa show woodland clearance by humans in the Chalcolithic ca. 4,000 cal
bp
and in the early Iron Age and Middle Ages between 2,700 and 1,300 cal
bp
.
Aeolian sediments and landforms of the former continental ice sheets' periphery can be used as invaluable sources of information on palaeoenvironmental changes. In the Northeastern Europe, there is ...very limited knowledge on the structure and age of the aeolian deposits and landforms. This study presents the first data on distribution and chronology of aeolian sediments and landforms in the Vychegda River basin (northeast of the East European Plain). Using grain-size analysis, radiocarbon and OSL dating, we were able to determine the age of the sediments found in the region and study their lithological composition. We discovered aeolian sediments comprising the upper parts of the most river terraces throughout the valley; they come in forms of dunes, dune fields, and sandy or loess-like covers. Previously it was argued that the terraces’ upper parts were comprised by glaciolacustrine deposits, but lithological composition of these sediments showed their aeolian origin. It was found that most of the aeolian sediments have formed in the Late Glacial, between 17 and 10.5 ka. We consider that increased fluvial activity and melting of permafrost were the main causes of the aeolian processes activization and that sediment availability was the most important controlling factor during that time.
An overview of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphy of the southeastern White Sea region is presented in the paper, based upon the analysis of published data, new results, and correlation ...between marine and terrestrial archives. The Pleistocene stratigraphic record in the southeastern White Sea region begins with Mikulino Horizon, which comprises the whole MIS 5 and is composed of marine sediments – sands, sandy clays and clays – with Boreal, Arctic–Boreal and Lusitanean–Boreal microfauna and mollusc fauna, dated back at 161–77 ka. The Podporozhie Horizon in the southeastern White Sea region comprises the MIS 4 (71–57 ka) complex of marine mostly near-shore sediments. The glaciation during MIS 4 was localized, on one hand, within the Kola Peninsula. On the other hand, the glacier probably overlapped the Kanin Peninsula and the Mezen Bay, however the Gorlo Strait was not blocked and the northward river outflow was preserved. The Leningrad Horizon had been formed also in the marine sedimentation pattern during the MIS 3 (57–29 ka). However, the lack of data in the region allows us to make only the comparative analysis. The Ostashkov Horizon (MIS 2, 29–11.7 ka) is composed of the deposits of glacial paragenetic series: tills, glaciofluvial, glaciomarine, and glaciolacustrine deposits, but also comprises the deglaciation (Late Glacial) sedimentary complex including marginal tills. The Holocene stratigraphic record is subdivided into three stages – 11.7–9.5, 9.5–3.5 and 3.5–0 ka BP, and do not match with new formal stratigraphic subdivision of the Holocene series.
In this paper we present preliminary results of the first palaeoecological investigations in the Cis-Ural region. This was an area of intensive Neolithic occupation of fluvial landscapes within the ...basin of the Upper Kama River, the largest river in the area. We selected the area of Lake Chashkinskoe as a key region, where around 10 sites have been found on the remains of the fluvial terraces of the Kama River. We used palaeochannel analysis, radiocarbon dating, and palynology for past landscape reconstruction.
In this paper, a detailed overview of the Holocene evolution of the North Dvina river (ND) delta (southern White Sea) is presented; it is based on radiocarbon dating, geomorphological and other field ...surveys, and plant macrofossil and palynological data. We have identified three main stages of the delta evolution: estuary erosional (Allerød — 5700 cal BC), lagoon or tidal-marsh (5700 cal BC — 3700 cal BC) and fan-delta accumulative (3700 cal BC — present). These stages are correlated with local climatic curves, sea level changes, glacioisostatic raise curve and Baltic Sea stages. A variety of landforms has been identified and dated within the delta. These results help to explain the spatial and temporal patterns in the prehistoric human occupation of this area.
ABSTRACT
The Severnaya Dvina River valley crosses the former south‐eastern margin of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet. Despite a long research history, there remains considerable controversy about the ...maximum ice‐sheet extent and the expansion of proglacial lakes within the Severnaya Dvina fluvial system. The goal of this study was to address these issues using new material from the valleys of the Severnaya Dvina and the lower Vychegda, thereby contributing to an understanding of the history of the south‐eastern sector of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet and its periglacial areas. We studied a number of geological sections using radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, pollen and carpological analyses, and found that the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) proglacial lake occupied the Severnaya Dvina valley between 20–19 ka and about 15.5 ka. The lake was localized within the proglacial isostatic depression and occupied only the Severnaya Dvina valley extending no further than the confluence of the Vychegda River, no more than 110 km from the edge of the ice sheet. The lake formation did not cause any drainage reorganization within and outside the Vychegda fluvial system. Given the small size of the lake and presence of the oldest OSL ages along the entire length of the former lake, we suggest that the onset of the proglacial lake marks the maximum extent of the ice sheet in the area. Consequently, the onset of the local LGM may be dated to 20–19 ka, somewhat earlier than assumed by most previous researchers. The LGM ice sheet boundary was located in the Severnaya Dvina valley downstream from the Vychegda confluence and did not extend into the Vychegda valley, despite previous suggestions. During deglaciation, the lake disappearance together with crustal rebound caused an incision episode in the Vychegda – Severnaya Dvina system and the formation of the Lateglacial alluvial terrace with relative height rising downstream due to the uneven rates of the postglacial uplift.
In this study we apply optically stimulated luminescence and infra-red stimulated luminescence to the sediments from the interfluve dividing three river basins: the Pechora, the Kama and the ...Severnaya Dvina, hoping to gather new age data on glaciofluvial sediment. We also studied the valley of the Berezovka, a medium-scale river cutting through this interfluve. We obtained a chronology from 17 quartz and 15 feldspar ages. Sedimentological analyses and luminescence dating show that most of the sediments examined here are water-transported (gully alluvium, slopewash deposits), and their ages mark a period of accumulation during MIS 2. Some of these sediments were reworked by aeolian processes; these took place over a time span consistent with such processes in other parts of the East European Plain (19-12 ka). The Berezovka river experienced incision before ∼22 ka and another erosion event with extremely high floods at 15–16 ka. Its terrace formed in MIS 5, constraining the minimum age of the valley. In the bottom part of the sections, much older, possible MIS 8, glaciofluvial sediments were found; the apparent absence of MIS 6 sediments may argue for moving the MIS 6 ice sheet limit further to the north of the study area.
The paper is devoted to the Middle and Upper Pleistocene stratigraphy of the Vychegda River basin, located in the far northeast of Europe, in the Timan–Pechora–Vychegda subzone of the Middle–Late ...Pleistocene glaciations. The available litho-/chrono-/biostratigraphy data were have been obtained from more than 20 natural outcrops along the valley of Vychegda and its tributaries, which were studied lithostratigraphically. Also radiocarbon, OSL, IR-OSL and 230Th/U dating was performed, together with pollen and palaeocarpological analyses. The oldest glacial deposits are related to the Pechora horizon (MIS 8), and the oldest numerically dated relate to the Rodionovo horizon (Schöningen, MIS 7), embracing the chronostratigraphic archive of the last ~250 ka. The Vychegda horizon (Drenthe + Warthe, MIS 6) includes surficial tills, glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine sediments dated back to 186–111 ka. This ice sheet produced the ice-dammed lake which overflowed into the Kama-Volga and Caspian basin. The Last Interglacial–Glacial cycle is associated with the Sula horizon (Eemian + Lower Weichselian, MIS 5), and the Nenetsky superhorizon with the Laya (Middle Weichselian, MIS 4), Byzovaya (Middle Weichselian, MIS 3) and Polar (Upper Weichselian, MIS 2) horizons, reflecting alluvial and aeolian sedimentary environments. The chronostratigraphic record of the Byzovaya (67–27 ka) and Polar (27–1 1.7 ka) horizons is well supported with 14C, OSL, IR-OSL and 230Th/U-dates and biostratigraphic data. Unlike the predecessors' descriptions no glaciolacustrine deposits had been identified for these horizons. The Holocene floodplain, aeolian and peat bog deposits dated from 11.7 ka are widespread over the Vychegda catchment area.
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