Results of the analysis of ceramics of the Boborykino appearance from the Neolithic sites of Turgai are represented in the paper. The initial raw materials and molding masses of ceramic products were ...studied using the technique of binocular microscopy and petrographic analysis. When analyzing the ceramic collections of the sites Bestamak, Belkaragai 1 and Sulukol 1, according to the profling of the necks, the technique of applying the ornament, a group of ceramics of the Boborykino appearance was identifed. The dishes of this group were molded from silty clays with the addition of freclay and an organic solution; in one case, talcum gruss was added. The penetration of the Boborykino groups of population into the Turgai steppes was episodic, and the groups were quite small (based on the number of artifacts found), which indicates not migration, but rather family and marriage contacts.
At the transition from the Middle (2100–1700 BC) to Late Bronze Age (1700–1400 BC) in the central Eurasian steppe, significant changes occurred in patterns of settlement and mortuary practice. ...Traditional interpretations link these changes to shifts from semi-settled agro-pastoral communities to more mobile forms of pastoralism. However, correlations between subsistence strategies and shifts in social and ritual practices have been infrequently tested. This paper explores the nature of subsistence economies in two populations from the sites of Bestamak (MBA) and Lisakovsk (LBA) in northern Kazakhstan. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bone collagen was undertaken to understand dietary intake. The close clustering of isotope values indicates homogeneity in subsistence practices for these two communities spanning the transition. Therefore, while changes occurred in social and ritual practice, subsistence regimes stayed relatively uniform at the transition. Results of this research add to previous literature, revealing that dietary intake of pastoral populations in the Eurasian steppe are much more intricate than previously believed.
•Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of bone collagen to reconstruct paleodiet.•We investigate correlations between drastic social changes and dietary intake.•Dietary intake stayed relatively stable from the MBA to LBA.•Dietary differences linked to varying consumption of fish, wild plants and animals.•Dietary differences linked to mortuary practices for some individuals.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major cause of human hepatitis. There is considerable uncertainty about the timescale of its evolution and its association with humans. Here we present 12 full or partial ...ancient HBV genomes that are between approximately 0.8 and 4.5 thousand years old. The ancient sequences group either within or in a sister relationship with extant human or other ape HBV clades. Generally, the genome properties follow those of modern HBV. The root of the HBV tree is projected to between 8.6 and 20.9 thousand years ago, and we estimate a substitution rate of 8.04 × 10
-1.51 × 10
nucleotide substitutions per site per year. In several cases, the geographical locations of the ancient genotypes do not match present-day distributions. Genotypes that today are typical of Africa and Asia, and a subgenotype from India, are shown to have an early Eurasian presence. The geographical and temporal patterns that we observe in ancient and modern HBV genotypes are compatible with well-documented human migrations during the Bronze and Iron Ages
. We provide evidence for the creation of HBV genotype A via recombination, and for a long-term association of modern HBV genotypes with humans, including the discovery of a human genotype that is now extinct. These data expose a complexity of HBV evolution that is not evident when considering modern sequences alone.
This paper considers computational costs that occur when a cognitive radio system changes channels for a secondary user. The theoretical gain was estimated to find ways to optimize computations, ...based on knowledge about the conditional state of the cognitive radio system. The analysis of the unnormalized matrix of transition probabilities made it possible to formulate two rules for filling the matrices. The authors studied the structure of the matrix of transition probabilities for three channels and tried to identify the relationship between its elements and symmetry for the matrix dimensions - 24 to 24 elements. The proposed technique allows replacing the calculation of the product of N real numbers with one rewriting of the real number and reduces the multiplication operations. The results of the work can serve as methods for optimizing computational costs in cognitive radio systems or similar systems, this is due to the need to perform computations on devices that do not have enough free resources.
In this paper we evaluate the extent of freshwater reservoir effects (37 samples across 12 locations) and present new data from various archaeological sites in the Eurasian Steppe. Together with a ...summary of previous research on modern and archaeological samples, this provides the most up-to-date map of the freshwater reservoir offsets in the region. The data confirm previous observations highlighting that FREs are widespread but highly variable in the Eurasian Steppe in both modern and archaeological samples. Radiocarbon dates from organisms consuming aquatic sources, including humans, dogs, bears, aquatic birds and terrestrial herbivores (such as elk feeding on water plants), fish and aquatic mammals, as well as food crusts, could be misleading, but need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Comparative analyses of human health and diet are often undertaken for consecutive periods of time which exhibit different social formations or material culture. The aim of this research was to test ...the link between social transformations and corollary shifts in health or diet. Therefore, oral health and dietary intake were examined in successive Bronze Age periods in central Eurasia with very different patterns of settlement and scales of interaction. Researchers have posited that these periods are evidence of an economic shift from agro-pastoral to pastoral patterns of subsistence. Populations from two sites in northern Kazakhstan (52°10′N, 64°32′E; 52°32′N, 62°23′E) were investigated in terms of dental caries, calculus, abscesses, ante-mortem tooth loss and periodontal disease. The results of this study indicate that the types of dental pathological conditions present stayed relatively uniform over time, suggesting similarities in dietary intake for populations at the sites of Bestamak (2032–1639 cal BC) and Lisakovsk (1860–1680 cal BC). The dietary intake of these communities is indicative of a noncariogenic diet with a high protein content and lack of carbohydrates. These findings conform to general patterns for pastoral societies and are consistent with stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic data. While they types of pathological conditions were similar, the severity of these lesions decreased in the later period. Comparatively more pronounced frequencies of pathological conditions during the earlier period are attributed to multiple etiologies including different patterns of consumption, dental cleaning behaviors, or stress. While the archaeological record indicates broad shifts in settlement patterns, demography, and mortuary rituals from the Middle to Late Bronze Ages, there was only a slight shift in dental health.
In Fig. 2 of this Letter, the 'E' and 'G' clade labels were inadvertently reversed, and in Table 2 the genotype of DA27 was 'D1' instead of 'D5'. These have been corrected online.
Direct and accurate radiocarbon dating of lipid residues preserved in ceramics is a recently established method that allows direct dating of specific food products and their inception in human ...subsistence strategies. The method targets individual fatty acids originating from animal fats such as ruminant dairy, ruminant adipose, non-ruminant adipose and aquatic fats. Horse lipid residues found in Central Asian pottery vessels are also directly dateable using this new method. Here we present the identification of equine lipid residues preserved in two pottery assemblages from the Neolithic and Eneolithic in Kazakhstan and their direct
14
C dating. The site of Botai, previously radiocarbon-dated to the 4th millennium BC, was used as a reference to evaluate the dates obtained directly on horse lipids. The direct dating of equine products extracted from Botai potsherds are shown to be compatible with previous
14
C dates at the site. The site of Bestamak, lacking previous
14
C measurements, had been relatively dated to the Neolithic based on pottery typologies. The direct dating of equine residues made it possible to anchor the pottery assemblage of Bestamak in the 6th millennium BC confirming their Neolithic attribution. These findings demonstrate the potential for dating horse products through a compound-specific approach, while highlighting challenges in
14
C dating individual fatty acids from lipid extracts in which their abundances differ substantially.
•Stable isotope data from Kazakhstan show diversity chronologically and spatially.•Bone tissues of Central Asian domestic animals show different isotopic values.•Differences in human isotopic data ...might be related to reliance on different animals.•Vertical transhumance practice might increase δ13C values in animals.
Human isotopic values from North Central Asia vary not only chronologically, but also spatially, which likely points to the exploitation of different resources for the subsistence. We argue that observed differences in the human isotopic ratios across North Central Asia are directly related to the animal herding strategies, which in turn were influenced by the local environment and landscape features. This paper presents a collation of both new (n = 149) and previously published (n = 585) carbon and nitrogen isotopic values measured on human bone collagen dating from the Bronze Age to Medieval period Northern Central Asia. These data have allowed modeling human dietary variations in different ecotones and chronological periods of North Central Asia. Analysis of isotopic values of various domestic herbivore species demonstrated that horses, cattle, and sheep/goats in North Central Asia tend to exhibit different isotopic signatures. The strong regional variations, particularly evident in δ13C values across North Central Asia from Bronze to Middle Ages tend to reflect the scale of C4 crop consumption by humans. However, they can also be related to the differences in the exploited herding strategies, such as the focus on cattle, horses or caprines husbandry as well as vertical transhumance pastoralism.
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