In this article we present a review of the archaeology and chronology of the Neolithic (i.e., pottery-bearing) cultural complexes of the Kurile Islands. Previous studies revealed only general ...patterns of Neolithic pottery and lithic typologies in the archipelago within a tentative chronological framework. However, recent research has now firmly established an occupation of the southern part of the Kurile Islands dating to as early as ca. 7000 BP. Based on preliminary investigations it appears that major economic activities focused on hunting, fishing (with possible exploitation of coastal fishes), and the gathering of plants. Interestingly, there is as of yet no solid evidence for the widespread use of marine resources (shellfish and mammals) in the Kuriles during the Neolithic, though this issue requires further research due to a dearth of properly excavated sites. Several potentially important sites are also suggested for continuing investigation of Neolithic archaeology in the Kurile Islands which has important ramifications for our understanding of coastal and island adaptations in the North Pacific.
This paper reviews significant issues related to the fossil hominins from the Altai Mountains of Siberia (Russia), namely Denisovans, Neanderthals, and early modern humans. Uncritical acceptance of ...the recovered information by some authors has resulted in unreliable chronologies of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic artifact assemblages and the animal and hominin fossils. We examine the chronostratigraphic contexts and archaeological associations of hominin and animal fossils and the lithics discovered at the Denisova, Okladnikov, Strashnaya, and Chagyrskaya cave sites. Taphonomic, site formation, and geomorphological studies show evidence of disturbance and redeposition caused by carnivore activity and sediment subsidence at these sites, which complicates the dating of the human remains. Our analysis indicates that the Middle Paleolithic is dated to ca. 50,000–130,000 years ago, and the Upper Paleolithic to ca. 12,000–48,000 years ago. The best age estimate for Denisovans is ca. 73,000–130,000 years ago. The ages of Neanderthals can be determined as more than 50,000–59,000 years ago, and of modern humans at roughly 12,000–48,000 years ago. Denisovan and Neanderthal fossils are associated with Middle Paleolithic complexes only.
An updated analysis of Paleolithic sites in Siberia and the Urals
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C-dated to the coldest phase of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), with its timespan currently determined as ca. 23,000–19,000 BP ...(ca. 27,300–22,900 cal BP), is presented. It is demonstrated that people continuously occupied the southern and central parts of Siberia and the Russian Far East (up to 58° N latitude), and perhaps sporadically settled regions located even further north, up to 70° N, throughout the LGM. This is in accord with our previous data, but is now based on a larger dataset, and also on a paleoecological analysis of the major pre-LGM archaeological sites in Siberia and the Urals north of 58° N. It is clear that Paleolithic people in northern Eurasia were able to cope with the treeless tundra environment well in advance of the LGM, at least at ca. 34,000–26,000 BP (ca. 38,500–30,000 cal BP). Therefore, a high degree of adaptation to cold conditions allowed people to survive in Siberia during the LGM.
Obsidian exchange patterns were studied on Sakhalin Island which connects Japan with mainland Asia. One hundred-eighty-two specimens of obsidian, including 157 artifacts from 75 sites on Sakhalin, ...ranging in age from the early Upper Paleolithic (ca. 19,400-17,800 RYBP) to the Okhotsk cultural complex (ca. 1400-800 RYBP), and 25 geological samples from Hokkaido Island (Japan), were examined by neutron activation analysis. Geochemical data suggest that all the obsidian artifacts from known sources found in Sakhalin archaeological sites were brought from Hokkaido sources. Widespread use of Hokkaido obsidian by Sakhalin inhabitants shows that long-distance contacts and exchange have taken place in Northeast Asia since at least the Upper Paleolithic. Although this obsidian transport could have been land-based during the Pleistocene, people had to use watercraft to cross La Pérouse Strait during the past 10,000 years. The distance of raw material transport was about 250-300 km in the early Upper Paleolithic, but increased up to 1000 km by the end of the Upper Paleolithic, the Neolithic, and later periods.
The current status of research on colonization and early migration in the insular part of the Russian Far East is presented. Based on a critical evaluation of the latest data, it is concluded that ...the initial colonization of Sakhalin Island occurred at ca. 19,500 BP and possibly earlier, but no solid evidence has yet been found to determine this with more precision. The movement of people from neighboring Hokkaido (northern Japan) to Sakhalin continued throughout the Paleolithic-Neolithic since ca. 10,000 BP with the help of maritime transport. In the Middle-Late Neolithic, ca. 5200-4400 BP, migration from the adjacent mainland (via the lower reaches of the Amur River) to Sakhalin is detected. The southern part of the Kurile Archipelago was initially colonized from Hokkaido in the Early Jomon (i.e., Neolithic) at ca. 7200-7000 BP; the northern part was subsequently settled possibly as early as ca. 5300 BP. Active contacts between Hokkaido and the Kurile Islands continued throughout and after the Jomon period. The identification of obsidian sources used by inhabitants on Sakhalin and the Kuriles has created a solid foundation for examining the direction and timing for initial colonization and other population dispersals.
The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology The Earliest Evidence of Human Settlement in the Kurile Islands (Russian Far East): The Yankito Site Cluster, Iturup Island
This article focuses on the presence of humans in Siberia and the Russian Far East at the coldest time of the Late Pleistocene, called the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and dated to c. 20,000-18,000 ...rcbp. Reconstruction of the LGM environment of Siberia, based on the latest models and compilations, provides a background for human existence in this region. Most of Siberia and the Russian Far East at c. 20,000-18,000 rcbp was covered by tundra and cool steppe, with some forest formations in the river valleys. Climate was much colder and drier than it is today. Eighteen Upper Paleolithic sites in Siberia are radiocarbon dated strictly to the LGM, and at least six of them, located in southern parts of western and eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, have solid evidence of occupation during that time span. It seems clear that southern Siberia was populated by humans even at the height of the LGM, and that there was no dramatic decline or complete disappearance of humans in Siberia at that time. The degree of human adaptation to periglacial landscapes in the mid-Upper Paleolithic of northern Eurasia was quite high; humans coped with the cold and dry environmental conditions using microblade technology, artificial shelters, tailored clothes, and megafaunal bones as fuel.
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).
Obsidian provenance studies in the southern Kuriles (Kunashir and Iturup islands), part of the insular Russian Far East, are reviewed and summarized for the first time. The sites analyzed belong to ...the Jomon (ca. 7300-2500 BP), Epi-Jomon (ca. 2500-1400 BP), and Okhotsk (ca. 1400-800 BP) cultural complexes, with particular attention given to the well-studied Yankito 2 site. The main sources of high-quality volcanic glass for the southern Kuriles were on the neighboring Hokkaido Island-Oketo and Shirataki (ca. 140-390 km away). The presence of obsidian at an Epi-Jomon site on southern Kunashir Island originating from remote sources on the Kamchatka Peninsula ca. 1290-1440 km away is an important contribution to understanding the prehistoric contacts and population dispersals that occurred within insular Northeast Asia. This is also supported by paleoanthropological and DNA data from Epi-Jomon human remains on Iturup, showing similarities with native Kamchatkan populations. The use of boats in the southern Kuriles is evident from the beginning of colonization, ca. 7300-7100 BP given that islands were not connected after the Early Holocene due to sea level rise. It is clear that seafaring was an important part of human activities throughout the entire island chain since the Epi-Jomon, ca. 2500 BP. Because the Kurile Islands were one of the most probable migration routes between Northeast Asia (i.e., Japan) and Northeastern Siberia and North America, study of the human colonization of the Kuriles has wider implication for the northeastern part of Eurasia as a gateway to the Americas.
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