RECONSTRUCTING HUMAN−ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE SIBERIAN ARCTIC AND SUB-ARCTIC: A HOLOCENE OVERVIEW

ABSTRACT This paper examines patterns of human–environmental interactions across northern Asia during the Holocene, in order to summarize current knowledge and identify key areas for future research. To achieve these goals, currently available chronological, cultural, and paleoenvironmental datasets...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiocarbon
Main Author: Kuzmin, Yaroslav V
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/rdc.2023.9
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822223000097
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT This paper examines patterns of human–environmental interactions across northern Asia during the Holocene, in order to summarize current knowledge and identify key areas for future research. To achieve these goals, currently available chronological, cultural, and paleoenvironmental datasets from the east Russian Arctic for the last 10,000 14 C years were integrated. Study regions include the Taymyr Peninsula, Lena River basin (except its southern part), northeastern Siberia, and Kamchatka Peninsula. Several broad-scale correlations between climatic fluctuations and cultural responses (e.g., subsistence strategies and occupation densities) were identified; however, these are not straightforward. For example, the increase of occupations during the warm periods in the Early–Middle Holocene are notable while the most pronounced rises coincide with a cooling trend in the Late Holocene. This shows that the human–environmental relationships in the Holocene were not linear; more interdisciplinary research will be needed to construct higher resolution data for understanding prehistoric cultural responses to past environmental changes in the Asian Arctic.