A 32,000-year pollen record of vegetation, climate dynamics and glacial-interglacial environments of hunter-gatherer populations from Lake Ochaul, Cis-Baikal region of Siberia
The Lake Baikal region (LBR) has been the target of various archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research in the past. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams of researchers examine the LBR since 1997 contributing to the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP). The main goals of the BAP are to invest...
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| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/35626 https://doi.org/10.17169/refubium-35340 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:188-refubium-35626-6 |
| Summary: | The Lake Baikal region (LBR) has been the target of various archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research in the past. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams of researchers examine the LBR since 1997 contributing to the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP). The main goals of the BAP are to investigate hunter-gatherer lifeways in Northern Asia using an individual life histories approach; to develop a robust chronology through intensive radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling of the archaeological remains; and to combine archaeological data with the results of high-resolution and accurately dated palaeoenvironmental records. Whereas resolution and number of studies increased over time, there are still large areas that are understudied, not least due to the huge dimension of the LBR. In particular, reconstruction of the last glacial/interglacial vegetation and climate history of the vast Cis-Baikal region outside the Lake Baikal coastal plains are not possible without detailed palaeoenvironmental records with AMS-based age control. Previous palynological studies around Lake Baikal point to the spatial-temporal variability in vegetation development across the LBR due to its large area with complex topography and influence of various elements of the global climate system. Archaeological research also demonstrates some spatial differences in the lifestyle and subsistence strategies of the Neolithic and Bronze Age hunter-gatherers within the LBR. Thus, detailed reconstruction of microregional environments is crucial for better understanding of the evolution of hunter-gatherer cultures. Lakes with continuous sedimentation may serve as natural archives, which preserve multi-proxy records of past environments and have a great potential for the correlation of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records within geoarchaeological microregions. This doctoral thesis contributes to the BAP by filling gaps in current knowledge and providing a detailed palaeoenvironmental record of the past 32,000 years obtained from a ... |
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