Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (3) 2009

Annotation:  Middle Paleolithic Industries of the Early Late Pleistocene (OIS 5) in the Southwestern Part of East Evidence of Environmental Instability of the Lake Baikal Area after the Last Glaciation (Based on P Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures in Yakutia Clay Balls from Suchu Island as Neolithic Sacral Symbols Models of Metal Production in the Near East (Chalcolithic – Middle Bronze Age) Chinese Inscription on the Lacquer Cup from Noin Ula Mound 20 (Mongolia) Horse Forehead Pieces from the Kuban Region The Pakhomovskaya Culture of the Late Bronze Age Stone Stele Bearing a “Sun-Headed” Deity on the Tuim River, Khakassia (In commemoration of the Finni Methodological Issues in the Digital Mapping of Archaeological Sites The Church of the Saviour from Zashiversk: The Dendrochronological Aspect The “Harlequin”: An Ostyak Idol “Technological Eschatology” in Modern Traditions of Popular Orthodoxy and among the Old Believers o Mummery in the Calendar Rites of German Settlers in Siberia Silver of Kazakh Zergers: Traditions in Modern Jewelry Art Dental Remains from Mound 20 at Noin-Ula, Mongolia The Origin of the Medieval Population of the Novgorod Republic) (10th–13th centuries): A Craniometri   

Evidence of Environmental Instability of the Lake Baikal Area after the Last Glaciation (Based on Pollen Records from Peatlands)

E.V. Bezrukova, A.A. Abzaeva, P.P. Letunova, N.V. Kulagina, and L.A. Orlova.

Pollen analysis of two dated sedimentary cores from lacustrine-boggy sediments in various parts of the Lake Baikal area yielded the fi rst complete record of deep changes in the lake catchment area during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene. The Early Middle Holocene record shows an optimum – a humid and mild climate with warm winters between ca 10,000 and 7000 BP. During the Late Holocene, the climate grew more and more continental, and dark coniferous forests were replaced by light coniferous ones. Comparison of variation ranges of paleogeographic events in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene recorded in our samples with previously known records for the Lake Baikal area and other regions of Eurasia indicated that major changes of vegetation and climate mostly correlate with the global ice retreat, solar radiation level, and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Less signifi cant short-term fl uctuations of vegetation and climate recorded in our archives can be regarded as regional ecosystem responses to solar activity changes of a quasi-millenary scale. Regional pollen records demonstrate a distinct relationship with the climate of the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. The amplitude of these changes is higher in the northeastern Lake Baikal area than in its southern part.

Keywords: Pollen analysis, paleoclimate, paleoecology, Late Glacial, Holocene, Lake Baikal catchment area.