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   

Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures in Yakutia

A.N. Alekseyev and V.M. Dyakonov.

Based on 92 radiocarbon dates (some unpublished) obtained from 30 sites subjected to dendrochronological calibration, previous chronologies of the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Yakutia are revised and a new “calendar chronology” proposed. During the Bronze Age, two newly described cultures existed in addition to the Ust-Mil culture: Ulakhan Segelennyakh and Sugunnakh, the latter being a derivative of Ymyiakhtakh. In the 2nd millennium BC, the Ulakhan Segelennyakh culture became distributed throughout southern, southwestern, and southeastern Yakutia. The distinctive feature of this culture is perceived as being its ceramics which are decorated with punched nodes, stamp, and impressed designs. According to radiocarbon dating, the Sugunnakh culture existed in the transpolar regions of Yakutia from the 1st millennium BC at least until the fi rst centuries AD. All the three Bronze Age cultures of Yakutia evidently originated from the Late Neolithic Ymyiakhtakh culture.

Keywords: Yakutia, Neolithic, Bronze Age, radiocarbon, chronology, culture, ceramics.