Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 40 (3) 2012

Annotation:  Vegetation and Climate Changes in the Bolshoe Inyaptukskoe Lake Basin (North Baikal Plateau) in the Levantine Perspectives on the Middle to Upper Paleolithic “Transition” The Importance of Changes to microRNA in the Evolution of Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova Upper Paleolithic Portable Art in Light of Ethnographic Studies Statistical Analysis of Spatial Distribution of Ceramics from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Sites i Ornaments Made from Animal Teeth in Human Burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 and their Relevance to Ethni The Bronze Age Rock Art of Malye Arbaty A 2367-year Tree-Ring Chronology for the Altai–Sayan Region (Mongun-Taiga Mountain Massif) Cultural Contact and Cultural Transfer in Medieval Western Eurasia Camisoles in the Traditional Male Costume of the Bukharan Jews (Part of the History of Clothes Cut f Western Siberian Folk Art: Northern Russian and Ural Traditions in Distaff Decoration Ethnic and Cultural Aspects of Nanai Healing Ritual Sculptures Ethnic and Cultural Identity of the Belorussian Migrants in Western Siberia Prehistoric and Recent Populations of Chukotka: A Paleophenetic Analysis Armenia in the Eurasian Ethnic Context of Late Classical Antiquity: Craniometric Evidence Dental Wear Patterns and Subsistence Activities in Early Nomadic Pastoralist Communities of the Cent   

A 2367-year Tree-Ring Chronology for the Altai–Sayan Region (Mongun-Taiga Mountain Massif)

Central Asia, Southern Siberia, Minusinsk Basin, Bronze Age, rock art, Okunev culture, Dzhoy style.

Wood material from living trees and trunk remains of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ldb) from the upper treeline (2300 m) of the Mongun Taiga mountain massif was used for building up a 2367-year Mongun tree-ring chronology. The chronology is consistent with paleoclimatic data and refl ects the main changes in the climate of the Northern Hemisphere over the last two millennia: the cooling of the 6th century, “Medieval warming,” “Little Ice Age,” and the current warming. The calculation of the response function between the chronology and data from weather stations made it possible to reconstruct the variability of air temperatures in June and July for 2000 years. The chronology contains the climate signal of regional scale and is suitable for dating archaeological wood, that is, for determining the calendar time of building the monuments in the Altai–Sayan region.

Keywords: Mongun-Taiga, upper treeline, tree-ring chronologies, reconstruction, paleoclimate.