Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (1) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.1.042-051

Annotation:  Findings from the Paleolithic Studies in Siberia The Earliest Paleolithic Assemblages from Denisova Cave in the Altai Upper Paleolithic of the Yenisey: New Discoveries, Old Debates Middle Neolithic Burials in Baikal-Yenisey Siberia: Problems of Cultural Identity and Genesis The Most Important Archaeological Discoveries Relating to the Neolithic to Early Iron Age Cultures o Possibilities of Direct Dating of Rock Art in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin On the Chronological Position of Siba Culture Metal Artifacts, Northwest China The Current Model of Historical and Cultural Processes in the Stone and Bronze Ages of the Ob-Irtysh The Pazyryk Dwelling D.G. Messerschmidt’s Collection of Siberian Antiquities in Drawings at the St. Petersburg Archive of The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin A Study of Silk Fabric from the Xiongnu Age Under-Headdress Discovered at Yaloman II Mound 51 in the Origin and Evolution of the Earliest Iron-Smelting Technologies in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin “D.G. Messerschmidt’s Cups” Use of Parts of Ram Carcasses in the Funerary Practices of the Baikal Region Population in the 13th–   

Middle Neolithic Burials in Baikal -Yenisey Siberia:
Problems of Cultural Identity and Genesis

I.M. Berdnikov¹, N.P. Makarov², T.M. Savenkova³, N.E. Berdnikova¹, N.B. Sokolova¹, A.M. Kim⁴, and D. Reich^{4, 5, 6, 7}

¹Irkutsk State University, K. Marksa 1, Irkutsk, 664003, Russia

²Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, Dubrovinskogo 84, Krasnoyarsk, 660049, Russia

³Voino-Yasenetsky Krasnoyarsk State Medical University, Partizana Zheleznyaka 1, Krasnoyarsk, 660022, Russia

⁴Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

⁵Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

⁶Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

⁷Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02446, USA

The study focuses on the analysis of Middle Neolithic burial complexes of the Baikal-Yenisey Siberia. Based on a series of reliable radiocarbon dates, their age lies within the range of 6190-5900 cal BP. It partly corresponds to the end of the hiatus in the mortuary traditions of Cis-Baikal. Features of the burial rite and funerary offerings are analyzed and compared with those of neighboring territories. One of the most frequent images in the art of the Middle Neolithic Baikal-Yenisey Siberia is that of the waterfowl, rendered as figurines. The common grave goods are leaf-shaped stone arrowheads, shell beads, and pendants made of animal bones and teeth. The funerary rite included the use of fire and reddish mineral pigment, as well as disrupting the anatomical integrity of the skeletons, possibly due to partial burial (the data are tentative). Most burials of the late stage of the hiatus are evidently those of hunter-gatherers manufacturing the Ust-Belaya ceramics, which were found in certain burials. A bone arrowhead with a biconical point and figurines representing waterfowl suggest cultural ties with the Urals and Western Siberia; but their nature has yet to be clarified, which requires large-scale AMS-dating and paleogenetic analysis.

Keywords: Baikal-Yenisey Siberia, Neolithic, hiatus, funerary rite, radiocarbon dating, waterfowl image