No abstract

No abstract

Moty – Novaia Shamanka (MNS) is an Early Neolithic (7560–6660 HPD cal BP) destroyed Kitoi cemetery, located on the lower Irkut River in Siberia. In 2014–2015, small rescue excavations were conducted by archaeologists from Irkutsk State University. MNS dates to the period between the two phases of use identified at the nearby Shamanka II Kitoi cemetery (Southwest Baikal). This paper presents the results of a bioarchaeological study of the human skeletal remains from MNS and discusses these findings in relation to hunter-gatherer life-history at this site and in the Cis-Baikal region. The human skeletal materials from MNS show life history markers, including isotopic signatures, consistent with the other Early Neolithic Kitoi samples. However, one individual shows anomalous isotopic signatures similar to those found, to date, only in one other Kitoi burial. Lastly and surprisingly, radiocarbon dating identified one Early Bronze Age individual (4970–3470 cal BP).

The concept of ‘readiness’ in collaborative research is almost exclusively framed and evaluated with respect to the preparedness of a community. We argue that the concept of readiness should be flipped to consider institutions, and thus ‘institutional readiness’, rather than solely assessing a community’s capacity to engage in research projects. To investigate institutional readiness in Canada, we surveyed publications resulting from projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Community–University Research Alliances (CURA) programme to look at the frequency of mention of limitations related to institutional readiness versus those related to on-the-ground project specifics. Our findings suggest that institutional factors are major barriers to collaborative research and provide perspective on areas where readiness for repatriation could be built.

This article is a plain language summary of a Master’s thesis, completed in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan in 2020, that aimed to re-asso­ciate fragmented and commingled human remains from an Early Neolithic, about 7560–6660 years before present (HPD cal. BP; Weber et al., 2021; Bronk Ramsey et al. 2021), cemetery in Siberia, Russia. This thesis addressed the inability of existing osteological sorting methods to identify the remains of individuals from a collection that was largely broken and completely mixed. By devel­oping a new multi-method approach, this project was able to identify the remains of seven people through the re-association process, and re-associate five of them. This was fairly close to the minimum number of nine individuals that were confirmed in this collection by counting non-repeating bones. This research has implications for the understanding of the culture-history in this area, the applicability of re-association methods to fragmented and commingled human remains, and efforts of reconciliation and repatriation.