Chronology of the Neolithic Ceramics of Baikal-Yenisei Siberia: Basic Ideas and New Data

Abstract

There are two main research areas in the Neolithic studies of the Baikal-Yenisei Siberia. One of them relates to research of mortuary traditions, another with a research of hunter-gatherer’s campsites. Ceramics is of the greatest importance for the cultural identification of campsites complexes. As a result of the Canadian-Russian project, for the Neolithic burials a clear chronological model based on AMS radiocarbon dates corrected for the freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) was created. There are several hypotheses for ceramic complexes that were proposed, but all of them predominantly were based on the radiocarbon dates obtained by the liquid scintillation counting method. This data cannot be admitted as reliable because of the limitation of this method, the big root-mean-square deviation, and the lack of data on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Over the past few years, we have received in the Keck-CCAMS Group and Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit laboratories 35 new AMS-radiocarbon dates for the complexes with Neolithic ceramics. Samples taken for analyses were obtained from the 14 multilayered sites of the Angara region, Tunka valley, and Lake Baikal coast. They are represented by fragments of teeth, bones, and horns of the mammals (predominantly Cervidae and large ungulates) that accompanied pottery in cultural horizons. In five cases the carbonized organic residues (foodcrusts) from the inner surface of ceramic vessels were used as samples. In one more case, it was a strong humified soil cleaned from impurities. The technical assessment of the reliability of all dates was provided. The definitions obtained for faunal remains look the most correct. Dates obtained for foodcrust are likely significantly older, because of possible FRE influence. The geoarchaeological assessment of new dates and their correlation with the most reliable dates of previous years is provided. Based on the AMC-dating, the following chronometric frames for the Neolithic pottery of the Baikal-Yenisei Siberia are offered: Early Neolithic Net-impressed and the Khaita ceramics in the Angara region – 8539–6914 cal BP, on the Lake Baikal coast – 8160–6960 cal BP, in the Tunka valley – 7843–7681 cal BP; Ust-Belaya ceramics in the Northern Angara region – 7421–7014 cal BP (perhaps the real age is younger), in the Southern Angara region – 6730–6306 cal BP; Posolskaya ceramics on the Lake Baikal coast – 6750–6300 cal BP, in the Southern Angara region – 6730–6306 cal BP; Serovo and Dotted-comb ceramics on the Lake Baikal coast – 5841–4620 cal BP.