Reindeer Imagery in the Making at Ust’-Polui in Arctic Siberia

Abstract

The history of reindeer domestication is a critical topic in the study of human-animal relationships across Northern Eurasia. The Iamal-Nenets region of Arctic Siberia, now a global centre of reindeer pastoralism, has been the subject of much recent research on reindeer domestication. However, tracking the beginnings of reindeer domestication in this region and elsewhere in Eurasia has proved challenging. Archaeological imagery is an under-utilized source of information for exploring animal domestication. In this paper we explore the abundant reindeer imagery found at the Iron Age site of Ust’-Polui in Iamal, dating from ~260 bce to ce 140. While reindeer were hunted in Siberia long before the occupation of Ust’-Polui, portable reindeer imagery appears abruptly at this time period, co-occurring at the site with equipment thought to be for training transport reindeer. Training and working with transport reindeer required long-term engagement with specific animals that became well known and precious to their human keepers. Creating, utilizing and depositing the reindeer imagery objects at Ust’-Polui was a way of acknowledging critical new working relationships with specific domestic reindeer.

The Archaeology of Reindeer Domestication and Herding Practices in Northern Fennoscandia

“…200 BC and AD 160 and resembling those the Nenets use for training draught reindeer have been found on the Yamal Peninsula . They occur at the same time as the increase in portable imagery depicting reindeer (Nomokonova et al 2021). In northern Fennoscandia, sleds similar to later Sámi reindeer sleds have been discovered in graves dating from the 10th century onward (Svestad 2018).…”

“…The directed pathway requires prior familiarity with other domesticated animal economies (Zeder 2012). The directed pathway theory is supported by the earlier adoption of reindeer herding and draught reindeer use in Siberia (Anderson et al 2019;Nomokonova et al 2021), which would then have acted as a potential model for the Sámi to adopt reindeer herding. The possible Siberian genetic origins of Fennoscandian domesticated reindeer (Røed et al 2018) also supports the directed pathway model of reindeer herding among the Sámi.…”

“…Recently, researchers have also argued for an early onset of reindeer herding in the Yamal Peninsula (Anderson et al 2019;. Multiple sources of evidence such as geochemical analyses, objects interpreted as transportation reindeer headgear, and portable reindeer imagery indicate that domesticated reindeer were held and trained there from the early centuries AD (Anderson et al 2019;Nomokonova et al 2021). The reindeer economy seems to have included small-scale reindeer herding as part of a mixed economy of hunting, fishing, fowling, and gathering berries (Anderson et al 2019).…”