Climate and environmental dynamics of the mid- to late Holocene settlement in the Tobol–Ishim forest-steppe region, West Siberia
Introduction
Palynological investigations represent an integral part of modern multidisciplinary environmental archaeology studies. Their application in terms of reconstruction of changing natural habitats of stratified cultural monuments (settlement as well as burial sites) in the Western Siberian Lowlands has been, however, systematically employed relatively recently. This also concerns palynological studies on prehistoric and early historical pastoralist traditions in the Tobol–Ishim parkland-steppe and southern taiga area carried out since the 1990s (Zakh et al., 2008). About 25 investigated principal sites and several deeply stratified turf-lake localities have been subjected to detailed pollen analyses producing rich palaeoclimate and ecology records of the regional inhabitation dynamics of this vast and ecologically productive geographical territory (Fig. 1, Fig. 2).
The present inter-disciplinary environmental archaeology studies are located in the south-western part of the West Siberian Plain, still regarded as “peripheral” in terms of long-term research. The regional occupation history is documented for the last ca. 30 ka, with the earliest Upper Palaeolithic sites distributed along the southern margin of the plain. The multi-proxy palaeoecology studies of the Holocene cultural development in conjunction with the established chronostratigraphy of single sites allow more detailed spatio-temporal reconstructions of the settlement history in the framework of climate evolution and in the context of the associated environmental transformations.
The present paper summarizes the current evidence on the natural changes in the forest-steppe/parkland zone of West Siberia during the last ca. 8500 years. Most information relates to the Sub-Boreal and Sub-Atlantic Periods, corresponding to the time span from the West Siberian Mesolithic through Neolithic, Aeneolithic, Bronze and Iron Age to the Middle Age. Despite the detailed studies, some early occupation time intervals are palynologically less documented due to the reduced availability of the pollen databases and their preservation. The research results suggest that the main factor behind the reconstructed environmental fluctuations and the associated shifts in human occupation was humidity, whereas temperature played only a minor role in this process.
Section snippets
Geography and natural conditions of the study area
The principal study area lies at the SW margin of the West Siberian Plain– a principal physiographic feature of northern Eurasia– a lowland territory delimited by 54–58°N and 63–72°E (Fig. 1). From the west, the area is bordered by the southern/central Ural foothills (Transuralye), from the south by the Palaeozoic hills of Central Kazakhstan, and by the vast lowlands of the Ob and Irtysh Basins from the north and east, respectively. The southern West Siberian territory is a mixing zone of the
Pre-Holocene occupation
In view of the existing evidence, time of the initial peopling of the south-western part of West Siberia is linked to the mid-Last Glacial interstadial interval (MIS 3). A most distinct complex of open-air Upper Palaeolithic localities in the Sosva River basin at the western periphery of the West Siberian Plain (Central Trans-Urals) located NW of the Tobol–Ishim region in the present southern taiga zone, attest, in conjunction with the associated ivory/bone and stone industry, to the presence
Late Boreal to early Atlantic periods
From the Late Boreal to the Boreal/Atlantic transition period (ca. 8500–7700 BP), corresponding to the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic stages, birch forests with admixture of alder and pine in the northern regions, analogous to the modern northern forest-steppe area, largely prevailed. Pine forests almost disappeared in the southern parkland zone. This time period, corresponding to the Boreal climatic optimum, was warmer and more humid comparing to the present. Natural conditions in West
Conclusion
The present environmental archaeology multi-proxy records provide eloquent evidence of a close dependence of palaeoclimatic conditions and early occupation migrations with specific economic adaptive patterns in the Tobol–Ishim region of Western Siberia, reflecting landscape dynamics and availability of natural resources as well as scale and intensity of broader territorial cultural interactions. Pollen spectra from the investigated stratified archaeological sites and turf sections indicate the
Acknowledgments
The Quaternary and environmental archaeology studies in the Tobol–Ishim area of West Siberia were supported by the Institute of Northern Development, the Siberian Branch of RAS, Tyumen.
References (28)
- et al.
Correlation and paleomagnetism of glacial and loess–paleosol sequences on the West Siberian Plain
Quaternary International
(2000) - et al.
The chronology of a large ice-dammed lake and the Barents-Kara Ice Sheet advances, Northern Russia
Global and Planetary Change
(2001) - et al.
Climate changes in East Europe and Siberia at the Late glacial–Holocene transition
Quaternary International
(2002) - et al.
The Krasnoozernoe culture in the Irtysh River area
The Quaternary Period in Western Siberia
(1971)Chronostratigraphy of the Pleistocene Siberia
Geologia i Geofizika
(1989)- et al.
Palaeogeography of the Western Siberian Lowlands during the Maximum Late Zyryansk Glaciation
(1980) - et al.
Age of mammoth fauna on the lower Ob
Doklady Akademii Nauk
(2004) The Trans-Ural Region on the Crossroads of the Bronze and Iron Ages (Gamaynskaya Culture)
(1992)- Chlachula, J., Serikov, Yu.B. Last glacial ecology and geoarchaeology of Central Transural area: the Sosva River Upper...
Main types of vegetation (ecosystems) during maximum cooling of the last glaciation
History of pine islands in Kazakhstan during the Holocene
Botanical Journal
The First Occupants in the Forests of the Trans-Urals
Radiocarbon age and chronology problems of archaeological monuments of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age in the south of the Tyumen region
Cited by (43)
Mid to late Holocene paleoenvironmental changes in the southern forest border of Western Siberia inferred from pollen data
2022, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, PalaeoecologyThe influence of ice sheet and solar insolation on Holocene moisture evolution in northern Central Asia
2021, Earth-Science ReviewsThe emergence of hunter-gatherer pottery in the Urals and West Siberia: New dating and stable isotope evidence
2020, Journal of Archaeological Science2000 years of variability in hydroclimate and carbon accumulation in western Siberia and the relationship with large-scale atmospheric circulation: A multi-proxy peat record
2019, Quaternary Science ReviewsCitation Excerpt :Increased snow accumulation and the growth of glaciers was observed between 1350–1450 CE and 1600–1950 CE in Asian high-altitude regions (Seong et al., 2009), whereas a cool and humid period between 1400 and 1900 CE has been widely documented in arid Central Asia (Chen et al., 2010). On the other hand, our wet mire surface during the LIA contrasts with a dry mire surface inferred from the Mukhrino Bog complex 200 km west of our site (Lamentowicz et al., 2015), permafrost peatlands in northern Siberia (Zhang et al., 2018), peat records in south-western Siberia (Zakh et al., 2010) as well as most of central European peatland records (Fig. 8B). Interestingly, we also identified a markedly dry event around 1550 CE (Fig. 7), which may be synchronous with an extremely warm and dry episode observed between 1540–1600 CE in the Altai Mountains (Eichler et al., 2011) and Central Asia (Ge et al., 2010), and suggested to be a response to the strengthening of the Siberian High (Fig. 8B).
The extinction of the giant deer Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach): New radiocarbon evidence
2019, Quaternary International