Early prehistoric cultural connections: Siberia and beyond.

Ackerman, Robert E.

JOHN F. HOFFECKER & SCOTT A. ELIAS. Human ecology of Beringia, xiv+290 pages, 82 illustrations. 2010. New York: Columbia University Press; 978-0-231-13060-8 hardback 34.50 [pounds sterling].

DON E. DUMOND & RICHARD L. BLAND (ed.). Archaeology in Northeast Asia: on the pathway to Bering Strait (University of Oregon Archaeological Papers 65). vi + 228 pages, 62 illustrations, 22 tables. 2006. Eugene (OR): Museum of Natural and Cultural History & Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon; no ISBN paperback $18.

MARGARITA A. KIRYAK (DIKOVA) trans. & ed. by RICHARD L. BLAND & YAROSLAV V. KUZMIN. The Stone Age of Chukotka, northeastern Siberia (new materials) (British Archaeological Reports International Series 2099). ix+270 pages, 151 illustrations. 2010. Oxford: Archaeopress; 978-1-4073-0575-2 paperback 47 [pounds sterling].

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The three volumes above present an overview of the archaeological cultures of Northeast Asia anda brief coverage of those in Alaska. This is a remote region, many parts of which are still difficult to access. Much remains unknown, but the information contained in these volumes materially adds to the developing picture of the movement of prehistoric hunter-gatherers into northern Asia, their cultural connections over time and the ultimate spread of peoples and cultural complexes to the New World.

Human ecology of Beringia

Hoffecker and Elias in their first two chapters set out what they consider to be the extent of Beringia: a continuous landmass extending from the Kolyma River in Siberia in the west (western Beringia) to the MacKenzie River in the Yukon Territory of Canada in the east (eastern Beringia) including the areas of what is now the Bering and Chukchi seas (central Beringia), a dry land 'bridge' created by lowered sea levels during the late Pleistocene (marine isotope stage 2 [MIS 2] in 28 000-12 000 cal BP). The southern boundary of this realm was arbitrarily set at 60[degrees] Latitude North as the authors felt that the areas to the north of 60[degrees] would have required special survival skills--not available until well after 20 000 years ago--to adapt to the extreme conditions of the early part of the MIS 2 interval. The authors do note that when conditions were warmer, such as in the latter part of MIS 3 (60 000-28 000 cal BP) hunter-gatherers did occupy the Yana RHS site (71[degrees] N) by c. 30 000 cal BP. They, however, dismiss the evidence for the Diring Yuriak site at 61[degrees] N occupied c. 260 000 years ago during the Mindel-Riss (MIS 11) interglacial as there were doubts concerning the authenticity of the site. Having seen the Diring Yuriak site and able testify as to the placement of artefact clusters and to the validity of the lithic assemblage, I would take issue with the authors on this point.

With the southern boundary of western Beringia set at 60[degrees] N, those areas of Yakutia such as the Aldan River drainage occupied during the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) (25 000-20 000 cal BP) were not included in the scheme of the permanent settlement of Beringia. The authors propose in chapter 3, as have others, that Siberia north of 60[degrees] was abandoned during the extreme cold of MIS 2 and that a permanent occupation of Beringia did not occur until favourable climatic and vegetation changes occurred around 16 000-15 000 cal BP. This presents a bit of a paradox as the cold and dry period of the LGM would have promoted a steppe or tundra-steppe environment favourable to large grazing animals such as mammoth and bison. They argue that while food supplies would have been available, there would have been insufficient woody plants to start fires, particularly if a high heat was needed when animal bones were used as fuel. On the whole, I, with others, would prefer a 'broader' or 'mega' Beringia extending southwards to include the Aldan River region and perhaps a bit further south to avoid some of the problems of an environment being too harsh to enter until hunter-gatherers possessed the required cultural inventory or delaying their entry until the climate changed.

By 14 000-13 000 cal BP, hunter-gatherer populations had reached the northern and eastern shores of present-day Northeast Asia (chapter 4). From Kamchatka and the Chukchi Peninsula it was a relatively short run to Alaska where complexes of frontally-fluted, wedge-shaped microblade cores with or without bifacial points have been found on sites dating to as early as c. 14 000 cal BP. The authors provide, as they have with the complexes of Northeast Asia, a good overview of the early Alaskan cultural horizons (chapter 5).

I found their discussion of the Younger Dryas and the end of Beringia around 12 800 to 11 300 cal BP (chapters 6 and 7) of particular interest although there are a few bits of information that should be added. There is a tendency to regard the early Alaskan bifacial points and previously undated fluted points as originating in Paleo-Indian complexes to the south. While it is not (yet) possible to rule out such early northward movements of Plains bison hunters, it should be noted that fluted points from the Serpentine Hot Springs site on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska have been dated to 11 400-11 200 cal BP (Smith et al. 2010); this, if attributed to the northern Plains bison hunters, would have required a fast trek northwards. A second point is that the recovery of microblades in what have been considered Nenana assemblages requires reconsidering the Nenana complex as either part of a greater Denali or Beringian tradition, as some have suggested, or its temporal equivalent.

Hoffecker and Elias' well-written volume is a thorough discussion of the landscape, climate, vegetation, and fauna of what was once Beringia as well as a more than adequate discussion of sites, artefact complexes and their places in Northeast Asia and Alaska. It provides good coverage for both the interested layman and the professional investigator.

Archaeology in Northeast Asia

The second volume is a compendium of varied fare separated into four sections: 'The Palaeolithic', 'The dissemination of obsidian', 'Pottery prehistory' and 'Bering Strait and eastward'. The editors, Dumond and Bland (the latter translated the papers by Russian authors), provide an introductory commentary that helps to put the entire volume into perspective.

The Palaeolithic

The first paper, by Slobodin, is a summary of research on the Palaeolithic of western Beringia, i.e. the region east of the Verkhoyansk Range (watersheds of the Indigirka and Kolyma rivers, Chukotka, Kamchatka and the continental margins of the Okhotsk Sea (Priokhote)). For the western part of Beringia, Slobodin had proposed three technological traditions: (1) pebble tools; (2) bifacial tools with no microblades; and (3) microblades detached from wedge-shaped microblade cores. The pebble tool tradition as an early cultural tradition is questionable: on some sites in Siberia; such tools cannot be distinguished from naturally rolled cobbles from streambeds, and pebble tools in the Northwest Coast culture area of North America occur in all periods, being just all-purpose tools. Slobodin correctly concludes that pebble or cobble core tools by themselves are not evidence of antiquity. Traditions without microblades, as evidenced by the stemmed point complex in Layer VII of the Ushki I site (11 300-11 000 cal BP) on Kamchatka, and the bifacial industry of the Yana RHS site (27 000 cal BP) represent early entries into Siberia, bur what their relationships with other industries are remains uncertain. The spread of microblade traditions throughout Northeast Asia and into Alaska is, in contrast, well documented. Among many detailed observations made by Slobodin, his suggestion that microblade technology spread from the Lower Amur River Palaeolithic into the Okhotsk-Kolyma highlands and not from the Dyuktai culture to the west is worthy of further consideration.

Kiryak then presents archaeological complexes of the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary in Western Chukotka. Her 'early complexes' at the sites of Mount Kymynekei and Orlovka II are open to interpretation and are unlikely to be the earliest proven sites in Chukotka. The Tytyl'vaam site complex is on the other hand of great importance for the late Upper Palaeolithic of western Chukotka. This will be discussed in more detail when reviewing Kyriak's book below.

In the third paper, Slobodin provides a detailed description of the geography and geomorphology of the Okhotsk-Kolyma uplands and the Bol'shaya Khaya River valley where the Khaya IV site is located. Here surface and later excavated finds revealed a great variety of lithic types, which makes the assemblage of this site difficult to date, bur likely to indicate a late Upper Palaeolithic presence rather than a Mesolithic or Neolithic one. The illustrations provided by the author tend to support this conclusion.

Obsidian

The distribution of obsidian from sources in the Maritime District of Russia and Kamchatka is ably presented in two papers by Kuzmin and by Glascock et al. It is evident from the data provided by Kuzmin that there were several obsidian exchange networks in Japan as early as 33 000-30 000 cal BP and in the Russian Far East and Korea between 24 000 and 10 000 cal BE Kuzmin, who suggests that obsidian was critical for the manufacture of microblades in the Maritime District of Russia, provides some of the first data on the distances over which obsidian resources were exchanged (e.g. 200-300km by 15 000 cal BP for obsidian from the Shkotovo Plateau in the southern Maritime District of Russia, or obsidian from the Paektusan volcano on the China-North Korean border found on a Korean site dating to c. 24 000 cal BP and exchanged over a distance of 200-700km by 10 000 cal BP).

Glascock et al. concentrate on obsidian sources in the Kamchatka Peninsula. A rare occurrence in Layer VII of the Ushki I site (11 300-10 000 cal BP), by Layer Vi times (11 000-10 000 cal BP) it had become more common. On some Neolithic sites, obsidian tools make up more than 90 per cent of the assemblage. The bulk of the data on obsidian exchanges comes from the Neolithic period where distances from the sources ranged from 90 to 470km. During the following Palaeo-metal period obsidian was obtained from sources 450 to 560km away.

These two papers clearly demonstrate that the prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups in the Russian Far East and Northeast Asia were not isolated but involved in extensive trade networks linking together a number of different cultural groups, often over considerable distances.

Pottery

Three papers in this section each provide different views on the extent and significance of ceramics. Zhushchikovskaya and Subina's contribution is a detailed exposition of ceramics on Sakhalin Island. From pit house sites, along with chipped stone tools and ground stone rods, organic-tempered pottery formed by slab construction (four-sided pots) was recovered, a very unusual form of pottery construction reminding the authors of wood or bark containers. Radiocarbon determinations obtained for the Middle Neolithic of southern Sakhalin were 6740[+ or -]150 and 5648[+ or *]490 BP. Later complexes featured pots with sand or shell temper, curved to bi-conate sides and flat bottoms, coil-built and with a variety of surface decorations. The later Aniva ceramic culture (2710-2250 cal BP) contained wares similar to those of the Epi-Jomon on Hokkaido suggesting the movement of people out of Hokkaido to the south-eastern part of Sakhalin Island around the middle of the first millennium BC.

Ponkratova then takes us to the northern part of the Russian Far East, to the Kolyma River basin, Chukotka, the coasts and islands of the Okhotsk Sea regions and into the Bering Sea and Kamchatka. She introduces a great range of pottery traditions and cultural connections, from the fourth and third millennia BC to the eighteenth century AD, noting, for example, a widespread ceramic tradition extending from the Lake Baikal region through Yakutia and into Chukotka and Alaska around the second to first millennia BC. In the latter sections of her paper Ponkratova provides an important discussion of the functions of pottery and an exploration of historical documents relating to the replacement of pottery by metal containers introduced by Russian traders.

The bluff overlooking the Ekven settlement on the Chukchi Peninsula (paper by Gelbert Miemon) contained ceramics from Eskimo cultural complexes (Old Bering Sea, Okvik, Birnirk, Punuk and Thule) dating roughly between 400 BC and AI) 1690. The variety of different methods of pottery making and surface treatment are described in detail, a welcome addition to the literature as descriptions of ceramics in Old Eskimo cultures are relatively rare.

Bering Strait eastward

The final section of the volume includes three contributions of wider range. Khassanov and Savinetsky note that in the radiocarbon method of age determination there have been noticeable differences in ages provided by the dating of marine mammals and molluscs and those obtained from terrestrial resources (wood, plants, animals). This difference, the 'reservoir effect', is due to the ingestion of old carbon by the denizens of the sea. Each geographic area tends to have its own 'rate' and often needs to be locally derived. The authors determined that a AR value (regional correction factor) of 188[+ or -]27 years for the northern part of the Bering Sea needed to be added to the already established marine reservoir effect of 400 years on the calibration curves. Such a value would provide a more accurate age determination when using marine resources for dating.

Reports on the archaeology of Wrangel Island have featured the Chertov Ovrag (Devil's Ravine) site initially tested by the late N.N. Dikov in 1975. I became tangentially involved when I suggested that the assemblage was similar (to an extent) to that from the Old Whaling complex at Cape Krusenstern, Alaska. The two sites were also close to being comparable in age. Gerasimov et al. present additional materials from an expedition in 2000. The artefacts recovered consisted of chipped stone tools and flakes that appear to have resulted from the trimming of ground stone tools. New dates of 3265[+ or -]65 BP (walrus bone) and 3345[+ or -]70 BP (wood) were obtained. The authors reject the notion that the Chertov Ovrag and Old Whaling complex are possible variants of an archaic form of the Choris culture and with that I would agree.

Dumond's 'backward glance' doses the volume with an appraisal of the papers. The question of the nature of the tool kit that accompanied the earliest humans into the Americas is explored with emphasis on well-dated site evidence. He notes in passing that the earlier 'pre-projectile point' and 'pebble tool tradition' complex have not survived the test of time. Fluted points in Alaska are considered, bur Dumond, as of the time of publication, did not have access to information from the Serpentine Springs site. Questions surrounding microblade cultural complexes in Alaska have found satisfactory answers, whereas the question of what is earlier than microblades in Alaska and adjacent territories remains unresolved. The discussion of pottery making includes an interesting correlation between temper and surface treatment. I was particularly interested in Dumond's assessment of the relationship between the Chertov Ovrag and Old Whaling sites. His conclusion is that both sites reveal that there were people north of the Bering Strait around 3000 years ago and that it is not surprising that the technology found at the two sites was comparable while less than identical. Archaeology in Northeast Asia is a volume bursting with new information brought together in one place. There is a great deal of technological data here: the University of Oregon Anthropological Papers series have uniformly been of high calibre, though not intended for a general readership. That said, I highly recommend it to the more serious scholar.

The Stone Age of Chukotka

The final volume under review, Margarita Kiryak's The Stone Age of Chukotka, translated and edited by Bland and Kuzmin, has been left to the last as it represents the unique contribution of a well-established scholar who has delved into the prehistory of western Chukotka for the last quarter century. It also gives the first opportunity for English-speaking readers to learn about extensive archaeological research in north-eastern Siberia, past and present. I shall not attempt to provide a detailed coverage of the many sites and archaeological complexes provided bur will pick out those that I think best illustrate the sequence of cultural traditions in this region.

The oldest site in western Chukotka (Orlovka II) was discovered during a survey in 1980 on the Orlovka River, a tributary of the Bol'shoi Anyui River, itself a tributary to the Kolyma River that empties into the Arctic Ocean. The site consists of two components: (1) a lower component with cobble cores from which blades were detached, scrapers, blade fragments, lamellar flakes, burins, split cobbles (core preforms?) and flaking debris; and (2) an upper component with knife-like blades and microblades probably detached from prismatic, conical and possibly wedge-shaped cores. Pressure retouch was found on some of the artefacts. The site has not been dated, but Kiryak suggests that the lower assemblage should date to the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic, if not earlier, and is, in her regard, the earliest site found in western Chukotka. The upper component could date well within the Upper Palaeolithic.

Other Upper Palaeolithic sites are those of Tytyl'vaam II-V and Podgornaya, located above 67[degrees] N along the Tyryl'vaam River that flows into Lake Tytyl at the headwaters of the Malyi Anyui River (another tributary to the Kolyma River). Kiryak notes a close correspondence of these western Chukotkan Upper Palaeolithic assemblages with those of the Dyuktai culture in Yakutia and those of Layer VI at the Ushki I site in Kamchatka. She thus posits an interaction sphere at the end of the Pleistocene extending from Yakutia, north to western Chukotka and then east to Kamchatka. For a time frame, she notes that Layer VI of the Ushki I site has radiocarbon determinations of 10 800[+ or -]400 and 10 360[+ or -]345 BP.

Of particular importance is her detailed coverage of the Sumnagin culture complex in Northeast Asia. This complex, well known in Yakutia, follows the Dyuktai complex and is distinguished by the absence of a bifacial industry with the majority of microblades and blades detached from prismatic to conical cores with some of the more prismatic cores reduced to elongated fluted rods referred to as 'pencil-shaped' cores. At the sites of Tytyl I, III and IV, Kiryak recovered transitional core forms as well as more typical Sumnagin cores identifying the sites as early Mesolithic. Core tablets, removed in core rejuvenation, were later used for scrapers. Scrapers were also made on blades. An estimated date of 9000 to 8000 years ago has been advanced for the early Mesolithic, following the Tytyl'vaam Upper Palaeolithic radiocarbon dated to 9820[+ or -]40, 9790[+ or -]60 and 9725[+ or -]45 BP. Kiryak additionally noted similarities between the artefact complexes of the Tytyl sites and those of Ust' Timpton in Yakutia that has a radiocarbon date of 9000[+ or -]100 BP. Early to late Mesolithic complexes are marked by the appearance of arrowheads made on thin blades and knife-like forms. The late Mesolithic of Northeast Asia ended about 7000 years ago to be followed by the early Neolithic 6000 years ago with transitional phases between 7000 and 6000 years ago.

Kiryak's discussion of the late Neolithic illustrates another instance of well-established cultural linkages between Yakutia (Ymyyakhtakh culture) and the western region of Chukotka (Rauchuvagytgyn site above the Arctic Circle and the Bol'shoi Elgakhchan site on the Omolon River c. 100km from the boundary of western Chukotka). Kiryak notes: 'The territorial depth of penetration of the Ymyyakhtakh people and their long (at least 1000 years) existence in the continental regions of the northern Far East is evidenced by hunting equipment found at the mouth of the Bol'shoi El'gakhchan River' (p. 91). As is characteristic of moose and reindeer hunters there was no ceramic evidence, but the stone and bone artefacts in a cache at the Bol'shoi El'gakhchan site were typical of the Ymyyakhtakh culture.

I have drawn attention to the sites and complexes that provide links between Yakutia, western and eastern Chukotka and Kamchatka during the Upper Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the late Neolithic to illustrate that even in a very remote region, as attested by Kiryak's difficulty in reaching some areas, there were communications or exchange networks across vast areas. These northern peoples were not isolated, but were participants in a greater cultural landscape with worldviews not often ascribed to hunter-gatherers.

Kiryak concludes with a lengthy discussion of the 'Yukaghir Problem': who were the early hunting and gathering peoples found along the northern river courses of Siberia? The archaeological data leads her to suggest that the spread of the Ymyyakhtakh culture was associated with the distribution of Yukaghir peoples. Further data on the placement of the Yukaghir, their ethnic relations and their possible places of origin is explored through ethnographic, linguistic and biological studies. For those interested in clothing, styles of decoration and cultural belief patterns, this is a treasure trove of information.

The Stone Age of Chukotka provides, for the first time, a vast amount of information on the periodisation of archaeological complexes in Northeast Asia. It is a very impressive contribution, one that requires close reading and evaluation, but is well worth the effort. Archaeopress are to be commended for publishing this important report and praised for including the 113 line drawings that supplement the text.

This has been a long journey over wide temporal dimensions, beginning with a land before human entry (Beringia) and then with an early human presence by at least 30 000 years ago. This presence continued through the various phases of the Upper Palaeolithic to Palaeo-metal complexes on either side of the Bering Strait. There are obviously many questions yet to be answered and I have tried to note some of them. Ali the authors are to be commended for their efforts and I am particularly indebted to Kiryak for pulling together a compendium of archaeological sites and inventories from Northeast Asia. Overall, for this reviewer, it has been a welcome journey into the past.

Reference

SMITH, H., T. GOEBEL & A. YOUNIE. 2010. Update on continuing excavations at the Serpentine Hot Springs Site, BEN-192, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska, in Abstracts of 18th Arctic Conference. Brywn Mawr College (PA).

Robert E. Ackerman, * Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4910, USA (Email: ackermanr@wsu.edu)