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RECONSTRUCTING HUMAN−ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE SIBERIAN ARCTIC AND SUB-ARCTIC: A HOLOCENE OVERVIEW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2023

Yaroslav V Kuzmin Open the ORCID record for Yaroslav V Kuzmin [Opens in a new window]
Yaroslav V Kuzmin*
Affiliation:
Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Koptyug Ave. 3, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
*
*Corresponding author. Emails: kuzmin@fulbrightmail.org; kuzmin_yv@igm.nsc.ru
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Abstract

This paper examines patterns of human–environmental interactions across northern Asia during the Holocene, in order to summarize current knowledge and identify key areas for future research. To achieve these goals, currently available chronological, cultural, and paleoenvironmental datasets from the east Russian Arctic for the last 10,000 14C years were integrated. Study regions include the Taymyr Peninsula, Lena River basin (except its southern part), northeastern Siberia, and Kamchatka Peninsula. Several broad-scale correlations between climatic fluctuations and cultural responses (e.g., subsistence strategies and occupation densities) were identified; however, these are not straightforward. For example, the increase of occupations during the warm periods in the Early–Middle Holocene are notable while the most pronounced rises coincide with a cooling trend in the Late Holocene. This shows that the human–environmental relationships in the Holocene were not linear; more interdisciplinary research will be needed to construct higher resolution data for understanding prehistoric cultural responses to past environmental changes in the Asian Arctic.

Keywords

eastern Russian ArcticHolocenehuman occupationpaleoenvironmentradiocarbon dating
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 2023 , pp. 431 - 442
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press for the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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