Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-28T09:01:50.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CHRONOLOGY OF THE VOLCHIA GRIVA MEGAFAUNAL LOCALITY AND PALEOLITHIC SITE (WESTERN SIBERIA) AND THE ISSUE OF HUMAN OCCUPATION OF SIBERIA AT THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2023

Yaroslav V Kuzmin Open the ORCID record for Yaroslav V Kuzmin [Opens in a new window] ,
Sergey V Leshchinskiy ,
Vasily N Zenin ,
Elena M Burkanova ,
Elya P Zazovskaya Open the ORCID record for Elya P Zazovskaya [Opens in a new window]  and
Aleksandra S Samandrosova
Yaroslav V Kuzmin*
Affiliation:
Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
Sergey V Leshchinskiy
Affiliation:
Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
Vasily N Zenin
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
Elena M Burkanova
Affiliation:
Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
Elya P Zazovskaya
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Aleksandra S Samandrosova
Affiliation:
Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
*
*Corresponding author. Emails: kuzmin@fulbrightmail.org; kuzmin_yv@igm.nsc.ru
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A summary of the chronology for the key paleontological and archaeological site of Volchia Griva in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain is presented. Currently, 42 reliable 14C values have been generated on animal bones (37 14C dates) and charcoal (5 14C dates). Three stratigraphic levels of animal bones are established. The 14C ages of the fossils are as follows: the upper level—ca. 10,620–12,520 BP; the middle level—ca. 13,700–17,800 BP; and the lower level—ca. 18,230–19,790 BP. The majority of animal fossils and artifacts are associated with the lower level. Based on the results obtained, we suggest that Upper Paleolithic people occupied the Volchia Griva site during the second part of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ca. 18,200–19,800 BP, and perhaps occasionally afterwards. It is obvious that these humans were well adapted to the cold and dry climate of the LGM, as well as numerous other populations in Siberia south of 58°N. It is noteworthy that the youngest 14C values on woolly mammoth are of ca. 10,620–11,815 BP, and this makes the Volchia Griva one of the latest mammoth refugia in northern Eurasia outside of the Arctic.

Keywords

chronologyLast Glacial MaximummegafaunaUpper PaleolithicVolchia GrivaWestern Siberia
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , First View , pp. 1 - 13
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of University of Arizona

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 24th Radiocarbon and 10th Radiocarbon & Archaeology International Conferences, Zurich, Switzerland, 11–16 Sept. 2022

References

REFERENCES

Buvit, I, Rasic, JT, Izuho, M. 2022. Archaeological evidence shows widespread human depopulation of Last Glacial Maximum Northeast Asia. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14:125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derev’anko, A, Markin, S. 1998. The Paleolithic of the Western Siberian Plain. In: Derev’anko, AP, Shimkin, DB, Powers, WR, editors. The Paleolithic of Siberia: new discoveries and interpretations. Urbana, IL & Chicago: University of Illinois Press. p. 79–84.Google Scholar
Graf, KE. 2005. Abandonment of the Siberian mammoth-steppe during the LGM: evidence from the calibration of 14C-dated archaeological occupations. Current Research in the Pleistocene 22:2–5.Google Scholar
Graf, KE. 2015. Modern human response to the Last Glacial Maximum in Siberia. In: Kaifu, Y, Izuho, M, Sato, H, Ono, A, editors. Emergence and diversity of modern human behavior in Paleolithic Asia. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. p. 506–531.Google Scholar
Hoffecker, JF. 2005. Prehistory of the North: human settlement of the higher latitudes. New Brunswick (NJ): Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Kobe, F, Leipe, C, Shchetnikov, AA, Hoelzmann, P, Gliwa, J, Olschewski, P, Goslar, T, Wagner, M, Bezrukova, EV, Tarasov, PE. 2022. Not herbs and forbs alone: pollen-based evidence for the presence of boreal trees and shrubs in Cis-Baikal (Eastern Siberia) derived from the Last Glacial Maximum sediment of Lake Ochaul. Journal of Quaternary Science 37(5):868–883.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krivonogov, SK, Takahara, H, Kuzmin, YV, Orlova, LA, Jull, AJT, Nakamura, T, Miyoshi, N, Kawamuro, K., Bezrukova, EV. 2004. Radiocarbon chronology of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene paleogeographic events in Lake Baikal region (Siberia). Radiocarbon 46(2):745–754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2008. Siberia at the Last Glacial Maximum: environment and archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 16(2):163–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2010. The extinction of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) in Eurasia: review of chronological and environmental issues. Boreas 39(2):247–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, YV. 2021. Ancient humans in Siberia during the Last Glacial Maximum: development of opinions in the last 40 years. Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 2:28–36. In Russian with English abstract.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Boudin, M, Wojcieszak, M, Zazzo, A, van der Sluis, L, Stulova, DI, Gavrilov, KN, Veselovskaya, EV, Vasilyev, SV. 2022. Sungir revisited: new data on chronology and stratigraphy of the key Upper Paleolithic site, central Russian Plain. Radiocarbon 64(5):949–968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Keates, SG. 2018. Siberia and neighboring regions in the Last Glacial Maximum: did people occupy northern Eurasia at that time? Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 10(1):111–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Kosintsev, PA, Boudin, M, Zazovskaya, EP. 2020. The freshwater reservoir effect in northern West Siberia: 14C and stable isotope data for fish from the late medieval town of Mangazeya. Quaternary Geochronology 60:101109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Orlova, LA. 2004. Radiocarbon chronology and environment of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.) in northern Asia: results and perspectives. Earth-Science Reviews 68(1–2):133–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambeck, K, Rouby, H, Purcell, A, Sun, Y, Sambridge, M. 2014. Sea level and global ice volumes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 111(43):15296–15303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leshchinskiy, SV, Burkanova, EM. 2022. The Volchia Griva mineral oasis as unique locus for research of the mammoth fauna and the Late Pleistocene environment in Northern Eurasia. Quaternary Research 109:157–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leshchinskiy, SV, Kuzmin, YV, Zenin, VN, Jull, AJT. 2008. Radiocarbon chronology of the “mammoth cemetery” and Paleolithic site of Volchia Griva (Western Siberia). Current Research in the Pleistocene 25:53–56.Google Scholar
Leshchinskiy, SV, Zenin, VN, Bukharova, OV. 2021. The Volchia Griva mammoth site as a key area for geoarchaeological research of human movements in the Late Paleolithic of the West Siberian Plain. Quaternary International 587–588:368–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leshchinskiy, SV, Zenin, VN, Burkanova, EM, Kuzmin, YV. 2023. The unique Late Paleolithic artifactual bone assemblage from the Volchia Griva site, Western Siberia. Quaternary Research 114:93–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, S, Tarasov, PE, Hoelzmann, P, Bezrukova, EV, Kossler, A, Krivonogov, SK. 2014. Stable vegetation and environmental conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum: new results from Lake Kotokel (Lake Baikal region, southern Siberia, Russia). Quaternary International 348:14–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orlova, LA, Kuzmin, YV, Dementiev, VN. 2004a. A review of the evidence for extinction chronologies for five species of Upper Pleistocene megafauna in Siberia. Radiocarbon 46(1):301–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orlova, LA, Kuzmin, YV, Zenin, VN, Dement’ev, VN. 2003. The mammoth population (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.) in Northern Asia: dynamics and habitat conditions in the Late Glacial. Russian Geology and Geophysics 44(8):774–783.Google Scholar
Orlova, LA, Zenin, VN, Stuart, AJ, Higham, TFG, Grootes, PM, Leshchinsky, SV, Kuzmin, YV, Pavlov, AF, Maschenko, EN. 2004b. Lugovskoe, Western Siberia: a possible extra-Arctic mammoth refugium at the end of the Late Glacial. Radiocarbon 46(1):363–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ovodov, ND, Crockford, SJ, Kuzmin, YV, Higham, TFG, Hodgins, GWL, van der Plicht, J. 2011. A 33,000-year-old incipient dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: evidence of the earliest domestication disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum. PLoS ONE 6(7):e22821.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pavlova, EY, Pitulko, VV. 2020. Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene climate changes and human habitation in the arctic Western Beringia based on revision of palaeobotanical data. Quaternary International 549:5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitulko, VV, Pavlova, EY. 2020. Colonization of the Eurasian Arctic. In: Goldstein, MI, DellaSala, DA, editors. Encyclopedia of the World’s Biomes. Volume 2. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p. 374–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitulko, V, Pavlova, E, Nikolskiy, P. 2017. Revising the archaeological record of the Upper Pleistocene Arctic Siberia: human dispersal and adaptations in MIS 3 and 2. Quaternary Science Reviews 165:127–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puzachenko, AY, Markova, AK, Kosintsev, PA, van Kolfschoten, T, van der Plicht, J, Kuznetsova, TV, Tikhonov, AN, Ponomarev, DV, Kuitems, M, Bachura, OP. 2017. The Eurasian mammoth distribution during the second half of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene: regional aspects. Quaternary International 445:71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seuru, S, Leshchinskiy, S, Auguste, P, Fedyaev, N. 2017. Woolly mammoth and man at Krasnoyarskaya Kurya site, West Siberian plain, Russia (excavation results of 2014). Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France 188(1–2):1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, AJ. 2021. Vanished giants: the lost world of the Ice Age. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, AJ, Sulerzhitsky, LD, Orlova, LA, Kuzmin, YV, Lister, AM. 2002. The latest woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach) in Europe and Asia: a review of the current evidence. Quaternary Science Reviews 21(7):1559–1569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarasov, PE, Ilyashuk, BP, Leipe, C, Müller, S, Plessen, B, Hoelzmann, P, Kostrova, SS, Bezrukova, EV, Meyer, H. 2019. Insight into the Last Glacial Maximum climate and environments of the Baikal region. Boreas 48(2):488–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, RE, Bar-Yosef, O. 2014. Radiocarbon dating: an archaeological perspective. 2nd edit. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Zenin, VN. 2002. Major stages in the human occupation of the West Siberian Plain during the Paleolithic. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 3(4):22–44.Google Scholar