Prehistoric Siberia

The Prehistory of Siberia is marked by several archaeologically distinct cultures. In the Chalcolithic, the cultures of western and southern Siberia were pastoralists, while the eastern taiga and the tundra were dominated by hunter-gatherers until the Late Middle Ages and even beyond. Substantial changes in society, economics and art indicate the development of nomadism in the Central Asian steppes in the first millennium BC.

History of research

Scholarly research of the archaeological background of the region between the Urals and the Pacific began in the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), who ordered the collection of Scythian gold hoards and thereby rescued the contents of several robbed graves before they were melted down. During his reign, several expeditions were charged with the scientific, anthropological and linguistic research of Siberia, including the Second Kamchatka Expedition of the Danish-born Russian Vitus Bering (1733-1743). Scholars also took an interest in archaeology and carried out the first archaeological excavations of Siberian kurgans. After a temporary reduction of interest in the first half of the nineteenth century, archaeological research in Siberia reached new heights in the late nineteenth century. Excavations were particularly intense in South Siberia and Central Asia. The results of the October Revolution 1917 created different, often restricted, conditions for archaeological research, but led to even larger projects, especially rescue excavations as a result of gigantic building projects. Eventually, even remote areas of the Soviet Union such as Sakha and Chukotka, were archaeologically explored. After the Second World War, these developments continued. Following the Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, much more intensive collaboration with the west became possible.

Topography

Siberia is characterised by a great deal of variety in climate, vegetation, and landscape. In the west, it is bordered by the Ural Mountains. From there, the west Siberian lowlands extend to the east, all the way to the river Yenisei. Beyond this are the central Siberian highlands which are bordered on the east by the basin of the Lena River, beyond that are the northeast Siberian highlands. Siberia is bordered on the south by a rough chain of mountains and to the southwest by the hills of the Kazakh border. The climate is very variable. Yakutia, northeast of the Lena, is among the coldest places on Earth, but every year temperatures may vary for more than 70 °C, from as low as −50 °C in winter to over +20 °C in summer. The rainfall is very low. This is true of the southwest as well, where steppes, deserts and semi-deserts border on one another.

Agriculture is only possible in Siberia without artificial irrigation today between 50° and 60° north. The climatic situation is responsible for the different biomes of the region. In the northernmost section, there is tundra with minimal vegetation. The largest part of Siberia, aside from the mountainous regions, is taiga, northern coniferous forests. In the southwest this becomes forested steppe, and even further south it transitions to grass steppes and the central Asian desert. Before the beginning of the
Holocene about 12,000 years ago, the situation was different. During the Weichselian glaciation (from before 115,000 years ago until 15,000 years ago), the tundra extended much further south and an ice sheet covered the Urals and the area to the east of the lower Yenisei.

Historical overview

Paleolithic

Late Paleolithic southern Siberians appear to be related to Paleolithic Europeans and the Paleolithic Jōmon people of Japan. Various scholars point out similarities between the Jōmon and Paleolithic and Bronze Age Siberians. A genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 gene frequencies links the Ainu people and some Indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially populations on the Pacific Northwest Coast such as Tlingit, to Paleolithic southern Siberians.

Mesolithic to Neolithic (until c. 2400 BC)

Finds from the Lower Paleolithic appear to be attested between east Kazakhstan and Altai. The burial of a Neanderthal child found in 1938 shows similarities with the Mousterian of Iraq and Iran. In the Upper Palaeolithic, by contrast, most remains are found in the Urals, where, among other things, rock carvings depicting mammoths are found, in Altai, on the upper Yenissei, west of Lake Baikal and around 25,000 on the shore of the Laptev Sea, north of the Arctic Circle. The remains of huts have been found in the settlement of Mal'ta near Irkutsk. Sculptures of animals and women (Venus figurines) recall the European Upper Palaeolithic. The Siberian Palaeolithic continues well into the European Mesolithic. In the postglacial period, the taiga developed. Microliths, which are common elsewhere, have not been found.

In North Asia, the Neolithic (c. 5500–3400 BC) is mostly a chronological term, since there is no evidence for agriculture or even pastoralism in Siberia during the central European Neolithic. However, the Neolithic cultures of North Asia are distinguished from the preceding Mesolithic cultures and far more visible as a result of the introduction of pottery.

Southwest Siberia reached a Neolithic cultural level during the Chalcolithic, which began here towards the end of the fourth millennium BC, which roughly coincided with the introduction of copper–working. In the northern and eastern regions, there is no detectable change.

Bronze Age (c. 2400–800 BC)

In the second half of the third millennium BC, bronzeworking reached the cultures of western Siberia. Chalcolithic groups in the eastern Ural foothills developed the so-called Andronovo culture, which took various local forms. The settlements of Arkaim, Olgino and Sintashta are particularly notable as the earliest evidence for urbanisation in Siberia. In the valleys of the Ob and Irtysh the same ceramic cultures attested there during the neolithic continue; the changes in the Baikal region and Yakutia were very slight.

In the middle Bronze Age (c. 1800–1500 BC), the west Siberian Andronovo culture expanded markedly to the east and even reached the Yenissei valley. In all the local forms of the Andronovo culture, homogenous ceramics are found, which also extended to the cultures on the Ob. Here, however, unique neolithic ceramic traditions were maintained as well.

With the beginning of the late Bronze Age (c. 1500–800 BC), crucial cultural developments took place in southern Siberia. The Andronovo culture dissolved; its southern successors produced an entirely new form of pottery, with bulbous ornamental elements. At the same time the southern cultures also developed new forms of bronze working, probably as a result of influence from the southeast. These changes were especially significant in the Baikal region. There, the Chalcolithic material culture which had continued up to this time was replaced by a bronze-working pastoralist culture. There and in Yakutia, bronze was only used as a material for the first time at this point.

The Ymyakhtakh culture (c. 2200–1300 BC) was a Late Neolithic culture of Siberia, with a very large archaeological horizon. Its origins seem to be in the Lena River basin of Yakutia, and also along the Yenisei River. From there it spread both to the east and to the west.

Iron Age (c. 800 BC - AD 500)

The cultural continuity on the Ob continued in the first millennium BC, as the Iron Age began in Siberia; the local ceramic style continues there even in this period. A much larger break occurred in the central Asian steppe: the sedentary, predominantly pastoralist society of the late Bronze Age is replaced by the mobile horse nomads who would continue to dominate this region until modern times. The mobility, which the new cultural form enabled, unleashed a powerful dynamic, since henceforth the people of Central Asia were able to move across the steppe in great numbers. The neighbouring sedentary cultures were not unaffected by this development. Ancient China was threatened by the Xiongnu and their neighbours, the ancient states of modern Iran were opposed by the Massagetae and Sakas, and the Roman Empire eventually was confronted by the Huns. The social changes are clearly indicated in the archaeological finds. Settlements are no longer found, members of the new elite were buried in richly furnished kurgans and completely new forms of art developed.

In the damper steppes to the north, the sedentary pastoralist culture of the late Bronze Age developed under the influence of the material culture of the nomads. Proto-urban settlements like Tshitsha form the late Irmen culture in west Siberia and the settlements in the north of the Xiongnu cultural area.

Subsequent period

In many places the transition to later periods remains problematic due to the lack of archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, some generalisations are possible. In the Central Asian steppes, Turkic groups become detectable sometime in the 5th century; over the following centuries, they expand to the north and west until eventually they brought the whole of southern Siberia under their control. The area further north, where the speakers of Uralic and Paleosiberian languages were located is still poorly known. The next clear break in the history of Siberia is the Russian expansion into the east which began in the 16th century and only concluded in the 19th century. This process marks the beginning of modernity in Siberia

Peoples and languages

Reliable historical evidence for the area first appears at the beginning of the first millennium BC, with sources from the Near East. Greek and Chinese sources are also available from slightly later. Thus, certain statements about the peoples and languages of the region are only possible from the Iron Age. For earlier times and the northern part of Siberia, only archaeological evidence is available. Some theories, like the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas, attempt to relate hypothetical language families to archaeological cultures, but this is a highly uncertain procedure.

Sure statements are possible only since the first millennium BC, when neighbouring literate cultures came into contact with the people of the steppe. In the steppes north of the Black Sea and east of the Caspian Sea, Greek, Assyrian and Persian sources attest to horse nomads, which can be identified as speakers of Iranian languages. The first reports from ancient China of the nomads north of China date from the same period. Along with various unidentified groups from Shang and Zhou dynasty texts, the Xiongnu are worthy of mention. Based on personal names and titles transmitted by the Chinese sources, different scholars have attempted to identify the language of the Xiongnu as an early Turkic language, a proto-Mongolic language or a Yeniseian language. At the beginning of the early Middle Ages, the Iranian peoples disappeared and in their place Turkic peoples expanded across the region between the eastern edge of Europe and northeastern Siberia. In the areas to the north of the Asiatic steppes, speakers of Uralic and Palaeo-Siberian languages are suspected to have been settled; in the Middle Ages, Turkic peoples appear here as well, but their prehistoric extent is not clear.

Cultures

Siberia before the Chalcolithic

The earliest known archaeological finds from Siberia date to the Lower Palaeolithic. In various places in West Siberia, the Baikal region and Yakutia, storage places from early Neolithic times have been found, which often remained in use for centuries. Alongside tent settlements which leave no traces in the ground, there were also huts, often dug slightly into the ground, whose walls and roofs were made of animal bone and reindeer antlers. Tools and weapons were mostly made from flint, slate and bone, with few discernable differences between them despite their immense chronological and geographical scope. In some settlements, early artworks have been found, which consist of human, animal and abstract sculptures and carvings. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic inhabitants of Siberia were hunter-gatherers, whose prey consisted of mammoths and reindeer, and occasionally fish as well. In the 6th millennium BC, pottery spread across the whole of Siberia, which scholars treat as the beginning of the Siberian neolithic. Unlike Europe and the Near East, this event did not mark a major change in lifestyle, economy or culture.

Hunter-gatherers in Yakutia and the Baikal region

The prehistoric inhabitants of the vast areas of taiga and tundra east of the Yenissei and north of Baikal differ in many ways from the prehistoric cultures of the other parts of north Asia. There is stronger evidence than usual for settlement continuity here from the Mesolithic until the second half of the first millennium AD, when the not yet entirely clear transition to the Medieval period occurred. Despite the enormous geographic extent of the area, only minor local differences are visible, indicating very mobile, nomadic inhabitants. The earliest culture in Yakutia to make ceramic was the Syalakh culture, which have been dated by radiocarbon dating to the 5th millennium BC. They are known from a type of pottery decorated with net patterns and bands of puncture marks. Their remains include weapons and tools made from flint and bone. A series of settlements, some of which were already in use in the Mesolithic, are known, at which the finds are limited to hearths and pits, while remains of buildings are entirely absent. Thus, the people responsible for the Syalakh culture were nomads who survived from hunting and fishing and inhabited certain spots on a seasonal basis.

This culture gradually transitions into the Belkachi culture (named after the Belkachi settlement in Yakutia) without any clear break. Their pottery features cord decorations, stripes, zigzag lines and such like. Their dead were buried on their backs in earthen graves. Otherwise, no major differences from the preceding culture are visible.

The Ymyyakhtakh culture (2200–1300 BC) is marked out by a new kind of "waffle ceramic", whose upper side is decorated with textile impressions and takes on a waffle-like appearance as a result. Towards the end of the 2nd millennium BC, bronzeworking reached Yakutia. Ymyyakhtakh settlements already feature bronze artifacts.

followed next. In the first millennium BC, an independent culture developed on the Taymyr Peninsula, which shared its basic features with the Ust-Mil culture. The Iron Age began in Yakutia around the 5th century BC, but apart from the adoption of iron weapons and tools it does not mark a major change in the material culture.

The cultural development in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Baikal region, where the circumstances were similar to those in Yakutia until the appearance of the late Bronze Age Slab Grave culture. Here too there were some multi-layer storage places which extended back to the Mesolithic period, with hearths, waste pits and storage pits but no remains of buildings. The pottery was similar to that in Yakutia and shows a more or less parallel course of development. The burials are mostly stretched out on their backs, but often the graves were covered by stone slabs. An exception is the area of the Onon River

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