From the Altai to the Arctic: New Results and New Directions in the Archaeology of North and Inner Asia

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "From the Altai to the Arctic: New Results and New Directions in the Archaeology of North and Inner Asia" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The archaeology and anthropology of northern Eurasia tends to proceed from its filleting into three massive continent-spanning strips—the terrestrial biomes of the steppe, the taiga, and the tundra—with certain nods to the gradations between them, other vegetation communities biting in from the south, and the separate world of its marine fringes. This session brings together researchers of Mongolia, steppic and montane Central Asia, Siberia, and maritime Northeast Asia to break well out of this conventional siloing. With perspectives and toolkits spanning monumental iconography, genome-wide ancient DNA, textile analysis, historical linguistics, osteoarchaeology, ceramic geochemistry, and beyond, we highlight both the diversity of practices and trajectories accommodated within each zone and shared inheritances and channels of connection that cut far across ecologies and latitudes. In grasslands, uplands, boreal forests, wetlands, and the shores of cold seas, we draw out the heterogeneity, surprising parallels, crackling interfaces, and repeatedly refreshed links that have enmeshed this vast region for millennia.