Investigating temporal shifts in diet and behavior at Shamanka II, Cis-Baikal, Siberia

Summary

Using a high-resolution chronological framework developed for Early Neolithic Cis-Baikal, Siberia, grave goods and stable isotope data are analyzed for specific relationships between functional items, prestige goods, and diet. Evidence suggests increasing importance of fishing during two separate phases of cemetery use at Shamanka II. Dietary changes and interlinked social structures may have contributed to differentiation in the cemetery. Fishing specialists are identifiable in grave assemblages. Individual fishers did not employ methods consistent with intensification. Their role in providing important food resources did not translate to apparent prestige or wealth in certain grave goods at Shamanka II.

Bulk data have indicated the presence of a mixed population in terms of origins and diet, the need for caution prior to their use in support of clear behavioral inferences, and further refinement of the methodological approaches. Dentine micro-sampling allows the direct examination of three primary data goals, 1) weaning patterns; 2) mobility between three primary types of watersheds; and 3) the possibility and nature of stored resources used to ameliorate the returns of seasonal subsistence activities. The ramifications of these three data goals support different subsistence approaches and sociopolitical organizational structures within middle Holocene Cis-Baikal hunter-gatherers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Investigating the Hunter-Gatherers of Lake Baikal and Hokkaido: Integrating Individual Life Histories and High-Resolution Chronologies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14565