Hunter-Gatherer Violence in the Middle Holocene Baikal Region: A Probable Massacre at Shamanka II

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Northeast Asian Prehistoric Hunter-Gather Lifeways: Multidisciplinary, Individual Life History Approach" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Violence was uncommon among the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Siberia’s Baikal region (<5%), and lethal violence even less so (~1%). At the site of Shamanka II, however, 11 (or 85%) of 13 interred Early Bronze Age (EBA; 4970⎼3470 cal. BP) individuals exhibit evidence of perimortem violence, largely in the form of projectile wounds and blunt force cranial trauma. Most victims are male and have multiple (2+) perimortem injuries; at least four males, including a child, have evidence of “overkill.” This level of violence far exceeds what is typical in the region, with radiocarbon dates suggesting that these deaths are consistent with one or possibly two events. A bioarchaeological analysis of the remains, in combination with Bayesian modeling of the radiocarbon dates, leads us to determine that the EBA burials at Shamanka II represent a probable massacre event/s. Stable isotopic analyses (C, N, Sr) suggest that the victims are local. Massacres among prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations, while not unknown, are rare. Within the context of generally low levels of violence in the region, the EBA massacre at Shamanka II raises questions about the nature of the community and its interactions with surrounding groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Northeast Asian Prehistoric Hunter-Gather Lifeways: Multidisciplinary, Individual Life History Approach   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35631.0