From hunting and fishing to herding: strategies of adaptation among forest-steppe populations of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve (Western Siberia) during the 2nd millennium BC basing on bioarchaeological research
Final Report Abstract
How do people change their economy? One of the most important adaptations of societies in the central parts of Eurasia and particularly at the northern frontier of the Eurasian steppe belt was the transition from a hunter-gatherer to a pastoral economy during the Bronze Age. The different hypothesis regarding the cultural and economic adaptation processes related to this transition have been the issue of a German-Russian research project with a multidisciplinary, bioarchaeological agenda. Sites from three micro-regions in Western Siberia offered the possibility to compare different ecological but likewise cultural adaptation processes. These sites provided large sets of well documented grave assemblages, which cover the late 3rd and the first half of the 2nd mill. BCE. Central for the project have been the Late Krotovo and Andronovo cultures. They represent a period of significant transformations in culture, human populations and economy associated with migration processes from the steppe into the forest steppe. Within this agenda we obtained 91 new 14C-dates dates clarifying chronology. Late Krotovo and Andronovo are thought to be succeeding phenomena, which we could disproof: two of the three chronological phases overlap considerably. Prior to our study, sites such as Chernoeozere 1 or Elovka 1 had never been independently dated. The first had a much longer use as expected – we found complexes from Neolithic to Iron Age. The isotopic dataset with 273 new analysed human and 169 animal individuals is the largest dataset in the wider region. We applied in addition to δ13C and δ15N isotope analyses for the first time in Siberia a combination of strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen isotopes (δ18O). In the results, we noted considerable shifts in diets when compared to the Early Bronze and earlier Middle Bronze Age. This concerns individuals associated with the Late Krotovo and even more those of the Andronovo complex. A differentiation into diets, which resemble earlier patterns of hunter-gatherer-fisher economy, as well as a new form of diet that indicates food obtained from animals that were fed in areas including steppe biomes is possible. They reflect populations that have more shares in a pastoral economy or are genuine pastoralists. These findings were supported by the oxygen isotopes that characterized the same individuals. It allowed us to confirm the initial hypothesis of a long adaptation to new dietary components and new livelihoods. The complexity of this fundamental change in the lifestyles of the populations was revealed as well. Palaeopathological analysis moreover showed that some parts of the populations had difficulties to adapt – Late Krotovo individuals from Tartas 1 cemetery expected to be immigrants who were unfamiliar with the local ways of food procurements, had a rather poor state of health, and regularly suffered from famine.
Publications
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Bioarkheologicheskie podkhody k resheniyu problem adaptacii Andronovskogo i Andronoidnogo naseleniya k usloviyam lesostepi I podtaezhnoe zony Ob’-Irtysh’ya (po materialam pogrebal’nykh pamyatnikov. Tishkin AA (ed.), Sovremennye resheniya aktual’nykh problem Evraziyskoy arkheologii. Spornik statey. Barnaul 2018, 74-81
Marchenko ZV, Reinhold S, Molodin VI, Grishin AE, Kobeleva LS, Zubova AB, Poznyakov DV & Batanina OB
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Smolokurennye kompleksy epokhi bronzy na pamjatnike Tartas-1 (lesostepnoye Ob'-Irtyš'ye). In: Tishkin, AA (Hrsg.), Archeologiya Severnoy i Central'noy Azii: novye otkrytija i rezul'taty meždisciplinarnykh issledovanij. Sbornik statej, posvyaščennyj 75-letiyu professora Ju. F. Kiryushina (Barnaul 2021) 138–146
Grishin, A.E., Marchenko, Z.V. & Reinhold, S.
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Odontologicheskie osobennosti pozdnekrotovskogo (chernoozerzkogo) naseleniy barabinskoy lesostepi po materialam mogil’nika Tartas 1. In: VIII Alekseevskie chteniya. Materialy konferencii. Moskva: 64-65
Kishkurno MS
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Opyt primecheniya osteoskopicheskoy programmy dlya rekonstruktii dvigatel’noy aktivnosti (na primere antropologicheskikh materialov pozdnekrotovskoy (cehrnoozerzkoy) kul’tury iz mogli’nika Tartas 1. VIII Alekseevskie chteniya. Materialy konferencii. Moskva: 27-29
Batanina OB
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Tartas 1, Russische Föderation. Neue Grabfunde der Bronzezeit und die erste neolithische Sequenz aus Westsibirien – Fortsetzung der Ausgrabungen in Tartas 1 und Umgebung. Die Arbeiten der Jahre 2015 bis 2018. e-Forschungsberichte des DAI, Fasc.1, 2019, 167–170
Reinhold, S.
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Baraba Waldsteppe (2020), Russland. Vom Jagen und Fischen zur Viehzucht in der Waldsteppe des Ob’-Irtysch Zwischenstromlands (Westsibirien). Bioarchäologische Forschungen in der Baraba Waldsteppe, Russland aus den Jahren 2018 bis 2020. e-Forschungsberichte des DAI, Fasc. 3,2198-7734, 2020, 1–12.
Reinhold, S & Marchenko ZV
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Dental Pathologies and Reconstruction of the Diet of Late Krotovo (Chernoye Ozero) People (Middle Irtysh Region, Western Siberia Bronze Age). Kunstkamera, 7(1), 87-94.
Zubova, A.V.
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Der frühneolithische Siedlungskomplex im Unterlauf des Flusses Tartas im Süden der westsibirischen Ebene. Eurasia Antiqua 23, 2020, 27-88
Molodin, VI, Hansen, S, Myl’nikova, LN, Reinhold, S, Nenachov, DA., Nesterova, MS., Durakov, IA., Kobeleva, LS. & Nenachova, JN
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»Connecting Cultures« Formen, Wege und Räume kultureller Interaktion: Das Cluster 6 in seiner Genese, »Connecting Cultures« - Form, routes and spheres of cultural interaction - The Cluster 6 and its Genesis. In: Marzoli, D, Reinhold, S, Schlotzhauer, U, Vogt, B, Schnorbusch, H (Hrsg.), Kontaktmodi. Ergebnisse der gemeinsamen Treffen der Arbeitsgruppen "Mobilität und Migration" und "Zonen der Interaktion", (2013-2018). Menschen, Kulturen, Traditionen (Wiesbaden 2020) 1–32
Reinhold, S.
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A Digital X-Ray Analysis of Middle Bronze Age Skeletal Samples from the Baraba Forest-Steppe. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia (Russian-language), 49(3), 136-146.
Marchenko, Z. V.; Kishkurno, M. S.; Grishin, A. E.; Reinhold, S. & Zhuravkov, F. V.
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Pervyye rezul'taty izotopnogo analiza antropologičeskogo materiala pozdnekrotovskoj (chernoozorskoj) kul'tury pamyatnika Tartas-1: rekonstruktsija diyety i mobil'nosti naselenija. In: A. A. Tishkin (Hrsg.), Archeologiya Severnoy i Central'noy Azii: novye otkrytija i rezul'taty meždisciplinarnykh issledovanij. Sbornik statej, posvyaščennyj 75-letiyu professora Ju. F. Kiryushina (Barnaul 2021) 72–79
Marchenko ZV, Reinhold, S, Grishin, AE. & Pozdnjakov, DV
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Pozdnekrotovskaya (Chernoozerskaya) populaciya mogil’nika Tartas 1 (Barabinskaya lesostep’): mekhanizm integracii s yuzhnym naselenie po dannym bioarkheologii. Abstract for All Russian Archaeologicical Congress, Samarra October
Marchenko Z.V., Reinhold S., Grishin A.E., Batanina O.B. & Posznyakov D.
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Settlement Complex of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) Culture in the Tai Locality in Baraba Forest-Steppe. Problems of Archaeology, Ethnography, Anthropology of Siberia and Neighboring Territories, 27, 535-541.
Molodin, V.I.; Kobeleva, L.S.; Reinhold, S.; Nesterova, M.S.; Selin, D.V.; Hansen, S.; Eger, J. & Bobin, D.N.
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Vengerovo-2—a Krotovo Culture Site in the Baraba Forest-Steppe: An Archaeozoological Study. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia, 49(2), 53-63.
Benecke, N.; Vasiliev, S. K.; Molodin, V. I.; Mylnikova, L. N.; Nesterova, M. S. & Reinhold, S.
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δ13С and δ15N isotope analysis of modern freshwater fish in the south of Western Siberia and its potential for palaeoreconstructions. Quaternary International, 598, 97-109.
Marchenko, Zhanna V.; Svyatko, Svetlana V. & Grishin, Artem E.
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Baraba Waldsteppe, Russland. Westsibirien. Neues zu Andronovo-Fundplätzen in der nördlichen Baraba Steppe. Die Arbeiten der Jahre 2020 und 2021, e-Forschungsberichte des DAI, Fasc. 1 (2022), Fasc. 1, § 1-17
Reinhold, S, Eger, J, Kobeleva, LS, Molodin, VI & Mylnikova, LN
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Tartas 1 - Kreuzweg der Kulturen und Epochen 1 (Novosibirsk, IAER SA RAW 2022)
Molodin, VI, Parzinger, H, Mylnikova, LN, Hansen, S, Durakov, IA, Reinhold, S et al.
