Seals, meals and deals: mid-Holocene feasting on Lake Baikal

Andrzej WeberDepartment of Anthropology

University of Alberta

Seals, meals and deals: mid-Holocene feasting on Lake Baikal

University of California Davis, 8 Feb., 2006

Baikal Archaeology Project

Acknowledgements

Social Sciences and Humanities

Research Council of Canada

Irkutsk State University, Russia

University of Alberta, Canada

Location

Shamanskii Mys Lake Baikal

Project scope and rationale

Fieldwork location

KUR

K14

LOK

UID

SHA

BUR

BAS

Analyses

Archaeological Osteological Laboratory tests

Teeth: Sr87/Sr86

C13

O18

Bone: Sr87/Sr86 C13

N15

O18 C14

Vertebrae: DNA

Summary of our knowledge to date

Genetic and cultural discontinuity Very good health and demographic structure Variable subsistence and dietary patterns Unique level of social and political

differentiation Mortuary variability Variable climatic conditions: periods of

stability and instability

Main unsolved questions

What are the processes behind the genetic and cultural discontinuity during the 7th millennium BP?

Why did the local hunter-gatherers go through such a cycle of social complexity?

What is the role of the environment in these processes?

Enigma of Shamanskii Mys

Spectacular location 11 graves excavated

between 1972 and 1975 Mostly adult people Unusual grave goods Dog interments Seal remains and

complete interments

Examination of seal skeletal remains

Mammalian tooth anatomy

Tooth thin sections

Mammalian tooth anatomy.

C

D2

E

C

D1

E

D

C

D

E

PC

PC

PC

C/ETr

C/ETr

CANINEMOLAR

INCISOR

CP

E-enamelD-dentineC-cementum

PC – pulp cavityCP – cementum padC/E Tr – cementum enamel trnasition

Tooth thin sections

40 – 50 microns

Dentine formation in the sealof Lake Baikal

Pup of the year and 1 year old

Pre-natal dentine

Neonatal line

Opaque

TranslucentOpaque

Adolescents

2 years old

3 years old

Adults

More than 10 years old6 years old

Archaeological sites examined

Camps

Cemetery

Season of death

Age structure: Shamanskii Mys

Age structure:Shamanskii Mys and modern sample

Archaeological sites examined

Camp

Cemetery

Age structure: more comparison

Age structure: more analysis

Role of ice in seal behaviour and ecology

December 1989 January 1989

Distribution of seal population

No female dens within the first 10 km east of the island

Maximum density of dens of pregnant females is 1.5/km2

WEST EASTFemales

Males and adolescents

April 2003

The story of age profiles

Subsistence and diet of the Shamanskii Mys people

Lecture 12: Subsistence and diet.Baikal case study.

Diet of groups contemporary with Shamanskii Mys

Other groups

Shamanskii Mys

Post-hiatus diets

Baikal

Angara and Lena

Location of contemporary cemeteries

Kurma

Kuzhir-Nuge

Uliarba

Summary: Unusual status of Shamanskii Mys

Special topographic location Special group of people Special grave goods Special sacrifices Special food

What is the meaning of all of this?

Feasting at Shamanskii Mys

What is feasting? What is the role or function of feasting? What is the range of feasting among hunter-

gatherers? What does feasting tell us about the Baikal

hunter-gatherers? How does this fit with the rest of our

knowledge about the Baikal hunter-gatherers?

Thank youDziękuję