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In 2020, a unique bone assemblage was found at the Late Paleolithic site Volchia Griva. Its base is made of a distal mammoth femur minus epiphysis, in which a cavity has been hollowed out. Impact notches along the edges of the cavity and holes in the metaphysis prove the human-made nature of this specimen. A portion of a polar fox cranium, half of a fox hemimandible, a fox tooth, and a large mammal rib fragment were enclosed in the cavity. The mammoth femur was previously used as a retoucher, as evinced by the impressions and cut marks. Incisions were detected on the polar fox cranium, indicating skinning. According to two 14C dates, the age of the remains is 19.3–19.1 ka BP. Palynological analysis of the cavity fill shows a forb-grass steppe at that time. The assemblage, which has no known analogues, is a reflection of prehistoric culture. This extraordinary find most likely is evidence of the ritual behavior of people who lived in the south of Western Siberia during the last glacial maximum. The assemblage was accompanied by a large number of fox remains, and lithic artifacts identical to bladelet-based Late Paleolithic industries of Siberia and the Middle Urals.

Chronological and stratigraphic frameworks are of the utmost importance for Upper Paleolithic archaeology, physical anthropology, and ecology. Wide ranging radiocarbon (14C) dates were previously obtained for the Sungir burial complex in the central part of European Russia, which is well-known as the richest funeral Paleolithic assemblage in the world yet recorded. The major problem was the contamination caused by consolidants used during the recovery of human bones in the 1960s. The stratigraphy and spatial structure of the Sungir site were also not well understood previously. New radiocarbon and stable isotope data are generated for the Sungir burials. While some dates were younger due to incomplete removal of contamination, the XAD 14C age on S-1 burial (ca. 29,780 BP) was found to be statistically the same as the previously performed HYP 14C age for this burial (ca. 28,890 BP). Four animal bones found in cultural layer below the burial date to ca. 28,800–30,140 BP, suggesting that both this layer and human burials date to roughly this age range. Narrowing these ages further is difficult considering the larger errors of the 14C dates. This shows that future research attempting to 14C date material excavated many years ago needs to eliminate potential contamination from consolidants through analyses such as FTIR, prior to 14C dating. The chronology and stratigraphy of Sungir do not contradict to correlation of its lithic artifacts with the Streletskian assemblage as the East European variant of the Final Szeletian technocomplex (Early Upper Paleolithic).

The obsidian mirror associated with the Elizabethan polymath and magus John Dee (1527–1608/1609) has been an object of fascination for centuries. The mirror, however, has a deeper history as an Aztec artefact brought to Europe soon after the Spanish conquest. The authors present the results of new geochemical analysis, and explore its history and changing cultural context to provide insights into its meaning during a period in which entirely new world views were emerging. The biography of the mirror demonstrates how a complex cultural history underpins an iconic object. The study highlights the value of new compositional analyses of museum objects for the reinterpretation of historically significant material culture.

The article introduces new paleoanthropological materials from the Mayak burial ground near Sidelkino village in the Samara region into scientific discourse. The materials were obtained as a result of excavations in 1995 and only recently was it possible to date them. As a result of AMS analysis fulfilled by the authors, human remains from two burials were dated back to the Early Mesolithic. The analysis was carried out taking into account the influence of the “reservoir effect.Despite the rather poor preservation of individuals from the two described burials, the authors carried out an osteological analysis of an adult male from the second burial. He turned out to be quite tall, with elongated legs, shortened forearms, saber-shaped tibia and relatively massive bones of the lower limbs. In burial 3, the remains of an adult woman and a child of 7–10 years old were found. Comparing the osteological indicators of the man from the second burial with materials from the same burial ground of excavations in 2002, the authors came to the conclusion that the people whose remains were found on the hill Mayak in 1995 and in 2002 probably belong to the same population. Similar morphological characteristics are proof of this.

We present an overview of the beginning and early years of radiocarbon dating in Russia. Achievements of several major scholars in this field from Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Moscow and Novosibirsk are briefly described. The existing and closed Russian laboratories are also mentioned.

This paper reviews significant issues related to the fossil hominins from the Altai Mountains of Siberia (Russia), namely Denisovans, Neanderthals, and early modern humans. Uncritical acceptance of the recovered information by some authors has resulted in unreliable chronologies of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic artifact assemblages and the animal and hominin fossils. We examine the chronostratigraphic contexts and archaeological associations of hominin and animal fossils and the lithics discovered at the Denisova, Okladnikov, Strashnaya, and Chagyrskaya cave sites. Taphonomic, site formation, and geomorphological studies show evidence of disturbance and redeposition caused by carnivore activity and sediment subsidence at these sites, which complicates the dating of the human remains. Our analysis indicates that the Middle Paleolithic is dated to ca. 50,000–130,000 years ago, and the Upper Paleolithic to ca. 12,000–48,000 years ago. The best age estimate for Denisovans is ca. 73,000–130,000 years ago. The ages of Neanderthals can be determined as more than 50,000–59,000 years ago, and of modern humans at roughly 12,000–48,000 years ago. Denisovan and Neanderthal fossils are associated with Middle Paleolithic complexes only.

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived1–8. Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT88 40,000–30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located. © 2022, The Author(s). 8028-00005B; IP DKRVO 2019-2023, MK000094862; 220457/Z/20/Z, ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD, ERC-2019-StG-853272-PALAEOFARM; 075-15-2021-1069; European Molecular Biology Organization, EMBO: 217223/Z/19/Z; Vallee Foundation; Velux Fonden; Wellcome Trust, WT; Francis Crick Institute, FCI: FC001595; Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020: 796877; Medical Research Council, MRC; Natural Environment Research Council, NERC: 210119/Z/18/Z, NE/K003259/1, NE/K005243/1, NE/S00078X/1, NE/S007067/1; Cancer Research UK, CRUK; European Research Council, ERC: 852558; Grantová Agentura České Republiky, GA ČR: 15-06446S; Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas: 2018-01640; Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse; Vetenskapsrådet, VR: 681396, BELSPO B2/191/P2/ICHIE; Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 16-18-10265-RNF, 20-17-00033, 21-18-00457-RNF, 310763; Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLab; Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej, NAWA: PPN/PPO/2018/1/00037 This work was supported by grants to P. Skoglund from the European Research Council (grant no. 852558), the Erik Philip Sörensen Foundation and the Science for Life Laboratory, Swedish Biodiversity Program, made available by support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. A.B., L.S., P. Swali and P. Skoglund were supported by Francis Crick Institute core funding (FC001595) from Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. P. Skoglund was also supported by the Vallee Foundation, the European Molecular Biology Organisation and the Wellcome Trust (217223/Z/19/Z). Computations were supported by SNIC-UPPMAX. We also acknowledge support from Science for Life Laboratory, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the National Genomics Infrastructure funded by the Swedish Research Council and the Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science for assistance with massively parallel sequencing and access to the UPPMAX computational infrastructure. We thank the Yukon gold mining community and First Nations, including the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, for continued support of our palaeontology research in the Yukon Territories, Canada. We thank the Danish National High-Throughput Sequencing Centre and BGI-Europe for assistance in sequencing data generation and the Danish National Supercomputer for Life Sciences–Computerome ( https://computerome.dtu.dk ) for computational resources. We thank National Museum Wales for continued sampling support. M. Germonpré acknowledges support from the Brain.be 2.0 ICHIE project (BELSPO B2/191/P2/ICHIE). M.T.P.G. was supported by the European Research Council (grant no. 681396). M.-H.S.S. was supported by the Velux Foundations through the Qimmeq Project, the Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond and the Independent Research Fund Denmark (8028-00005B). L.D. acknowledges support from FORMAS (2018-01640). D.W.G.S. received funding for this project from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 796877. M.P. was supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange–NAWA (grant no. PPN/PPO/2018/1/00037). V.J.S. was supported by the University of Zurich’s University Research Priority Program ‘Evolution in Action: From Genomes to Ecosystems’. This research was done with the participation of ZIN RAS (grant no. 075-15-2021-1069). We are grateful to the museum of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology UB RAS (Ekaterinburg, Russia) for provision of samples. R.P.J. and C.O’D. were supported by the Standing Committee for Archaeology of the Royal Irish Academy through the Archaeological Excavation Research Grant Scheme. E.Y.P., P.N. and V.V.P. are supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 16-18-10265-RNF and 21-18-00457-RNF). Y.V.K. was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 20-17-00033). M.H. was supported by the European Research Council (consolidator grant GeneFlow no. 310763). M.L.-G. was supported by the Czech Science Foundation GAČR (grant no. 15-06446S) and institutional financing of the Moravian Museum from the Czech Ministry of Culture (IP DKRVO 2019-2023, MK000094862). L.S. is supported by the Sir Henry Wellcome fellowship (220457/Z/20/Z). We thank Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart for sample access. L.F. and G.L. were supported by European Research Council grants (ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD and ERC-2019-StG-853272-PALAEOFARM) and Natural Environmental Research Council grants (NE/K005243/1, NE/K003259/1, NE/S007067/1 and NE/S00078X/1). L.F. was also supported by the Wellcome Trust (210119/Z/18/Z). This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust (FC001595). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright licence to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.

We present an analysis and interpretation of current knowledge on Paleolithic diet in Siberia and Eastern Europe, based on C and N stable isotope ratios in bone collagen of the pre-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and LGM hominins: three Neanderthals; one possible Denisovan; a Neanderthal/Denisovan hybrid; and 13 early anatomically modern humans (AMH). We used animal stable isotope information for Siberia obtained previously to establish the baselines for hominins; this is supplemented by stable isotope values for large mammals from the central West Siberian Lowland which were the probable sources of protein for Paleolithic humans in this region (first of all, the oldest directly radiocarbon-dated Ust’-Ishim AMH in Asia). A comparison of results on Paleolithic hominin diet from Siberia and Eastern Europe with Central Europe was also undertaken. The Neanderthal diet in Siberia was based on the consumption of terrestrial animal protein. As for the Neanderthal/Denisovan hybrid from Denisova Cave (Altai Mountains, southern Siberia), the contribution of aquatic food like freshwater fish can be preliminarily suggested. Overall, Paleolithic AMHs in Siberia and Eastern Europe procured mainly terrestrial herbivores—in particular, reindeer, horse, and bison. It is possible that some of the oldest AMH individuals—like Kostenki 1—supplemented their diet with a certain amount of aquatic food (freshwater fish).

For more than a half-century, obsidian provenancing has underpinned many archaeological investigations of peoples of the past. The pace of obsidian studies in this regard has gathered significantly since around 2007, and we review the literature to gain a sense of where this momentum has come from, and what it heralds. In part, there is a data revolution underway, arising thanks to the capabilities for rapid survey and analysis enabled by field-portable analytical equipment. Obsidian studies are also gaining a stronger foothold in regions of the world where the approach was previously under-exploited. Our survey spans progress made in obsidian studies in the Mediterranean, Central Europe, the Near East, the Caucasus, Northeast Asia and Tibet, the Eurasian Arctic and Alaska, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Africa and Arabia. We also consider methodological issues related to compatibility of differing geochemical analytical techniques, and the state of the art in obsidian geochemical classification. The proliferation of new observations brings opportunities in terms of development of regional and global databases, as well as challenges of calibration and validation of analyses made by different scientists and laboratories employing diverse instrumentation. Obsidian provenancing demonstrates the astonishing ranges of our ancestors’ interactions and networks, sometimes exceeding 1000 km and involving maritime transport.

The reliability of radiocarbon dates for Palaeolithic human burials is of utmost importance for prehistoric archaeologists. Recently obtained dates for several such burials in central Russia raise important interrelated issues concerning site taphonomy and the precise radiocarbon-dating technique employed, with implications for the ‘true’ age of the burials. A critical review of the dating of the Sungir and Kostenki burials calls into question the reliability of employing ultrafiltration or single amino acids for the radiocarbon dating of Upper Palaeolithic bones.

Since the 1990s, a characteristic obsidian geochemistry has linked widespread archaeological assemblages spanning the Russian Far East, Korean Peninsula, and Northeast China. Referred to as PNK1, the source of this material has yet to be identified. As a contribution to solving this enduring puzzle, we report here analyses of a commercial specimen of obsidian exported from Chongjin in DPR (North) Korea. A combination of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and Potassium Argon dating enable us to compare this piece with a large obsidian database for Northeast Asia. We find that the “Chongjin sample” is identical to PNK1 lithics from archaeological collections. While the exact source of the “Chongjin sample” remains unknown, we can more confidently locate the primary source for PNK1 lithics in DPR Korea. Based on an exhaustive literature review of the geology and geochemistry of volcanic glasses and other volcanic rocks in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, and drawing on our own unpublished data, we suggest that the PNK1 source is most likely located south of Paektusan Volcano. This corroborates the existing evidence for the long-range transport of the material.

Significance The Siberian Arctic has witnessed numerous societal changes since the first known appearance of dogs in the region ∼10,000 years ago. These changes include the introduction of ironworking ∼2,000 years ago and the emergence of reindeer pastoralism ∼800 years ago. The analysis of 49 ancient dog genomes reveals that the ancestry of Arctic Siberia dogs shifted over the last 2,000 years due to an influx of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe. Combined with genomic data from humans and archaeological evidence, our results suggest that though the ancestry of human populations in Arctic Siberia did not change over this period, people there participated in trade with distant communities that involved both dogs and material culture., Dogs have been essential to life in the Siberian Arctic for over 9,500 y, and this tight link between people and dogs continues in Siberian communities. Although Arctic Siberian groups such as the Nenets received limited gene flow from neighboring groups, archaeological evidence suggests that metallurgy and new subsistence strategies emerged in Northwest Siberia around 2,000 y ago. It is unclear if the Siberian Arctic dog population was as continuous as the people of the region or if instead admixture occurred, possibly in relation to the influx of material culture from other parts of Eurasia. To address this question, we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 20 ancient and historical Siberian and Eurasian Steppe dogs. Our analyses indicate that while Siberian dogs were genetically homogenous between 9,500 to 7,000 y ago, later introduction of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe led to substantial admixture. This is clearly the case in the Iamal-Nenets region (Northwestern Siberia) where dogs from the Iron Age period (∼2,000 y ago) possess substantially less ancestry related to European and Steppe dogs than dogs from the medieval period (∼1,000 y ago). Combined with findings of nonlocal materials recovered from these archaeological sites, including glass beads and metal items, these results indicate that Northwest Siberian communities were connected to a larger trade network through which they acquired genetically distinctive dogs from other regions. These exchanges were part of a series of major societal changes, including the rise of large-scale reindeer pastoralism ∼800 y ago.

We report a new series of radiocarbon (14C) dates on the MIS 3 megafauna for a previously poorly studied region of southeastern West Siberia. Some species, like woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, and Pleistocene bison and horse, existed throughout the MIS 3 (ca. 29–59 ka cal BP); cave hyaena is dated to ca. 46,400 cal BP. The very late 14C dates on Khozarian steppe elephant (Mammuthus trogontherii chosaricus), ca. 45,100–45,400 cal BP, may indicate the survival of this species in Siberia up to MIS 3. More work is needed to confirm or reject this suggestion. Previously, Khozarian steppe elephant was known in Siberia only at the beginning of the Late Pleistocene (MIS 5e).

Zhokhov Island in the Siberian High Arctic has yielded evidence for some of the most remote prehistoric human occupation in the world, as well as the oldest-known dog-sled technology. Obsidian artefacts found on Zhokhov have been provenanced using XRF analysis to allow comparison with known sources of obsidian from north-eastern Siberia. The results indicate that the obsidian was sourced from Lake Krasnoe—approximately 1500km distant—and arrived on Zhokhov Island c. 8000 BP. The archaeological data from Zhokhov therefore indicate a super-long-distance Mesolithic exchange network.

The article was prepared with the support of Tomsk State University grant program; State assignment number 0330-2016-2018; the Russian Science Foundation (RNF), grant number 14-50-00036.

Dire wolves are considered to be one of the most common and widespread large carnivores in Pleistocene America1, yet relatively little is known about their evolution or extinction. Here, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of dire wolves, we sequenced five genomes from sub-fossil remains dating from 13,000 to more than 50,000 years ago. Our results indicate that although they were similar morphologically to the extant grey wolf, dire wolves were a highly divergent lineage that split from living canids around 5.7 million years ago. In contrast to numerous examples of hybridization across Canidae2,3, there is no evidence for gene flow between dire wolves and either North American grey wolves or coyotes. This suggests that dire wolves evolved in isolation from the Pleistocene ancestors of these species. Our results also support an early New World origin of dire wolves, while the ancestors of grey wolves, coyotes and dholes evolved in Eurasia and colonized North America only relatively recently. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Acknowledgements We thank the staff at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Cincinnati Museum Center, Danish Zoological Museum, Harrison Zoological Museum, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, Idaho Museum of Natural History, Institute of Archaeology (Russian Academy of Sciences), Institute of Systematics and Animal Ecology (Russian Academy of Sciences), Institute of Zoology (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Instituto de Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, Kansas Museum of Natural History, La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, Ludwig Maximilian University, McClung Museum, Museum of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (Russian Academy of Sciences), Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, National Museums Scotland, Natural History Museum London, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Naturhistorisches Museum Bern, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Swedish Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, SYLVATROP, US Bureau of Reclamation, University of California Museum of Paleontology, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Washington Burke Museum and the Zoological Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences; state assignment no. АААА-А19-119032590102-7) for access to specimens in their care; T. Barnosky, S. Bray, A. Farrell, R. Fischer, A. Harris, J. Harris, A. Henrici, P. Holroyd, R. MacPhee, T. Martin, A. Philpot, J. Saunders, J. Southon, G. Storrs, G. Takeuchi, X. Wang and C. Widga for assistance; and L. DeSantis for comments. A.M. used computational and storage services associated with the Hoffman2 Shared Cluster provided by UCLA Institute for Digital Research and Education’s Research Technology Group. DireGWC was sequenced using the Vincent J. Coates Genomics Sequencing Laboratory at UC Berkeley, supported by NIH S10 OD018174 Instrumentation Grant. We acknowledge the assistance of the Danish National High-Throughput Sequencing Centre, BGI-Europe, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) Cancer Genomics Facility for assistance in Illumina and BGIseq500 data generation. A.R.P. was supported by a Marie Curie COFUND Junior Research Fellowship (Durham University). A.M. was supported by an NSF grant (award number: 1457106) and the QCB Collaboratory Postdoctoral Fellowship (UCLA). L.A.F.F., J.H., A.H.-B. and G.L. were supported by either European Research Council grant (ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD and ERC-2019-StG-853272-PALAEOFARM) and/or Natural Environmental Research Council grants (NE/K005243/1 and NE/K003259/1). K.S. was supported by a grant from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. A.T.O. was supported by the Strategic Initiative Funds, Office of the President, Arizona State University to the Institute of Human Origins DNA and Human Origins at Arizona State University project. L.A.F.F. was supported by a Junior Research Fellowship (Wolfson College, University of Oxford) and L.A.F.F. and A. Carmagnini were supported by the Wellcome Trust (210119/Z/18/Z). S.G. was supported by Carlsbergfondet grant CF14–0995 and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant 655732-WhereWolf. M.T.P.G. was supported by ERC Consolidator grant 681396-Extinction Genomics. B.S. and J.K. were supported by IMLS MG-30-17-0045-17 and NSF DEB-1754451. A.H.-B. was supported by the Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2017-315). A. Cooper, K.J.M. and H.H. were supported by the Australian Research Council. A.T.S. and G.G. were supported by Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarships. A.T.L. was supported by the Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Y.V.K. was supported by the by State Assignment of the Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy.

We conducted inter-laboratory AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany), buried under Laacher See tephra dated to ca. 11,060 BP (13,000 cal BP). The weighted mean of A laboratory inter-comparison of AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany) and its implications for the date of the Laacher See eruptionthe new dates, which range from 10,920 to 11,270 BP, is 11,092 ± 19 BP. The consistent results from five AMS laboratories are important in two respects. First, they demonstrate that collagen processed by traditional methods can yield accurate ages; the newly obtained 14C dates are in accord with previous hydroxyproline 14C value generated at the Oxford AMS laboratory within the first round of inter-comparison (Fiedel et al., 2013). The results of the first inter-comparison are clearly flawed, except for hydroxyproline 14C date (see Fiedel et al., 2013), and must be affected by the waxy/dark, presumably humic/organic-based contaminant. Second, they provide a new suite of radiocarbon dates for the Laacher See volcanic eruption, a crucial anchor point for Late Glacial chronology in central Europe.

Geochemical analysis of 102 obsidian artifacts from the lower reaches of the Kolyma River was performed to understand the provenance of the raw material; previously, there were no such studies in this region. Sites under investigation belong to the Arctic Neolithic, generally dated to ca. 6000–1500 BP. Based on the data for potential obsidian sources in Northeastern Siberia and neighboring territories, available to us, it was found that all obsidian artifacts originated from the Lake Krasnoe source in Chukotka, with a straight-line distance of ca. 800–1100 km from archaeological sites of the Kolyma River. This is a remarkable example of long-distance exchange/transport of obsidian in Northeastern Siberia during the Stone Age. The Lake Krasnoe locale was the primary obsidian source for prehistoric populations in this vast region, including Chukotka, the Kolyma River basin, and Okhotsk Sea coast; this obsidian was also identified at some Alaskan sites near the Bering Strait.

Patterns for the emergence of pottery-making in greater East Asia based on radiocarbon dates associated with the earliest pottery assemblages are presented. According to a critical evaluation of the existing evidence, the oldest centers with pottery in East Asia are located in South China (dated to ca. 18,000 cal BP), the Japanese Islands (ca. 16,700 cal BP), and the Russian Far East (ca. 15,900 cal BP). The claim for earlier pottery in South China at the Xianrendong Cave, supposedly dated to ca. 20,000 cal BP, cannot be substantiated. The appearance of pottery in other parts of greater East Asia was a slow process, without clear diffusion from any of these centers toward the periphery. In neighboring Siberia, the oldest pottery dated to ca. 14,000 cal BP is known from the Transbaikal.

Several new finds of the Late Pleistocene porcupine (Hystrix brachyura vinogradovi) in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia and the Urals occur far north of previously assigned range for porcupine. These finds have necessitated a renewed study of this species's chronology and spatial distribution. We conclude that the oldest records of this porcupine in the Ural Mountains date to MIS 5e, and its geographic range possibly included also the Altai at that time. Directly radiocarbon-dated porcupine bones in the Altai fall in MIS 3 (ca. 32,000–41,000 cal BP). It is the northernmost record of this species and the youngest find outside its current geographic range.

Asmerom et al. (2018) recently obtained U-series dates for the Obi-Rakhmat Grotto, a key Paleolithic site in Central Asia, with ages of up to ca. 107–109 ka. However, their paper contains numerous errors and inconsistencies which affect the conclusions, and they are discussed.

During the Late Glacial, hunter-gatherers began using ceramic cooking containers in three separate geographic regions of East Asia: China, Japan and in the Russian Far East. While recent research has clarified the use of early pottery in Japan, very little is known about what led to the emergence of pottery in the other two areas, including the likely environmental, economic or cultural drivers. In this paper we focus on a series of key sites along the Amur River in the Russian Far East, where early pottery has been recovered from securely-dated contexts that span ca. 16,200 to 10,200 years ago (cal BP). Interpreting how these ceramic vessels were used has been difficult because the region’s acidic soils make palaeo-economic reconstructions challenging. To address this gap in knowledge we undertook lipid residue analysis of 28 pot sherds from the sites of Khummi, Gasya, and Goncharka 1 on the Lower Amur River, and the Gromatukha site on the Middle Amur. Our results indicate that pottery was employed to process aquatic oils at sites on the Lower Amur, a pattern of use that aligns closely with studies conducted in Japan, and suggests that fishing – probably of salmonids and freshwater fish – was becoming increasingly important during this period. In contrast, the results from the Middle Amur show a significant contribution of lipids from ruminant animals, indicating that these vessels were being used in different ways. Interestingly, these regional differences in pottery use also map onto contrasting manufacturing techniques, with vessels from the Middle and from the Lower Amur forming distinct pottery-making traditions. These combined insights appear to indicate a greater degree of variability in the development and use of early pottery in East Asia than has hitherto been indicated.

Frantz, Laurent/0000-0001-8030-3885; Ersmark, Erik/0000-0003-4186-7498; Sjogren, Karl-Goran/0000-0003-1791-3175; Bergstrom, Anders/0000-0002-4096-9268 WOS:000583031800042 PubMed ID: 33122379 Dogs were the first domestic animal, but little is known about their population history and to what extent it was linked to humans. We sequenced 27 ancient dog genomes and found that all dogs share a common ancestry distinct from present-day wolves, with limited gene flow from wolves since domestication but substantial dog-to-wolf gene flow. By 11,000 years ago, at least five major ancestry lineages had diversified, demonstrating a deep genetic history of dogs during the Paleolithic. Coanalysis with human genomes reveals aspects of dog population history that mirror humans, including Levant-related ancestry in Africa and early agricultural Europe. Other aspects differ, including the impacts of steppe pastoralist expansions in West and East Eurasia and a near-complete turnover of Neolithic European dog ancestry. SciLifeLab National Projects; Erik Philip Sorensen Foundation; Francis Crick Institute from Cancer Research UK [FC001595]; UK Medical Research CouncilMedical Research Council UK (MRC); Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust [210119/Z/18/Z]; European Research CouncilEuropean Research Council (ERC) [852558]; Wellcome Trust Investigator awardWellcome Trust [217223/Z/19/Z]; Vallee Foundation; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaSocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) [SSHRC IG 435-2014-0075]; State Assignment of the Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy; ZIN RAS [AAA-A19119032590102-7]; Smithsonian's Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship; AHRC [AH/J001406/1]; SNIC-UPPMAX [b2016004]; UOXF ARC facilityAustralian Research Council; Wolfson College (University of Oxford); ERCEuropean Research Council (ERC) [ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD]; Natural Environmental Research CouncilNERC Natural Environment Research Council [NE/K005243/1, NE/K003259/1]; NERC Radiocarbon Facility [NF/2016/2/4] Ancient genome sequencing was supported by SciLifeLab National Projects and the Erik Philip Sorensen Foundation (to P.S.). A.B., T.D., and P.S. were supported by the Francis Crick Institute core funding (FC001595) from Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council, and the Wellcome Trust. P.S. was also supported by the European Research Council (grant no. 852558), a Wellcome Trust Investigator award (217223/Z/19/Z) and the Vallee Foundation. R.J.L. was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (#SSHRC IG 435-2014-0075). Y.K. was supported by State Assignment of the Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy. M.S. was supported by ZIN RAS (state assignment no. AAA-A19119032590102-7). A.T.L. was supported by the Smithsonian's Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship. Archaeological work in Serbia was supported by AHRC grant AH/J001406/1. Computations were supported by SNIC-UPPMAX (b2016004) and the UOXF ARC facility. L.F. was supported by the Wellcome Trust (grant 210119/Z/18/Z) and by Wolfson College (University of Oxford). G.L. was supported by the ERC (grant ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD). G.L. and K.D. were supported by the Natural Environmental Research Council (grants NE/K005243/1 and NE/K003259/1). Dating was supported by the NERC Radiocarbon Facility (NF/2016/2/4).

Yue et al. (2021) have proposed a model of two Upper Palaeolithic industries in Northeast China called the “Initial Microblade Industry” and the “Northern Microblade Industry”, with the latter originating from the former, and its spread to the neighbouring regions of Northeast Asia. We have found several inconsistencies in their factual data and methodology, and therefore the conclusions reached by Yue et al. (2021) cannot be accepted at face value. Using the most reliable evidence, the oldest true microblade assemblages are known from the Korean Peninsula. We suggest that this region is the more probable centre of diffusion of microblade technology in mainland Northeast Asia, including China and the Russian Far East.

Basic data on the geology and geochemistry of obsidian from the Lake Krasnoe source in Chukotka (Northeastern Siberia) are reported for the first time. The data are based on 2009 fieldwork and analytical studies of igneous rock samples. The lake shore and surrounding parts of the Rarytkin Range were thoroughly examined. Two geochemical types of rhyolitic obsidian were recognized for the first time: (1) metaluminous obsidian related to the fine-grained crystalline rocks and (2) peralkaline obsidian corresponding to ignimbrite ash-flows or lapilli-tuffs composition. Both types are related to the final phase of acidic volcanism in the Western Kamchatkan-Koryak Volcanic Belt. Based on the results obtained, we conclude that accumulation of obsidian pebbles in the lake’s modern beach deposits is related to silicic melts that erupted during the late Eocene-early Oligocene in the form of extrusive domes or pyroclastic flows, which are now either covered by Quaternary sediments or located below the water level. The Lake Krasnoe obsidian was intensively used by the ancient populations of Chukotka as a raw material for making stone tools. It was also occasionally transported to Alaska across the Bering Strait in later prehistory. The distances between source and utilization sites are up to 700–1100 km. Geochemical data for Lake Krasnoe obsidian, based on neutron activation analysis and X-ray fluorescence that are presented here, can now be used for provenance studies in the Northeastern Siberia and adjacent regions of northern North America.

The burial near Lake Atlasovskoye, Yakutia, is one of the earliest Yakut burials, dating back to the 14th or 15th centuries and associated with the medieval Kulun-Atakh culture. Initially, its age was assessed by the comparative typological method based on artifacts, and later а radiocarbon estimate was generated, suggesting that the burial dates to the early stage of the Kulun-Atakh culture. Its highly unusual feature is that the individual was buried in a seated position – an exceptional case in the Yakut funerary practice. The cranium was completely wrapped in a bandage sewn from birchbark sheets, under which lethal injuries were found. Our comprehensive study was aimed at assessing the individual’s lifestyle and cause of death. Postcranial bones revealed pathologal symptoms unusual for an early age (20–25) and caused by excessive physical strain, suggesting that the man was either a slave or a warrior. The complex birchbark bandage may indicate high status. Together with the seated position of the body, this makes the military status even more likely. Multiple traumatic lesions inflicted with a cutting tool indicate the violent nature of conflicts at the early stage of the Yakut culture. Craniometruic analysis reveals Buryat and Mongol affi nities, supporting epic evidence relating to Yakut origins, in which Buryat or Mongol immigrants had taken part.

An Illustrated Companion to Japanese Archaeology. Edited by Werner Steinhaus and Simon Kaner. Archaeopress, Oxford. 2016. ISBN 978-1-78491-425-7 (Paperback £35.00), 344 pp, 210 figures, 248 plates....

The freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) was estimated for the northern part of West Siberia for the first time, based on securely dated samples from the late medieval town of Mangazeya existed mainly in AD 1601–1650. Twelve specimens of six species of freshwater fish were selected for 14C dating, and C and N stable isotopes analysis. The FRE varies from ca. 310 to ca. 1970 14C years, and there is no consistency in terms of relationship to feeding habits or trophic level of fish; the FRE fluctuations for Mangazeya, as well as for other regions in northern Eurasia, are noteworthy. This information should be taken into account when 14C dating of bones of humans and domestic animals, who consume significant amount of freshwater fish, is conducted. This also applies to 14C dating of food crusts on the surface of pottery.

For the first time, an obsidian provenance study is performed for artifacts from the Indigirka River basin (Northeast Siberia). The non-destructive ED–XRF analysis of seven obsidian items from the Buolumuna-Taasa site, dated to the Neolithic (ca. 5000–1000 cal BC), shows that all of them originated from the Lake Krasnoe source, situated ca. 1300 km away. This is a remarkable example of super-long-distance transport / exchange of obsidian in prehistory of Siberian Arctic, and it testifies in favor of extensive contacts of ancient population in Northeast Siberia since the Mesolithic, ca. 6900 cal BC, or even earlier.