Radiocarbon Chronology of Paleolithic and Neolithic Cultural Complexes from the Russian Far East

A systematic chronology of Stone Age complexes from the Russian Far East is constructed based on radiocarbon dates from key sites. This paper reports all known (published and unpublished) radiocarbon dates as of early 2000. More than 190 radiocarbon dates from 59 sites pinpoint the timing of such events as the Paleolithic–Neolithic transition (ca. 13,000–10,000 bp); the origins of pottery making (ca. 13,000 bp); the beginning of marine resource exploitation (ca. 6000 bp), and the beginning of dryland millet agriculture (ca. 4000 bp). One of the most important findings is that there were at least two independent centers of pottery origins in Northeast Asia, namely the Japanese Islands and the Lower Amur River basin. The correlation of cultural processes with adjacent areas of Northeast Asia, including Northeast China, Korea, and Japan, becomes possible with accurate and precise radiocarbon chronologies for these territories.