A05_01

Humans in Siberia at the Last Glacial Maximum: desolate landscapes or suitable habitats?

Kuzmin Y¹,

¹Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, SiberianBranch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russian Federation

Recent progress in Paleolithic chronology of northern Eurasia with the help of radiocarbon dating has allowed us to sub-divide the Upper Paleolithic into stages. One of the most intriguing issues is the possibility of humans to exist in Western/Central Europe north of the Alps, in Eastern Europe, and in Siberia during the coldest phase of the Upper Pleistocene, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ca. 19,000–26,500 cal BP. Some scholars previously suggested that people retreated from South Siberia and Central/Eastern Europe at the peak of the LGM. However, according to the latest summaries there are about 35 sites in Southern/Central Siberia (south of 58° N) dated to ca. 22,600–27,700 cal BP. Some sites possibly associated with the LGM are found in more northern latitudes, up to 70° N. One of the recent examples of human adaptation to the cold and dry LGM environment is the Volchia Griva site in central Western Siberia (54.7° N) where several radiocarbon dates (run on animal bones and hearth charcoal) in the interval of ca. 22,200–23,600 cal BP were generated from a habitation layer. The high degree of adaptation (efficient hunting strategies, tailored fur clothes, and dwellings) allowed humans to colonize the vast swathes of southern and central Siberia at the height of the LGM. It is now clear that the concept of the “depopulation” of Siberia during the LGM is completely out of date.

This research is funded by the Russian Science Foundation, grant 20-17-00033.