Dr. Rick Schulting presents paper on prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Cis-Baikal at the Annual Meeting for the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco
April 19, 2015
Dr. Rick Schulting, from University of Oxford, recently presented a co-authored paper about prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Cis-Baikal at the 80th Annual Meeting for the Society for American Archaeology. The meetings were held in San Francisco, California on April 15-19, 2015.
Title: "Interpersonal violence among the prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal, southern Siberia".
Rick Schulting, University of Oxford
Angela Lieverse, University of Saskatchewan
Vladimir Bazaliiskii, Irkutsk State University
Artur Kharinski, Irkutsk Technical University
Andrzej Weber, University of Alberta
Abstract: The large number of mid-Holocene cemeteries from Lake Baikal and its surrounding river valleys provide an unrivalled archaeological resource for the study of northern Eurasian hunter-gatherers. In this paper we present an overview of the skeletal evidence for interpersonal violence, comparing the Early Neolithic (7550-6800 cal BP) and Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (5700-3700 cal BP), two broad periods exhibiting different mortuary traditions and subsistence practices. Despite the nomenclature, which refers to material culture, these societies relied entirely on hunting, gathering, and especially fishing. Evidence for conflict takes the form of cranial trauma and projectile injuries. With the exception of a probable massacre event in the Early Bronze Age at the site of Shamanka II, levels of violence are not particularly high, and likely relate to both occasional disputes within communities, and to sporadic conflicts between communities. The latter are not unusual among semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers, and could relate to contestations over the control of particularly productive fishing and sealing locations.
Link to SAA's 80th Annual Meeting Program