AMS 14C age of the earliest pottery from the Russian Far East: 1996–2002 results

Chronology of the earliest pottery in East Asia: progress and pitfalls

“…In the 1990s and early 2000s, more dates older than c . 10 000 BP were obtained from the Initial Neolithic sites of Gasya, Khummi, Gromatukha, Goncharka 1, and Novopetrovka 2, all with pottery (Kuzmin 2002;Kuzmin & Orlova 2000;Kuzmin et al 1997;Derevianko et al 2004) (Figure 1). The charcoal 14 C values are the most reliable ones because they are generally directly associated with human activity.…”

“…The compression of prehistoric cultural layers in the Russian Far East is a common feature. In order to avoid any possible age distortion from the 'palimpsest' stratigraphy at the key sites, attempts to date the plant-fibre-tempered pottery directly have been conducted (O'Malley et al 1999;Derevianko et al 2004). According to these, the manufacture of pottery with organic temper in the Russian Far East may have started as early as c .…”

Human population dynamics and Yersinia pestis in ancient northeast Asia

“…By the time the glaciation came to an end, ~20,000 to 18,000 years ago, both humans and the megafauna in the area had suffered the consequences of the LGM, but new data have contradicted earlier speculations of a marked settlement decline in the area (5)(6)(7). Traces of LGM and post-LGM human activity in northeast Asia, as evidenced by the presence of lithic technologies and pre-Neolithic pottery, are found across the east Siberian plateau as well as the Trans-Baikal area, east of Lake Baikal (2,(8)(9)(10)(11). Throughout the Holocene, multiple cultural complexes emerged gradually across the northeast Asia, some of which spread eastward through northern Alaska and reached the previously uninhabited Greenland around 4500 years ago (11)(12)(13).…”

Prehistoric human responses to volcanic tephra fall events in the Ust-Kamchatsk region, Kamchatka Peninsula (Kamchatsky Krai, Russian Federation) during the middle to late Holocene (6000–500 cal BP)

“…As in other northern latitudes, such as northern Fennoscandia, the Neolithic period is not marked by agricultural economies. There is currently no historical ethnographic evidence (Krasheninnikov, 1972(Krasheninnikov, [1949; Steller, 1999) or archaeological evidence (Ponomarenko, 2000;Derevianko, 2004) for the presence or production of ceramics among peoples of the Kamchatka River valley in prehistory. During the Neolithic, vessels were most likely fashioned out of wood into troughs and cups and baskets weaved from strips of birch bark.…”