Early Siberians from Lake Baikal and Alaskan population affinities

Abstract

Among the materials excavated by the 1975 joint USSR–USA team in Siberia are two burials from Shaman's Cape, Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal. One is a middle‐aged male of the Serovo culture, 6,000 B.C., and the other is a young male of the Glaskovo culture of 2,000 B.C. This later burial displays an unusual pathology affecting the nose and post‐cranial regions of the pelvic girdle and lower limbs. Osteon analysis confirms the determination of age at death and illustrates the difference between normal and pathological bone. Numerous cultural materials were associated with these burials, including harpoon heads, knives, a compound fishhook and a pestle with the Serovo man, and nephrite ornaments with the Glaskovo man. The skulls, though far apart in time, are pronouncedly Mongoloid and alike in their low cranial vaults. A low, broad and inclined ascending ramus resembles Chukchi, Eskimos and Aleuts. These two specimens document the Mongoloid character of the early inhabitants of Lake Baikal.

Populational Affinities of the Peruvian with Siberians and North Americans: A Nonmetric Cranial Approach.

“…Turning to efforts by others, a joint USA-USSR field research team excavated human skeletal remains at prehistoric burial sites near Lake Baikal in 1975 (Laughlin et al, 1976). The dental morphology and nonmetric cranial traits of the Siberians have been the subjects of numerous recent investigations, resulting in various hypotheses on prehistoric Mongoloid dispersal (Turner, 1971(Turner, , 1983(Turner, , 1985(Turner, , 1986a(Turner, , 1986b(Turner, , 1987(Turner, , 1989(Turner, , 1990Turner and Bird, 1981;Greenberg et al, 1986;Ossenberg, 1986Ossenberg, , 1992.…”

Aleksander K. Konopatskii. 2021. Aleksei P. Okladnikov: the great explorer of the past. Volume II: a biography of a Soviet archaeologist (1960s–1980s). Translated by Richard L. Bland & Yaroslav V. Kuzmin. Oxford: Archaeopress; 978-1-78969-707-0 paperback £34.99.

“…The excavations on the islands of Anangula and Ol'kon resulted in several co-authored papers (Laughlin & Okladnikov 1975, 1976; Laughlin et al . 1976), and the 1974 expedition to Anangula is also described in Laughlin's Russian-American Bering Sea relations: research and reciprocity (1985), dedicated to the memory of Okladnikov. Laughlin happily recalled “the continuity of the Aleut cultural heritage from its earliest distinctive appearance to the living Aleuts was demonstrated and verified.…”