Glacier dynamics, palaeohydrological changes and seismicity in southeastern Altai (Russia) and their influence on human occupation during the last 3000 years

Environmental context and adaptations of prehistoric and early historical occupation in the Southern Altai (SW Siberia–East Kazakhstan)

“…AD 1200 and the Little Ice Age (seventeenth-eighteenth century) (Schlütz and Lehmkuhl 2006). These climate shifts are clearly The palynologically based mid-and late Holocene climate history corroborates the reconstructed glacial dynamics in Southern Altai over the past 3000 years, with stages of mountain ice re-advance at 2300-1700 cal/year BP and during the thirteenth-nineteenth century AD (Agatova et al 2014). The advanced territorial aridity and cooling promoted expansion of mountain grasslands that constituted the primary subsistence base of the early Iron Age (Scythian) nomadic settlements.…”

“…In the Chuya Depression, the residual Holocene lakes of the Last Ice Age are believed to have disappeared at ca. 1500 cal/year BP (Agatova et al 2014) as a result of increasing territorial aridity during to the early historical nomadic settlement of the Southern Altai. The analogous last glacial basins with the characteristic flat terrace landforms and adjoining proluvial flats became the principal Eneolithic to the early Iron-Age (pre-)Scythian occupation (ninth-third century BC) geo-setting and activity area for the local prehistoric communities.…”

“…Alongside the contextualising geoarchaeological information, the burial constructions themselves serve as records for the study of forest exploitation in this period represented by people of the Pazyryk culture (Bykov et al 2005). The active Iron Age deforestration of the Southern Altai pilot-studied in the eastern part of the Chuya Basin (Agatova et al 2014) undoubtedly strengthened, together with overgrazing, the negative anthropogenic impact to the early Late Holocene landscape and promoted regional aridity. The radiocarbon and dendrochronology cross-dating of well-preserved larch (Larix sibirica) wood logs from the permafrost-sealed Scythian mounds demonstrates persistence of the Paryzyk culture in Gorno Altai during the period of 720-240 year BC.…”

“…In addition to climate, regional endogene processes associated with the continuous uplift of the Altai Mountains generating strong earthquakes in the Chuya Basin at the recurrent interval of ca. 400 years contributing to a local fluvial system transformation (Agatova et al 2014) may have effected, to some extent, the prehistoric and early historical environmental adjustment and the social-economic stability of the spatially dispersed nomadic communities. Due to the geographic location within the active orogenic zone (Buslov et al 2004;Cunningham 2005), earthquakes continue to affect the Southern Altai area with a disastrous impact to modern occupation sites, Overall, the complex prehistoric and early historical economic activities of the southern Altai populations were directly influenced by the sequenced climatic and corresponding environmental changes pre-requiring secure adjustment to specific (alpine and steppe) mountain settings eloquently and bestmanifested by the Scythian cultural monuments.…”

Recurrence interval of strong earthquakes in the se Altai, Russia revealed by tree-ring analysis and radiocarbon dating

“…High seismicity of the SE Altai is evidenced by paleoruptures, numerous large Holocene earthquake induced landslides, and seismic convolutions in soft sediments (Fig. 2) (Butvilovsky, 1993;Rogozhin and Platonova, 2002;Rogozhin et al, 2007;Deev et al, 2009and Agatova et al, 2006, 2014a. Recently it was supported by the 2003 Chuya earthquake (M S =7.3).…”