Burial Rite of the Ancient Population of the Russian Lapland Arctic Coast (according to the excavations of the Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground)

The Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground is located on the Bolshoy Oleny Island in the Murmansk region. It was discovered in 1925 and investigated by excavations three times (A.V. Shmidt, N.N. Gurina, V.Ya. Shumkin, respectively). In 1935, during the construction of military facilities, a quarry was built on the site of the burial ground. A significant inventory accompanying about 25 buried, as well as the anthropological materials themselves, collected by the builders during earthworks, considered as lost. During all the years of excavations 32 burials with 40 skeletons have been studied. Many of the buried were placed in a kind of "sarcophagus" in the form of boats, made of boards according to all the rules of shipbuilding technology and covered with a "lid" of the same design. The archaeological material has numerous analogies among the tools and artifacts of a non-utilitarian nature of the Arctic Lapland coastal settlements of the Bronze Age, and some of them in the Ymyyakhtakh culture of Siberia. Anthropological and paleogenetic data indicate that the Oleny Island ancient population, buried in the Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground, do not show similarities neither with the previous residents, nor with the Saami, who replaced them, but find certain correspondences among the inhabitants of the south of West and Northeast Siberia

Early Metal Age Dwellings in Eastern Lapland: Investigations of the Kola Archaeological Expedition (IHMC) in 2004–2014

After 10 years of field investigation by the Kola Archaeological Expedition (Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences; IHMC RAS) it is now evident that a single archaeological culture (phase) prevailed on the Arctic coast from Tromsø (Norway) to Yokanga (Russia) during the Younger Stone Age and Early Metal Period. A close similarity between the assemblages of this culture is recognised in stone and bone artefacts, as well in dwelling constructions. This paper presents the results of the fieldwork in 2004–2014 and discusses the dwellings excavated at the Zavalishina 5 site

Kharlovka 1-6 on the Kola Peninsula: One of the Oldest Gressbakken House Sites in Northern Fennoscandia

The remains of a semi-subterranean house were discovered at the Kharlovka 1-6 site on the Barents Sea coast of the Kola Peninsula, Russia. Despite suffering from erosion, features such as a double stone-boarded hearth and chimney pipe together with diagnostic finds allow us to attribute the house to the so-called Gressbakken type. The artefact assemblage includes stone tools, bone and antler tools and adornments, asbestos-tempered pottery, an amber pendant and a copper tubular bead. Numerous faunal remains are primarily represented by marine species of mammals and birds. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal point to the period 2600–2300 calBC, which is also supported by the artefact types, elevation of the cultural layer and construction type of the house. When accounting for the early dates of Kharlovka 1-6 and several other dwellings, it can be assumed that the Gressbakken house tradition emerged around 2600–2300 calBC. This date is somewhat earlier than previously thought

Kola Oleneostrovskiy Grave Field: A Unique Burial Site in the European Arctic

The Kola Oleneostrovskiy grave field (KOG) is the main source of information for the physical and cultural anthropology of the Early Metal Period population of the Kola Peninsula and the whole northern Fennoscandia.1 Excavations were conducted here in 1925, 1928, 1947–1948, and 2001–2004 by A. Shmidt, N. Gurina, and V. Shumkin. Altogether 32 burials containing the remains of 43 individuals were investigated. During the excavations, also remains of wooden grave constructions were found. The site is exceptionally rich in burial goods, including numerous bone, antler, stone, ceramic, and bronze items. Grave goods differ slightly between male and female burials. There is some evidence of long-distance contacts between the local population and southern and western Scandinavia, most notably in the chemical composition of bronze items and in some types of bone tools. Anthropological data, including the analysis of paleoDNA, suggests that people from geographically more eastern areas took part in the genesis of the ancient population of the northern Kola Peninsula. These people belonged to a specific physical type associated with modern Siberian anthropological groups

Ancient DNA reveals prehistoric gene-flow from Siberia in the complex human population history of north east Europe

North East Europe harbors a high diversity of cultures and languages, suggesting a complex genetic history. Archaeological, anthropological, and genetic research has revealed a series of influences from Western and Eastern Eurasia in the past. While genetic data from modern-day populations is commonly used to make inferences about their origins and past migrations, ancient DNA provides a powerful test of such hypotheses by giving a snapshot of the past genetic diversity. In order to better understand the dynamics that have shaped the gene pool of North East Europeans, we generated and analyzed 34 mitochondrial genotypes from the skeletal remains of three archaeological sites in northwest Russia. These sites were dated to the Mesolithic and the Early Metal Age (7,500 and 3,500 uncalibrated years Before Present). We applied a suite of population genetic analyses (principal component analysis, genetic distance mapping, haplotype sharing analyses) and compared past demographic models through coalescent simulations using Bayesian Serial SimCoal and Approximate Bayesian Computation. Comparisons of genetic data from ancient and modern-day populations revealed significant changes in the mitochondrial makeup of North East Europeans through time. Mesolithic foragers showed high frequencies and diversity of haplogroups U (U2e, U4, U5a), a pattern observed previously in European hunter-gatherers from Iberia to Scandinavia. In contrast, the presence of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups C, D, and Z in Early Metal Age individuals suggested discontinuity with Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and genetic influx from central/eastern Siberia. We identified remarkable genetic dissimilarities between prehistoric and modern-day North East Europeans/Saami, which suggests an important role of post-Mesolithic migrations from Western Europe and subsequent population replacement/extinctions. This work demonstrates how ancient DNA can improve our understanding of human population movements across Eurasia. It contributes to the description of the spatio-temporal distribution of mitochondrial diversity and will be of significance for future reconstructions of the history of Europeans.Clio Der Sarkissian, Oleg Balanovsky, Guido Brandt, Valery Khartanovich, Alexandra Buzhilova, Sergey Koshel, Valery Zaporozhchenko, Detlef Gronenborn, Vyacheslav Moiseyev, Eugen Kolpakov, Vladimir Shumkin, Kurt W. Alt, Elena Balanovska, Alan Cooper, Wolfgang Haak, the Genographic Consortiu

Première colonisation dans la zone Arctique

L\u27histoire de la colonisation de l\u27Arctique par l\u27Homme constitue l\u27un des plus beaux exemples de la thèse selon laquelle l\u27histoire humaine, en particulier au cours ses premiers stades, présente un continuum d\u27adaptations. L\u27étude des sites archéologiques de Fennoscandie du Nord en apporte le témoignage, et ce depuis le Mésolithique.Human colonization of the Arctic zone constitutes one of the most beautiful illustrations of the thesis according which human history, particularly in its early stages, represents a continuum of adaptations. The study of archaeological sites of North Fennoscandia has brought numerous evidences since the Mesolithic period.</p

Percentages of haplotypes from aUzPo and aBOO matched in modern-day Eurasian population pools.

<p>Percentages of matches for the haplotypes from aBOO are represented by white bars. Percentages of matches for the haplotypes from aUzPo are independently represented by superimposed black bars.</p

Relative model likelihood of the demographic models simulated in Bayesian Serial SimCoal, as indicated by Akaike weights ω.

<p>For each hypothesis tested, models are ordered from the least likely (lowest ω) to the most likely model (highest ω). NEE, North East Europe; CE, Central Europe.</p