The research, published by an international team, reveals new information about how our ancestors dealt with major changes in the climate.
New radiocarbon dates show that Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov’s Early Holocene-era cemetery in Lake Onega, about 500 miles north of Moscow, was previously thought to have been used for centuries, but was actually used for only one to two centuries. Moreover, this seems to have been done in response to a period of climate stress.
The team believes the cemetery was created as a social response to stresses caused by regional resource depression.
Lake Onega, europe’s second largest lake during climate change, had its own ecologically flexible microclimate. This allowed it to attract game animals, including deer, to its shores, while at the same time making the lake itself a fertile fishing area.
However, the drop in temperature about 8,200 years ago should have caused the deaths of winter fish caused by reduced oxygen levels under the ice.
The creation of a cemetery in the area should have helped identify group membership for hunter-gatherer groups that had previously been scattered, reducing potential conflicts over access to the lake’s resources.
However, the team found that when the climate improved, the cemetery was largely decommissioned, as people probably returned to a more active way of life and the lake became less centralized.
These behavioral changes, which could be seen as a more “complex” social system with abundant burial gifts, depended on the situation. But researchers suggest the presence of important decision-makers. The findings also imply that early hunter and gatherer communities are highly resilient and resilient.
The results have important implications for understanding the context for the emergence and resolution of socioeconomic inequality and regionalism under conditions of socio-ecological stress.
Radiocarbon dating of human remains and associated animal remains in the area reveals that the main use of the cemetery was between 100-300 years old and was about 8,250 to 8,000 years before today.
This is quite closely matched by the dramatic cooling event of 8.2 ka. Therefore, this archaeological site can provide evidence of how humans respond to a climate-induced environmental change.
The Holoeen (the current geological period, which began about 11,700 years ago), has been relatively stable compared to current events. But there are a number of climate fluctuations recorded in Greenland ice cores. The most well-known of these is the cooling event 8,200 years ago, the largest climatic decline in the Holocen, which lasted a century to two centuries.
However, there is little evidence of how impressed and affected the hunter-gatherers that existed in much of Europe at that time were, in what forms.
Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov is one of the largest Early Holoene cemeteries in northern Eurasia, with about 400 possible graves, 177 of which were excavated in the 1930s. The cemetery area is an important part of european Mesolithic studies, partly due to the variety of accompanying burial gifts. Some graves are completely devoid of them compared to those with abundant and detailed gifts.
Article: Schulting, R.J., Mannermaa, K., Tarasov, P.E. et al. (2022). Radiocarbon dating from Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery reveals complex human responses to socio-ecological stress during the 8.2 ka cooling event. Nat Ecol Evol.
