Large mammal faunas of the European part of Russia in Anthropocene

Large mammal faunas of the European part of Russia in Anthropocene

Sablin M.V.

P. 58-64

The article presents the results of a study of a unique osteological material from archaeological sites and settlements in the European part of Russia. In total, more than 119 thousand bones of large Anthropocene mammals were studied. The closest analogue of the Early Pleistocene faunal complex Muhkai 2 is a community of animals from the dry African savannah. Data to distinguish between the early and late (1.1 Mya) stages of the Taman fauna are presented. It was confirmed that in the Late Pleistocene, the climate was responsible for changes in the number of large mammals and their habitats. It was shown that the domestication of the dog occurred in the early Upper Paleolithic, and in the Holocene, the indigenous European population of Canis familiaris was largely replaced by migrants from the east. Data are given that support that throughout the Anthropocene at archaeological sites and settlements in the European part of Russia, there was a practice of humans total utilization of animals they had extracted or raised.DOI: 10.15298/rusjtheriol.19.1.05

Literature
  • Amirkhanov H.A., Ozherelev D.V., Gribchenko Y.N., Sablin M.V., Semenov V.V. & Trubikhin V. 2014. Early Humans at the eastern gate of Europe: The discovery and investigation of Oldowan sites in northern Caucasus // Comptes Rendus Palevol. Vol.13. P.717–725.
  • Amirkhanov H.A., Ozherelyev D.V., Sablin M.V. & Agadzhanyan A.K. 2016. Faunal remains from the Oldowan site of Muhkai II in the North Caucasus: Potential for dating and palaeolandscape reconstruction // Quaternary International. Vol.395. P.233–241.
  • Amirkhanov H.A., Tesakov A.S. & Ozherelyev D.V. 2017. [On the geochronology on the Muhkai 2a site in Dagestan] // Byulleten Komissii po Izucheniyu Chetvertichnogo Perioda. No.75. P.5–10 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Dalen L., Nystrom V., Valdiosera C., Germonpré M., Sablin M., Turner E., Angerbjorn A., Arsuaga J.L. & Gotherstrom A. 2007. Ancient DNA reveals lack of postglacial habitat tracking in the arctic fox // Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. Vol.104. No.16. P.6726–6729.
  • Demay L., Patou-Mathis M., Khlopachev G.A., Sablin M.V. & Vercoutere C. 2019. Lexploitation de la faune par les groupes humains du Pléniglaciaire supérieur à Eliseevichi 1 (Russie) // LAnthropologie. Vol.123. No.2. P.345–402.
  • Demay L., Patou-Mathis M., Pean S., Khlopachev G.A. & Sablin M.V. 2017. From mammoth to fox: functional identification of Eliseevichi 1 within Upper Pleniglacial settlements of the Desna valley // Vita Antiqua. No.9. P.81–106.
  • Dennell R. & Roebbroeks W. 1996. The earliest colonization of Europe: the short chronology revisited // Antiquity. Vol.70. P.535–542.
  • Frantz L.A.F., Mullin V.E., Pionnier-Capitan M., Lebrasseur O., Ollivier M., Linderholm A., Mattiangeli V., Teasdale M.D., Dimopoulos A., Perri A., Tresset A., Duffraisse M., McCormick F., Bartosiewicz L., Gal E., Nyerges E.A., Sablin M.V., Brehard S., Mashkour M., Balasescu A., Gillet B., Hitte C., Vigne J.-D., Dobney K., Hanni C., Bradley D.G. & Larson G. 2016. Genomic and archaeological evidence suggest a dual origin of domestic dogs // Science. Vol.352. P.1228–1231.
  • Germonpré M., Sablin M.V., Khlopachev G.A. & Grigorieva G.V. 2008a. [Yudinovo Paleolithic site: evidence in favor of the mammoth hunting hypothesis] // Zamyatninskiy Sbornik. No.1. P.91–112 [in Russian].
  • Germonpré M., Sablin M.V., Khlopachev G.A. & Grigorieva G.V. 2008b. Possible evidence of mammoth hunting during the Epigravettian at Yudinovo, Russian Plain // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. Vol.27. No.4. P.475–492.
  • Korotkevich B.S. & Sablin M.V. 2014. [Fauna of the settlement Anashkino (dynamics of cultural-chronological changes)] // Arkheologiya i istoriya Pskova i Pskovskoy zemli. Seminar imeni akademika V.V. Sedova. No.59. P.298–311 [in Russian].
  • Korotkevich B.S., Sablin M.V. & Syromyatnikova E.V. 2010. [Fauna of the settlement Anashkino in the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age] // Arkheologicheskiy Sbornik Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii Evrazii. No.38. P.24–29 [in Russian].
  • Kulakov S.A. 2019. Site du Paléolithique inférieur de Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka dans la péninsule de Taman, Kraï de Krasnodar, Russie // LAnthropologie. Vol.123. No.2. P.194–215.
  • Lorenzen E.D., Nogues-Bravo D., Orlando L., Weinstock J., Binladen J., Marske K.A., Ugan A., Borregaard M.K., Gilbert M.T. P., Nielsen R., Ho S.Y.W., Goebel T., Graf K.E., Byers D., Stenderup J.T., Rasmussen M., Campos P.F., Leonard J.A., Koepfli K.-P., Froese D., Zazula G., Stafford Jr. T.W., Aaris-Sørensen K., Batra P., Haywood A.M., Valdes P.J., Boeskorov G., Burns J.A., Davydov S.P., Haile J., Jenkins D.L., Kosintsev P., Kuznetsova T., Lai X., Martin L.D., McDonald H.G., Mol D., Meldgaard M., Munch K., Stephan E., Sablin M., Sommer R.S., Sipko T., Scott E., Suchard M.A., Tikhonov A., Willerslev R., Wayne R.K., Cooper A., Hofreiter M., Sher A., Shapiro B., Rahbek C. & Willerslev E. 2011. Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans // Nature. Vol.479. P.359–364.
  • Losey R., Bazaliiskii V.I., Garvie-Lok S., Germonpré M., Leonard J.A., Allen A.L., Katzenberg M.A. & Sablin M.V. 2011. Canids as persons: Early Neolithic dog and wolf burials, Cis-Baikal, Siberia // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. Vol.30. No.2. P.174–189.
  • Losey R.J., Garvie-Lok S., Leonard J.A., Katzenberg M.A., Germonpré M., Nomokonova T., Sablin M.V., Goriunova O.I., Berdnikova N.E. & Savelev N.A. 2013. Burying dogs in ancient Cis-Baikal, Siberia: temporal trends and relationships with human diet and subsistence practices // PLoS ONE. Vol.8. No.5. P.1–23.
  • Losey R.J., Jessup E., Nomokonova T. & Sablin M. 2014. Craniomandibular trauma and tooth loss in northern dogs and wolves: implications for the archaeological study of dog husbandry and domestication // PLoS ONE. Vol.9. No.6. P.1–16.
  • Losey R.J., Nomokonova T., Drake A., Fleming L.S., Kharinskii A.V., Kovychev E.V., Konstantinov M.V., Diatchina N.G., Sablin M.V. & Iaroslavtseva L.G. 2018a. Buried, eaten, sacrificed: archaeological dog remains from Trans-Baikal, Siberia // Archaeological Research in Asia. Vol.16. P.58–65.
  • Losey R.J., Nomokonova T., Gusev A., Bachura O., Fedorova N., Kosintsev P. & Sablin M. 2018b. Dogs were domesticated in the Arctic: culling practices and dog sledding at Ust-Polui // Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. Vol.51. P.113–126.
  • Mannermaa K., Gerasimov D., Girya E. & Sablin M.V. 2019. Wild boar (Sus scrofa) teeth from a female burial in Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, Northwestern Russia (c.6200 cal BC) – local rarities or transported goods // Environmental Archaeology: The Journal of Human Palaeoecology. Vol.24. No.1. P.79–90.
  • Ollivier M., Tresset A., Bastian F., Lagoutte L., Axelsson E., Arendt M.-L., Balasescu A., Marshour M., Pionnier-Capitan M., Sablin M.V., Salanova L., Vigne J.-D., Hitte C. & Hanni C. 2016. Amy2B copy number variation reveals starch diet adaptation in European ancient dogs // Royal Society Open Science. Vol.3. No.11. P.1–9.
  • Ollivier M., Tresset A., Frantz L., Bréhard S., Bălăsescu A., Mashkour M., Boroneant A., Pionnier-Capitan M., Lebrasseur O., Arbogast R.M., Bartosiewicz L., Debue K., Rabinovich R., Sablin M.V., Larson G., Hänni C., Hitte C. & Vigne J.-D. 2018. Dogs accompanied humans during the Neolithic expansion into Europe // Biology Letters. Vol.14. No.10. P.1–4.
  • Palkopoulou E., Dalen L., Lister A.M., Vartanyan S., Sablin M., Sher A., Edmark V.N., Brandstrom M.D., Germonpré M., Barnes I. & Thomas J.A. 2013. Holarctic genetic structure and range dynamics in the woolly mammoth // Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences. Vol.280. No.1770. P.1–9.
  • Reynolds N., Germonpré M., Bessudnov A.A. & Sablin M.V. 2019. The Late Gravettian site of Kostënki 21 Layer III, Russia: a chronocultural reassessment based on a new interpretation of the significance intra-site spatial patterning // Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. Vol.2. No.2. P.160–210.
  • Sablin M.V. 2007a. [Ancient dogs of the Upper Desna sites] // Desninskiye Drevnosti. No.4. P.70–74 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2007b. [New studies of the faunal remains from the Ryurik Gorodishche] // Novgorod i Novgorodskaya Zemlya. Istoriya i Arkheologiya. No.21. P.310–312 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2008. [The most probable age of the Sinyaya Balka (Bogatyry) locality] // Early Paleolithic of Eurasia: new discoveries. Proceedings of the International Meeting. Rostov-on-Don: Izdatelstvo SSC RAS. P.96–99 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. 2010a. [The most probable age of the Bogatyry site] // [The Earliest inhabitants of the Caucasus and Hominid Dispersals at Eurasia]. Proceedings of the International Meeting. Saint Petersburg: Izdatelstvo IOS RAS. P.105–114 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. 2010b. [Fauna of the North-West of Russia in the Neolithic, Late Bronze and Early Iron Age] // [Dynamic of Ecosystems in the Holocene]. Proceedings of the Second Russian Scientific Conference. Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk: Rifey. P.177–181 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2011. [Early Anthropocene faunas and resettlement of the genus Homo] // Proceedings of the III (XIX) All-Russian Archaeological Congress. Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Velikiy Novgorod. Vol.1. P.86–87 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2013. Large mammalian fauna from Layer IV of Kiik-Koba Grotto: a zooarchaeological analysis of the bone assemblage // Demidenko Y.E. & Uthmeier Th. (eds.). Kiik-Koba Grotto, Crimea (Ukraine). Re-analysis of a key site of the Crimean Micoquian. Kölner Studien zur Prähistorischen Archäologie. Vol.3. P.165–172.
  • Sablin M.V. 2014a. [Paleontology of the Yudinovo site: the new facts, analysis, interpretation] // Epigravettskie Pamyatniki Srednego Podneprovya. Arkheologicheskiy Almanakh. No.31. P.133–150 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. 2014b. Archaezoological analysis of osteological material of pile-dwellings of the Dvina region // Mazurkevich A., Polkovnikova M.E., Dolbunova E. (eds.). Archaeology of lake settlements IV-II mill. BC: chronology of cultures, environment and palaeoclimatic rhythms. Saint Petersburg: OOO Periferiya. P.223–231.
  • Sablin M.V. 2016a. [Faunal remains of large mammals from layer 80 of the Muhkai 2 site (Central Dagestan; 2009-2012 years excavations)] // Amirkhanov H.A. (ed.). Severnyy Kavkaz: Nachalo Preistorii. Moscow: Mavrayev. P.221–233 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2016b. [Report on a paleontological study of the materials from the Paleolithic site Muhkai 2. (Excavations in 2013 year) // Amirkhanov H.A. (ed.). Severnyy Kavkaz: Nachalo Preistorii. Moscow: Mavrayev. P.234–249 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2016c. [Dog from the Upper Paleolithic Eliseevichi 1 settlement] // Verkhniy paleolit: obrazy, simvoly, znaki. Katalog predmetov iskusstva malykh form i unikalnykh nakhodok verkhnego paleolita iz arkheologicheskogo sobraniya MAE RAN. Saint Petersburg: Ekstraprint. P.356–359 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2016d. [Osteological material from the settlement of Golubitskaya 2 (excavation 1)] // Aziatskiy Bosfor i Prikubanye v dorimskoye vremya. Moscow: Izdatelstvo SHM. P.84–89 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2017a. [Fauna of large mammals from Eliseevichi 1 site] // Zamyatninskiy Sbornik. No.5. P.21–45 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. 2017b. [Fauna of Ryurik Gorodishche (according to the results of 2000–2011 years excavations)] // Nosov E.N., Plokhov A.V. & Khvoshchinskaya N.V. (eds.). Ryurikovo Gorodishche. Novyye etapy issledovaniy. Saint Petersburg: Dmitriy Bulanin. P.258–266 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. 2018. [Archeozoological analysis of the osteological material of the Rakushechny Yar settlement while studying the economy of the Early Neolithic population] // Samarskiy Nauchnyy Vestnik. Vol.7. No.3. P.160–165 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. 2019. [Epigravettian site Yudinovo: mammoth and man] // Camera Praehistorica. No.2. P.108–127 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V., Amirkhanov H.A. & Ozherelyev D.V. 2013. [Oldowan site Muhkai 2: paleontological data for dating and reconstruction of the natural environment] // Rossiyskaya Arkheologiya. No.4. P.7–19 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V., Burova N.D. & Petrova E.A. 2018. [Horses and ancient people: zooarchaeological investigation of Muhkai 2a] // Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta RAN. Vol.322. No.3. P.333–356 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. & Girya E.Yu. 2009. [Artifact from Liventsovka – the evidence of human presence in Eastern Europe in the range of 2.1–1.97 million years ago] // [Oldest human migrations in Eurasia]. Proceedings of the International Meeting. Novosibirsk: Izdatelstvo IAET SB RAS. P.166–174 [in Russian].
  • Sablin M.V. & Girya E.Yu. 2010. The earliest evidence of human occupation in Southeastern Europe: a processed camel bone fragment from the Lower Don // Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. Vol.38. No.2. P.7–13.
  • Sablin M.V. & Khlopachev G.A. 2001. [The dogs from the Upper Paleolithic site Eliseevichi 1] // Stratum Plus. No.1. P.393–397 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. & Khlopachev G.A. 2002. The earliest Ice Age dogs: evidence from Eliseevichi 1 // Current Anthropology. Vol.43. No.5. P.795–798.
  • Sablin M.V. & Khlopachev G.A. 2003. Die altesten hunde aus Eliseevici I (Russland) // Archaologisches Korrespondenzblatt. Vol.33. No.3. P.309–316.
  • Sablin M.V., Panteleev A.V. & Syromyatnikova E.V. 2011. [Archaeozoological analysis of the osteological material from the Neolithic pile dwellings in the Dvina-Lovat Area: economy and ecology] // Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta RAN. Vol.315. No.2. P.143–153 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Sablin M.V. & Syromyatnikova E.V. 2009. Animal remains from Neolithic sites in Northwestern Russia // Dolukhanov P.M., Sarson G.R. & Shukurov A.M. (eds.). The East European Plain on the eve of agriculture. British Archaeological Reports, International Series. Vol.1964. Oxford: Archaeopress. P.153–158.
  • Shchelinsky V.E. 2010. [The Early Paleolithic sites of Azov] // Chelovek i Drevnosti: pamyati A.A. Formozova (1928-2009). Moscow: Grif and K. P.57–77 [in Russian].
  • Thalmann O., Shapiro B., Cui P., Schuenemann V.J., Sawyer S.K., Greenfield D.L., Germonpré M., Sablin M.V., Lopez-Giraldez F., Domingo-Roura X., Napierala H., Uerpmann H.-P., Loponte D.M., Acosta A.A., Giemsch L., Schmitz R.W., Worthington B., Buikstra J.E., Druzhkova A., Graphodatsky A.S., Ovodov N.D., Wahlberg N., Freedman A.H., Schweizer R.M., Koepfli K.-P., Leonard J.A., Meyer M., Krause J., Paabo S., Green R.E. & Wayne R.K. 2013. Complete mitochondrial genomes of ancient canids suggest a European origin of domestic dogs // Science. Vol.342. P.871–874.
  • Wangenheim E.A., Vekua M.L., Zhegallo V.I., Pevzner M.A., Taktakishvili I.G. & Tesakov A.S. 1991. [Position of the Taman mammalian complex on the stratigraphic and magnetochronological scales] // Byulleten Komissii po Izucheniyu Chetvertichnogo Perioda. No.60. P.41–52 [in Russian, with English summary].
  • Zhuravlev D.V., Sablin M.V. & Strokov A.A. 2016. [Dog burials at the settlement Golubitskaya 2] // Aziatskiy Bosfor i Prikubanye v dorimskoye vremya. Moscow: Izdatelstvo SHM. P.34–37.