Macro-regional interconnections among ancient hunter-gatherers of the Cis-Baikal, Eastern Siberia (Russia)
Résumé
We provide a multi-scalar investigation of interactions among hunter-gatherers in the Cis-Baikal region
of Eastern Siberia during the transition to the Bronze Age (4900e3700 cal BP).We review and synthesize
published data on burial goods and isotopic variation to reconstruct interconnections that existed both
within and between hunter-gatherer groups inhabiting the Cis-Baikal's distinct micro-regions, as well as
macro-regional interconnections between the Cis-Baikal and neighboring regions of Eurasia. While an
extensive body of English-language literature has recently been published on the prehistory of the Cis-
Baikal, this literature does not address patterning in the archaeological record at the macro-regional
scale. The data we discuss here suggest that by the Bronze Age, Cis-Baikal hunter-gatherers shared
several of the hallmark developments that characterized the Bronze Age of the Eurasian Steppe. We
attempt to situate the Cis-Baikal within its broader geographic and historical context, and suggest that
despite the absence of food production (e.g., herding) in the region at this time, local hunter-gatherers’
mobility practices e involving seasonal movement and periodic aggregation e enabled these groups to