Animal domestication in the high Arctic: Hunting and holding reindeer on the I͡Amal peninsula, northwest Siberia

David G. Anderson* (Corresponding Author), Loïc Harrault, Karen B. Milek, Bruce C. Forbes, Mari Kuoppamaa, Andreĭ V. Plekhanov

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

The history of animal domestication in the Arctic is often represented as marginal or a weak copy of more complex pastoral situations in southern climes. This article re-assesses the classic archaeological site of I͡Arte 6 on the I͡Amal Peninsula of Northwest Siberia for markers of early Rangifer and dog taming and the emergence of transport reindeer husbandry at the start of the Iron Age. We critically examine published and unpublished Russian language material on this first millenium site, and evaluate the interpretations against three ethnoarchaeological models: herd-following, decoy-mediated hunting, and transport reindeer husbandry. Using new ethnographic, geoarchaeological, botanical, and palynological evidence, as well as a revised site chronology, we demonstrate that I͡Arte 6 was likely the home of several different types of adaptation over a much longer period of time than had previously been assumed. This leads us to question the standard models of reindeer pastoralism, and to argue for a renewed attention to the ways in which Rangifer are held and enticed into a long-term relationship with people, the possibility that canine domestication may have also been a key factor, and how these relationships leave imprints in the environmental record.
Original languageEnglish
Article number101079
Number of pages23
JournalJournal of Anthropological Archaeology
Volume55
Early online date2 Aug 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2019

Bibliographical note

The primary funding for this study was provided by the ESRC ES/M011054/1 “JPI Climate: Social-Ecological Transformations: HUMan-ANimal Relations Under Climate Change in NORthern Eurasia” held at the University of Aberdeen, within the Nordforsk network HUMANOR at the University of Lapland (Decision #291581). Additional support came from the Academy of Finland project “Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems of Northwest Eurasia” (RISES, Decision #256991). We are grateful to a large number of people for making this ambitious fieldwork possible. We are thankful to Natal'i͡a Fedorova and Andreĭ Gusev of the Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies for sharing their knowledge of the history of I͡Amal. We are extremely thankful to Konstantin Oshchepekov for expertly organizing all of the logistics connected with our fieldwork in I͡Amal. The geoarchaeological fieldwork would not have been possible without the help of Julia Kremkova. We are grateful to Bill Fitzhugh, Sven Haakanson, Pavel Kosint͡sev, Nata Panova and Andreĭ Golovnëv for sharing their first-hand accounts of earlier excavations. We are also grateful to Bryan Gordon, Vladimir D'i͡achenko, Rob Losey, Tanya Nomokonova, Yuka Oishi, Elena Volzhanina, Dmitry Arzyutov, Zoya Ravna and Roza Laptander for commenting on aspects of earlier drafts. We are very grateful for the helpful and constructive comments of an anonymous reviewer.

Keywords

  • History of Anthropology
  • Russian Federation
  • Siberia
  • IAmal
  • Rangifer
  • Domestication
  • Geoarchaeology
  • Phosphate Analysis
  • Lipid Biomarker Analysis
  • Palynology
  • Magnetic Susceptibility

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