Dynamics of Forest Vegetation and Climate in the Southern Taiga of Western Siberia in the Late Holocene According to Spore–Pollen Analysis and Ams Dating of the Peat Bog

The Lava mouse ( Malpaisomys insularis), and the Canarian shrew ( Crocidura canariensis) are endemic of the Eastern Canary Islands and islets. The former is extinct while Canarian shrew survives in the two main islands and two islets. In order to provide insights regarding causes and processes contributing to the extinction of these endemic mammals: (i) we established last occurrence dates for Lava mouse, and first records for two exotic species – House mouse ( Mus musculus) and Black rat ( Rattus rattus) – through direct 14C AMS dating of collagen from bones; (ii) we analysed recent material from Barn owl ( Tyto alba gracilirostris) roosting sites to evaluate its impact on Canarian shrew in the presence of introduced rodents. The new data strongly suggest that the extinction of Lava mouse was the result of an accumulative process of independent disappearances (or ‘local extinctions’) affecting the isolated populations. The timing of the introduction of the Black rat on the main islands (before Middle Age European contact in Lanzarote and after Middle Age European contact in Fuerteventura) matches with the last occurrence dates for the presence of Lava mouse on these islands, and are very probably their cause. The losses of these Lava mouse populations occurred in an asynchronous way, spreading across at least six centuries. On small islands, hyperpredation emerges as the most plausible process to explain the disappearance of the Lava mouse in the absence of rat populations, although stochastic processes can not be definitively excluded.

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Archaeological Evidence of Migration from the Southern Taiga of Western Siberia to the Urals in the Early Middle Ages: The Vodennikovo-1 Cemetery

Archaeology Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia ◽

10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.4.091-099 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 91-99

Author(s):

N. P. Matveeva ◽

E. A. Tretyakov ◽

A. S. Zelenkov

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Western Siberia ◽

Solid Wood ◽

Southern Taiga ◽

The Urals ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Archaeological Evidence

We describe 15 burials at the Vodennikovo-1 group of mounds in the northern Kurgan Region, on the Middle Iset River, relevant to migration processes during the Early Middle Ages. On the basis of numerous parallels from contemporaneous sites in the Urals and Western Siberia, the cemetery is dated to the late 7th and 8th centuries. Most of single and collective burials are inhumations in rectangular pits with a northwestern orientation, with vessels, decorated by carved or pricked designs, placed near the heads. These features, typical of the Early Medieval Bakalskaya culture of the Tobol and Ishim basins, are also observed at the Pereyma and Ust-Suerskoye-1 cemeteries in the same area. However, there are innovations such as inlet burials, those in blocks of solid wood and plank coffi ns, western orientation of the deceased, and placing vessels next to the burial pits. These features attest to a different tradition, evidenced by cemeteries of the Potchevash culture in the Tobol and Ishim basins (Okunevo III, Likhacheva, and Vikulovskoye). Also, Potchevash and Bakalskaya vessels co-occur at Vodennikovo-1, and some of them (jugs with comb and grooved designs) are typologically syncretic. To date, this is the westernmost cemetery of the Potchevash culture, suggestive of a migration of part of the southern taiga population from the Ishim and Tobol area to the Urals.

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Hydrological and gas regime of swamps in the conditions of forest reclamation

Melioration and Water Management ◽

10.32962/0235-2524-2020-6-39-44 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (6) ◽

pp. 39-44

Author(s):

Lidiya Inisheva ◽

Leh Shaydak ◽

Boris Babikov

Keyword(s):

Western Siberia ◽

Drainage System ◽

Southern Taiga ◽

The State ◽

Natural State ◽

Forest Steppe ◽

Peat Deposits ◽

Forest Reclamation

The effective of forest reclamation in oligotrophic and eutrophic swamps in the southern taiga and forest-steppe zones of Western Siberia are described. The state of the hydrological and gas regime of peat deposits is analyzed. It is concluded that forest reclamation 60 years ago on oligotrophic and eutrophic swamps has little effect on the hydrological and gas regime of the reclaimed territory at this moment. These regimes are approaching to their natural state, which indicates that the area is re-waterlogged in the absence of operation of the drainage system.

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A Good Place to Live: Plants and People at the Santa Elina Rock Shelter (Central Brazil) from Late Pleistocene to the Holocene

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.1017/laq.2020.3 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 273-291

Author(s):

Rita Scheel-Ybert ◽

Caroline Bachelet

Keyword(s):

Late Pleistocene ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Vegetation Changes ◽

Vegetation Types ◽

Rock Shelter ◽

Good Place ◽

Central Brazil ◽

Cultural Preference ◽

Vegetation And Climate ◽

Over Time

The Santa Elina rock shelter (Central Brazil) was recurrently occupied from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene. We compare sets of previously published anthracological analyses with new data to reconstruct the landscape, vegetation, and climate over the several thousand years of occupation, providing information on firewood management from about 27,000 to about 1500 cal BP. Laboratory analyses followed standard anthracological procedures. We identified 34 botanical families and 84 genera in a sample of almost 5,000 charcoal pieces. The Leguminosae family dominates the assemblage, followed by Anacardiaceae, Bignoniaceae, Rubiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Sapotaceae. The area surrounding the shelter was forested throughout the studied period. The local landscape was formed, as it is today, by a mosaic of vegetation types that include forest formations and open cerrado. Some regional vegetation changes may have occurred over time. Our data corroborate the practice of opportunistic firewood gathering in all periods of site occupation, despite a possible cultural preference for some taxa. The very long occupation of Santa Elina may be due not only to its attractiveness as a rock shelter but also to the continuously forested vegetation around it. It was a good place to live.

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