The natural environment of the de long archipelago and ancient man in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene

Abstract

Archeological excavations were carried out in 1989–1990 on a Mesolithic hunting camp on Zhokhova Island in the De Long Archipelago (north of the New Siberian Islands). Samples of wood and bone from the culture layer indicate an age between 7450 and 8200 years B.P. At that time, due to glacial lowering of sea level, Zhokhova Island was substantially larger than at present and may still have been joined to the Asiatic mainland. The main species harvested by the hunters (on the basis of the numbers of bone remains) was reindeer (49.7%) but a remarkable number of polar bears was also being taken (43.8% of bones). Bones from a canine intermediate in size between a wolf and a fox have been identified as those of a dog, and the finding of a well‐made sledge runner suggests that dogs were being used as draft animals.