The Andreеvskoye lake system at the Turn of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages: paleo-landscape mapping, bioproductivity assessment and demographic capacity of the territory (Tura and Pyshma interfluve, West Siberia)

Abstract

On the basis of complex paleogeographic studies, we have created a large-scale paleo-landscape map covering the territory of the Andreevskoye lake flow system, in-between the Tura and the Pyshma rivers (West Siberia), for the interval of 2850–2600 cal. BP. According to the mapping results, the areas of key vegetation types were determined. By selecting modern analogues, we calculated the ecological capacity of the territory, as well as its biological productivity potential for providing plant and animal resources. In the past, spatio-temporal changes in the share of the main plant communities were based on the degree of area drainage varying with different climatic conditions. As a result of palynological and geochemical studies, a trend towards increasing humidity and falling temperature was identified in the given chronological interval. In this regard, the map shows a large proportion of birch forests and damp meadows, whereas coniferous forests and swamps were less dominant in the landscapes as compared to present times. In 2850–2600 cal. BP, the territory of the Andreevskoye lake system was developed by the representatives of the Itkul culture. On the basis of data on the natural resources available in the territory, the bioproductivity potential for producing and appropriating economy was calculated. The calculations are based on historical and ethnographic analogies and take into account the fact that producing industries used only 20–22 % of the territory's resource base. Evidently, the greatest amount of food was provided by fishing rather than by hunting and producing industries. Fishing was of paramount importance, as evidenced by the location of settlements (mainly on the lake shores). Reconstructed data on the territory's resource supply, allowed us to determine a possible size of the Itkul population having lived in the territory of the Andreevskoye lake system. The calculations used the data on the energy value of various products, taking energy consumption of people involved in vigorous physical activity into account. In the given chronological interval of 2850–2600 cal. BP, local resources allowed for the possibility of simultaneous residence of about 280–373 people. The indicator of resource availability in the territory allows the paleodemographic calculations to be significantly adjusted using methods for estimating a dwelling area, since they determine the population density limit, provided the land is used simultaneously. The figures obtained for the number of Itkul population correspond only to the minimum values, calculated by taking the area and number of dwellings of this culture into account.

Keywords

• paleolandscape map
• resources endowment
• paleodemography
• Transitional Time from the Bronze to the Early Iron Age
• West Siberia