Macro-regional interconnections among ancient hunter-gatherers of the Cis-Baikal, Eastern Siberia (Russia)

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 (4900-3700 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 - involving seasonal movement and periodic aggregation - enabled these groups to participate in networks of interaction that developed throughout the larger region in the Bronze Age.