PERIODS, BOUNDARIES, AND CONTACT ZONES IN THE FAR EASTERN INSULAR WORLD OF THE NEOLITHIC: (Based on the Radiocarbon Chronology of Sites on the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands)

In the present article, a full summary of radiocarbon dates of Neolithic sites in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is used to elaborate a periodization of archaeological cultures in the Russian Far East. Materials assembled over recent years make it possible to reconstruct patterns of human adaptation to the changing Holocene environment, economic activities, and the exploitation of natural resources. Shifts in the boundaries of cultural zones are traced and migrations in a meridional direction are reconstructed.