Abstract

The dynamics of changing environmental and climatic regimes, cultural and technological diversity, and changes in mobility strategies are critical variables in modeling forager use of various resource habitats through time. Model matrices for considering variations in resource distribution and climatic regimes in the Cis-Baikal region are established to provide some expectations of how and why dietary and mobility patterns might vary through time and across space. The model predicts increased emphasis on lacustrine resources in cool periods, and an increased use of riverine resources in dry periods. It also predicts high mobility between lakeshore and riverine environments in warm, wet periods, and low mobility during cool, dry periods. Trace element analysis of human and faunal remains suggests that the subarctic forest was a more important resource habitat during the Early Neolithic (5800-5200 B.C.), whereas boreal forest habitats were far more prominent in later periods. Trace element analysis from the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age sites of Khuzhir Nuge (Ol'khon region) and Obkhoi (Upper Lena region) suggests that at least part of the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age was warm and wet, with a strong subsistence emphasis on terrestrial resources. Considerable mobility between lakeshore and riverine environments appears to have occurred at this time as well.