Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central Siberia
Prehistoric and early historic human cultures are known to be closely connected to and dependent on their natural environments. We test the hypothesis that climate change influenced the means of subsistence of ancient tribes and favored agricultural or cattle herding economic strategies. Our study a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/065004 |
| _version_ | 1797747918419001344 |
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| author | T A Blyakharchuk N M Tchebakova E I Parfenova A J Soja |
| author_facet | T A Blyakharchuk N M Tchebakova E I Parfenova A J Soja |
| author_sort | T A Blyakharchuk |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Prehistoric and early historic human cultures are known to be closely connected to and dependent on their natural environments. We test the hypothesis that climate change influenced the means of subsistence of ancient tribes and favored agricultural or cattle herding economic strategies. Our study area is the Khakass–Minusinsk Hollow, located in the foothills of the Sayan Mountains, south-central Siberia, which was, for a few millennia, a buffer zone for human migrations across the Great Eurasian Steppe. Three different methods (the Montane BioClimatic Model, MontBCliM; the biomization method; and the actualizm method) are employed to reconstruct vegetation taken from the fossil pollen of sediment cores in two mountain lakes at eleven time slices related to successive human cultures back to the mid-Holocene. MontBCliM model is used inversely to convert site paleo-vegetation into site paleo-climates. Climate-based regression models are developed and applied to reconstructed climates to evaluate possible pasture and grain crops for these time slices. Pollen-based reconstructions of the climate fluctuations uncovered several dry periods with steppe and forest-steppe and wetter periods with forests since 6000 BP. Grasslands increased by an order of magnitude during the dry periods and provided extensive open space suitable for pastoralism; however, both grain and pasture yields decreased during these dry periods. During wetter climates, both grain and pasture yields increased twofold and supported more fixed human settlements centered around farming and cattle herding. Thus, the dry periods favored pastoralist rather than farming activities. Conversely, tribes that practiced agriculture had some advantage in the wet periods. |
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| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:57:30Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
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| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-3f2f1b00c7dc4bab83c8173fd2d265ec2023-08-09T14:47:12ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262014-01-019606500410.1088/1748-9326/9/6/065004Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central SiberiaT A Blyakharchuk0N M Tchebakova1E I Parfenova2A J Soja3Institute for Monitoring Climatic and Ecological Systems, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Akademichesky Prospekt 10/3, 643055 Tomsk, Russia; Tomsk State University , Lenina 36, 634050 Tomsk, RussiaV.N. Sukachev Institute of Forests, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Academgorodok, 50/28 660036 Krasnoyarsk, RussiaV.N. Sukachev Institute of Forests, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Academgorodok, 50/28 660036 Krasnoyarsk, RussiaNational Institute of Aerospace (NIA), NASA Langley Research Center, Climate Sciences, 21 Langley Boulevard, Mail Stop 420, Hampton, VA 23681-2199, USAPrehistoric and early historic human cultures are known to be closely connected to and dependent on their natural environments. We test the hypothesis that climate change influenced the means of subsistence of ancient tribes and favored agricultural or cattle herding economic strategies. Our study area is the Khakass–Minusinsk Hollow, located in the foothills of the Sayan Mountains, south-central Siberia, which was, for a few millennia, a buffer zone for human migrations across the Great Eurasian Steppe. Three different methods (the Montane BioClimatic Model, MontBCliM; the biomization method; and the actualizm method) are employed to reconstruct vegetation taken from the fossil pollen of sediment cores in two mountain lakes at eleven time slices related to successive human cultures back to the mid-Holocene. MontBCliM model is used inversely to convert site paleo-vegetation into site paleo-climates. Climate-based regression models are developed and applied to reconstructed climates to evaluate possible pasture and grain crops for these time slices. Pollen-based reconstructions of the climate fluctuations uncovered several dry periods with steppe and forest-steppe and wetter periods with forests since 6000 BP. Grasslands increased by an order of magnitude during the dry periods and provided extensive open space suitable for pastoralism; however, both grain and pasture yields decreased during these dry periods. During wetter climates, both grain and pasture yields increased twofold and supported more fixed human settlements centered around farming and cattle herding. Thus, the dry periods favored pastoralist rather than farming activities. Conversely, tribes that practiced agriculture had some advantage in the wet periods.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/065004Holocenehuman cultureeconomic strategiesSiberia |
| spellingShingle | T A Blyakharchuk N M Tchebakova E I Parfenova A J Soja Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central Siberia Environmental Research Letters Holocene human culture economic strategies Siberia |
| title | Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central Siberia |
| title_full | Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central Siberia |
| title_fullStr | Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central Siberia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central Siberia |
| title_short | Potential influence of the late Holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the Minusinsk Hollow, south-central Siberia |
| title_sort | potential influence of the late holocene climate on settled farming versus nomadic cattle herding in the minusinsk hollow south central siberia |
| topic | Holocene human culture economic strategies Siberia |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/065004 |
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