Paper short abstract:

An interdisciplinary team discuss climate proxies and introduce pioneering geoarchaeological soil studies to bolster the argument that early climate changes induced a major socio-economic change in the way that people related to reindeer at the 11-12thC habitation site Iarte 6 in W. Siberia.

Paper long abstract:

The domestication of reindeer in Eurasia is an ancient tradition, closely associated with indigenous societies and often linked to significant climate change events. The Iamal peninsula is often cited as one of the "hearths" of reindeer husbandry. An interdisciplinary team interprets a large accumulation of butchered Rangifer bones, skins, and artefacts found in association with a long-term 11-12th C habitation site known as Iarte 6 on the Iuribei River on the Iamal Peninsula. Ethnographic and folklore research with contemporary Nenets reindeer herders link the site to the remains of a violently destroyed settlement of the Sirtia reindeer-herding people thought to have previously inhabited the middle world before the Nenets. The scholarly interpretation of artefacts at the site, often based on implicit ethnographic parallels to Nenets reindeer husbandry, identify the site as a major processing site or processing site for domestic and/or wild Rangifer. Climate proxies point to specific warm and cold peaks, which could be used to support the argument for the necessity of a northerly people for holding Rangifer to hand. Our paper discusses the relevance and the applicability of the available climate proxies and introduces our geoarchaeological work on the soils surrounding the site, which is seeking evidence for soil changes associated with reindeer aggregations/corralling and attempts to bolster the argument that early climate changes induced a major socio-economic change in the way that people related to the land and the animals around it.