Radiocarbon dating from prehistoric cemetery reveals human stress caused by global cooling event 8,200 years ago

New insight into how our early ancestors dealt with major shifts in climate is revealed in research published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

New radiocarbon dates show that the large Early Holocene cemetery of Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, at Lake Onega, 500 miles north of Moscow, was only used for one to two centuries. This seems to be in response to the climate stress.

The team believes that the creation of the cemetery shows a social response to the stresses caused by regional resource depression. Lake Onega, the second largest lake in Europe, had a microclimate that was resilient to climate change. The lake itself would have provided a productive fishery, and this would have attracted game to its shores. Many of the region's shallow lakes could have been at risk of winter fish kills because of the fall in temperature.

The creation of the cemetery at the site would have helped define group membership for the previously dispersed bands of hunter-gatherers.

The team found that when the climate improved, the cemetery went out of use, as people returned to a more mobile way of life and the lake became less central.

The behavioral changes to what could be seen as a more complex social system were situation dependent. The team says the findings suggest that early hunting and gathering communities were highly flexible and resilient.

The results have implications for understanding the context for the emergence and dissolution of inequality.

The main use of the cemetery spanned between 100-300 years, according to carbon dating of the remains. 8500 to 8000BP. This coincides with the dramatic cooling event, which could provide evidence for how humans responded to climate change.

The current geological epoch which began 11,700 years before present has been relatively stable. There are a number of climate fluctuations in the ice core. The cooling event of 8,200 years ago is the most well-known of these. There is no evidence that the hunter-gatherers were affected in any way.

There are up to 400 possible graves at Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, which was excavated in the 1930s by a team of Russian archaeologists. The variation in the grave offerings is one of the reasons the cemetery site has an important position in European Mesolithic studies. Some graves don't have all of these, to those with a lot.

More information: Rick Schulting, Radiocarbon dating from Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery reveals complex human responses to socio-ecological stress during the 8.2 ka cooling event, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01628-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01628-4 Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution Citation: Radiocarbon dating from prehistoric cemetery reveals human stress caused by global cooling event 8,200 years ago (2022, January 27) retrieved 27 January 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-01-radiocarbon-dating-prehistoric-cemetery-reveals.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.