A High Arctic Settlement On Zhokov Island, Russian Siberia
Edmund Carpenter


Research on Zhokov Island (New Siberian Islands, approximately 700 miles north of Tiksi) reveals, for the first time in the High Arctic region, considerable material dating back to the most ancient known stage of regional development and indicates that at least 8,000 years ago, ancient hunters penetrated into the far north. The circumpolar regions of East Siberia, which have never been subjected to extensive glaciation, were occupied as early as the late Pleistocene. An archaeological site was discovered on Zhokov Island in a typical polar desert area situated 76 degrees North Latitude. The first archaeological finds were undertaken only in the last decade. The excavated site is on the edge of a small brook valley. The location was undoubtedly selected by its ancient inhabitants because it is well drained and sheltered by a hill from strong north winds; the hill was probably also used as an observation post. Evidence of dwellings occurs within the site area. Information is not complete enough to allow the houses to be reconstructed, but the great quantity of split driftwood undoubtedly was used in house construction. This abundant driftwood plus a few sea mammal bones indicate that the sea shore was not that far from the site. Due to permafrost conditions, organic remains are well preserved on the site. Some of the bone and wood specimens recovered during the excavations were examined by Yu. S. Svejentsev at the Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Leningrad Institute of Archaeology. The resulting series of dates sets the age of the site at about 8,000 B.P.

Based on the outlines of the buried house pits, the diameter of dwellings mught be about 3-4 meters. The houses were arranged on the well-drained sections of the site, where sandy soils were exposed. The depth of the pits was about .5 meter, and the walls were strengthened by vertically-placed wooden planks. The roofs were cone-shaped and consisted of hides covered by split driftwood and by turves or moss.

Such constructions are known as "golomo," and were widely used by Taimyyr aborigines during the last centuries. The most ancient dwellings of golomo type was found and investigated by L.P. Khlobystin (1972) at the Maimeche I site.

It seems that such dwellings may be considered as the most ancient nonportable house type not only in East Siberia but in the Polar zone generally. Probably, the golomo type dwellings were used for the creation of seasonal camp systems that enabled hunters without any kind of transport to stay as mobile as necessary.

Different sorts of raw materials were utilized by the inhabitants for stone tool manufacturing, including some kinds of flint and flinty tufas, sandstone, chalcedony, and obsidian. Undoubtedly, the obsidian and the high quality flint were imported, while the other sorts seem to be local. For example, flint pebbles, colored in a range of brown tints, were numerous on the island. Exactly this kind of flint was regularly used for stone tool processing, while the other materials, especially obsidian and high quality flint, were more rarely used. A series of massive mammoth ivory and reindeer antler pickaxes is notable among the bone and antler tools. There are eight and five specimens (intact and fragmentary), respectively. Certain peculiarities of their manufacture indicate that the picks were hafted to "bent" or "kneeshaped" handles.

Hunting equipment is represented by needle-shaped bone projectile points (some of these may be arrow points, since fragments of arrowshafts were excavated), and by large composite tools, some with unilateral and some with bilateral inset slots.

The projectile points were processed from split reindeer bones in a manner that was characteristic to the Polar zone aborigines during the last several millenia. Reindeer scapulae or metapodia were generally used for this purpose, and split specimens of both were found during the excavations. One of the points is a unilateral inset tool which contained two flint insets still in the groove.

Faunal remains are represented by more than 300 pieces of bone. Considering the faunal remains as a whole, one’s attention is drawn to the great number of reindeer and polar bear bones. The latter is rather unusual as a food resource. All of the other animals undoubtedly were taken as a result of chance encounter, since they are represented by only a single individual each.

The facts suggest that bears and reindeer were butchered at kill sites, and the most valuable parts of the animals were transported to the living site. It seems that the aboriginal hunters had no special preference between reindeer or polar bear.

 

 

 

Edmund Carpenter, (b. 1922) has taught anthropology for 40 years at the Universities of Toronto, California, and Harvard. He began his fieldwork as a boy in 1935 and has since worked in New Guinea, Borneo, and Tibet, as well as all of the world's Arctic regions. He has made fifteen field trips to the Arctic in Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia, and in 1951 he spent the winter in an Eskimo sod hut. His published works include: Patterns That Connect and a twelve-volume work called Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art, both about the work of Carl Schuster; Oh, What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me; and They Became What They Beheld. He is currently working on a book on Eskimo maps which will include 400 original drawings, all made before 1900 and some as early as the 18th century.