Geochemical Analysis of Human Mobility

This research has sought to examine and improve the assumptions and methodology used to microsample archaeological remains and reconstruct places and patterns in prehistory. Studying hunter-gatherers of the boreal forest during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages has required a rethinking of the way in which we attempt to identify where people were on the landscape and the ways in which we identify and reconstruct patterns of mobility and interaction. Cis-Baikal has proven to be an excellent laboratory for this research yielding a unique combination of sizable cemeteries available for research, a rich and complex prehistory including intriguing breaks in habitation intensity, evidence for interactions with and contributions to key developments in Indo-European and Eurasian history, a rugged environment pleasantly devoid of any safe assumptions for survival and preservation during life and death, all set in a complex geological environment that permits the reconstruction of past behaviors using geochemical techniques. This type of soul-searching archaeometric research may not have been possible anywhere else.