A river of central Siberia. The Yenisei valley has yielded much evidence of prehistoric occupation, including more than 50 Paleolithic sites, with radiocarbon dates ranging from cl9000 to cl 1,000 bc. The largest and richest site is Afontova Gora II, which has produced evidence of a community living in semi-subterranean dwellings and subsisting mainly on mammoth, reindeer, ptarmigan and arctic fox. They seem to have kept domesticated dogs. Other sites have yielded slab-lined hearths; a layer of this kind with antler harpoons and many fish remains has been dated to cl0,550 be at Verkholen-skaia Gora. The first food production appeared probably in the 3rd millennium bc and a series of Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures are known Afanasievo, Andronovo, Karasuk. This is followed by the Early Nomad period, which saw the establishment of pastoral nomadism. This made possible the first truly effective exploitation of the steppe grasslands and saw the emergence of a wealthy and strongly ranked society. [i]. See ritual vessels (China).
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied