Pleistocene climate change, natural environments and palaeolithic occupation of the Angara-Baikal area, east Central Siberia

Palaeogeographical and palaeoenvironmental evolution throughout the Baikal territory during the Quaternary Period is characterized by the interaction of past global climatic changes and the regional topographic alteration by the neotectonic activity of the Mongolian-Siberian mountain zone. The speci fic geomorphological character of the Baikal topography governed by sub-rif ting orogenic regimes gave rise to a variety of natural settings and landsc apes throughout the Pleistocene. An increased accumulation rare of sub-aeri al sediments, a broader genetic variety of palaeosol horizons and periglaci al surface deformations attest to a progressing climatic continentality dur ing the Late Quaternary. Marked climatic shifts characterize the last glaci al-interglacial cycle, with the major glaciations in the East Siberian moun tains during the cold (OIS 4 and 2) stages. The mid-last glacial (OIS 3) cl imatic optimum (dated to 31 ka BP) was thermally approaching the last inter glacial (OIS 5e) conditions. Palynological and palaeontological, as well as early cultural data, provide evidence of strongly fluctuating Late Pleistocene climatic variations. Div ersity of the Palaeolithic records attest to several stages of early human occupation, with the earliest (late Middle Pleistocene) represented by pebb le tool industries. Contextual association of the Middle Pleistocene artefa cts of the Levallois tradition with the early Last Glacial aeolian sands im plies cultural adaptation to cold periglacial environments. Systematic mult idisciplinary investigations at chronologically and contextually well-fixed Palaeolithic sites provide additional multi-proxy information on the Pleis tocene climate change and the dominant geomorphic processes over the partic ular geographic area. Reconstruction of the evolutionary pathways and proce sses in the natural environments, the specific material-technological condi tions and the production level of the early human communities, as well as d ocumentation of climatic events stored in the geological record are the pri ncipal study objectives of the current geoarchaeological studies in the Bai kal sector of Siberia. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.