Northwest Asia (7,821 – 6,094 BCE): Early Holocene — Taiga Mosaics and Riverine Foragers

Geographic and Environmental Context

Northwest Asia includes the lands from the Ural Mountains east to ~130°E, encompassing Western and Central Siberia.

• Anchors: Ob–Tomsk terraces, Altai–Minusinsk Basin, Middle Yenisei, Ural foreland forests.

• Boreal forests expanded, dominated by birch–pine–spruce.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Early Holocene thermal optimum: warmer, wetter, stable river flows.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Hunting elk, reindeer, and boar; fishing salmon and sturgeon in the Ob–Yenisei.

• Seasonal riverine villages with pit-houses and hearth clusters.

Technology & Material Culture

• Ground-stone adzes, axes; bone harpoons and fish gorges; pottery appears early in Siberia (c. 7th millennium BCE).

• Nets and weirs for fishing.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Ob–Irtysh–Yenisei integrated taiga foragers; Ural corridor linked to forest-steppe of Europe.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• First petroglyph traditions (Minusinsk, Tomsk basins) depict elk, fish, hunters.

• Burials with red ochre, antler, stone tools.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Broad-spectrum foraging with early pottery storage stabilized taiga subsistence.