Khuzhir-Nuge XIV, a Middle Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Cemetery on Lake Baikal, Siberia

The fourth volume in the Baikal Archaeology Project's Northern Hunter-Gatherers Series presents comprehensive archaeological data from fieldwork conducted by the projects at the mortuary site Khuzhir-Nuge XIV on Lake Baikal in Siberia. The BAP is a Major Collaborative Research Initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), based at the University of Alberta and partnered with the University of Irkutsk. The goal of the BAP has been to identify and understand the processes associated with culture change and continuity among prehistoric boreal forest hunter-gatherers in Siberia's Cis-Baikal region. Mortuary sites have provided the primary data that inform a number of modules designed by the project. Of the several gravesites dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age located and excavated in the Little Sea of the Lake Baikal coast, Khuzhir-Nuge XIV is by far the largest. Six seasons of excavation at KN XIV produced a wealth of material on 79 graves, including the remains of 89 individuals. KN XIV plays a prominent role in the investigations of the BAP, and the cemetery yields - particularly archaeological and osteological materials - have been subjected to a number of analyses. The present monograph (complemented by a previous volume of Osteological Materials) is dedicated to a descriptive account of the excavated archaeological features and artifacts collected from the KN XIV graves, as well as several analytical papers on grave architecture and mortuary protocols.