T.A. Chikisheva
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
A hypothesis regarding the origin of certain Neolithic groups of Yakutia is put forward. Neolithic crania from that region are Mongoloid and exhibit traits peculiar to present-day Tungus-Manchu speakers as well as to Chukchi and Eskoaleuts. Their distinctive feature is high braincase, seen nowhere else in Eastern Siberia at any time. Samples associated with the Ymyiakhtakh, Belkachi, and Boisman cultures were compared with other Mongoloid groups using multivariate analysis. On the basis of skeletal and environmental evidence it is concluded that Neolithic inhabitants of Northeast Asia were migrants from Beringia—a land that had been submerged following global warming and the melting of glaciers in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Beringians, who were forced to migrate to adjacent areas, displayed a combination of cranial traits peculiar to Pacifi c Mongoloids and were likely related to the Boisman people, who lived 7–5 ka BP on the Sea of Japan coast from northern Korea to Peter the Great Bay.
