Gleb Konstantinovich Danilov

An analysis of radiocarbon dating series of Late Pleistocene woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, remains from Northwestern Chukotka and Wrangel Island is given. A mixture of Bayesian and frequentist methods was used to present the datasets of radiocarbon dating and to estimate the dynamics of the relative abundance of woolly mammoths. The series of dates from Northwestern Chukotka was compared to a similar series from the New Siberian Islands, the Taimyr Peninsula, and the North Slope of Alaska.

Early Asbestos Ware was spreading in the second half of the 5th – early 4th mil. BC in southeastern Finland. Complexes with similar pottery are also known in Russia: on the Karelian Isthmus, in Karelia, and on the Kola Peninsula. In this study, 23 sites were identified that contain the Early Asbestos Ware (at least 49 vessels). The considered materials generally correspond to the typological division of Kaunissaari and Ka I:2asb Ware, but they have originality in decoration. There are traits in ornamentation similar with the Sperrings 2 Ware, common in Finland, but not with the Karelian version of Sperrings as well as with Pit-Comb Ware. XRD analysis showed the presence of anthophyllite in six fragments of Early Asbestos Ware analyzed during the study, so it could be interpreted as the evidence of an impulse from the Lake Saimaa area.

S. V. Belskiy, K. V. Gorlov, G. K. Danilov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)

The tradition of mixing asbestos into pottery clay originated near the deposits of this mineral on the lake Saimaa (Finland) in the 5th millennium BC. By the second half of the 4th millennium BC its area reached the Arkhangelsk and Vologda Regions of Russia in the east. The aim of the work is to review the functional hypothesis, according to which the widespread use of asbestos as an admixture is due to its advantages over other additives facilitating the process of molding and drying, preventing flaws during firing, making the vessel durable and easy to use. According to the results of our experiments on the making of vessels and model samples with asbestos it turned out that the used asbestos of the Chevzhavara deposit (tremolite-ferroactinolite) does not have such advantages. The most important problem was the dissociation of asbestos at temperatures above +700C. After such firing, the vessels were destroyed, and the asbestos itself became brittle. It can be assumed that in order to minimize losses during the firing, the ancient potters could beforehand hold the asbestos at a high temperature so that it would lose the main amount of water but keep its stability. It can be preliminarily concluded that asbestos admixture at an early stage of use did not have clear advantages over other additives. The reasons for the initial interest in asbestos as an additive could be other, e.g. socio-cultural. A special developed technology for processing asbestos, which made it possible to use its advantages, spread around the beginning of the Bronze Age and may be associated with the beginning of metalworking.

Научные журналы Алтайского государственного университета Алтайский государственный университет Научные журналы АлтГУ Научные статьи по проблемам общественной безопасности

Rapid and cost-effective retrieval of endogenous DNA from ancient specimens remains a limiting factor in palaeogenomic research. Many methods have been developed to increase ancient DNA yield, but modifications to existing protocols are often based on personal experience rather than systematic testing. Here, we present a new silica column-based extraction protocol, where optimizations were tested in controlled experiments. Using relatively well-preserved permafrost samples, we tested the efficiency of pretreatment of bone and tooth powder with a bleach wash and a predigestion step. We also tested the recovery efficiency of MinElute and QIAquick columns, as well as Vivaspin columns with two molecular weight cut-off values. Finally, we tested the effect of uracil-treatment with two different USER enzyme concentrations. We find that neither bleach wash combined with a predigestion step, nor predigestion by itself, significantly increased sequencing efficiency. Initial results, however, suggest that MinElute columns are more efficient for ancient DNA extractions than QIAquick columns, whereas different molecular weight cut-off values in centrifugal concentrator columns did not have an effect. Uracil treatments are effective at removing DNA damage even at concentrations of 0.15 U/µL (as compared to 0.3 U/µL) of ancient DNA extracts.