Baikal World - Archaeological sites of Lake Baikal


Origin & Development
Legends & Fairy tales • Earth's Crust Thickness • Underwater Relief • Landscapes • History & Formation • Seismic Activity •
History of Lake Baikal
History of Explorations • Inhabitants & Settlers • First maps of Baikal • Archaeological Sites •
Lake Baikal Climate
Introduction • Fogs • Winds & Waves • Ice Conditions •
Fauna & Vegetation
Mammals • Baikal seal - Nerpa • Ichthyofauna • Invertebrates • Vegetation •
Water of Lake Baikal
Colour • Transparency • Temperature • Pressure • Depth • Currents • Budget • Chemical Composition • Pollution •
Recreational Areas
Circumbaikal Railway • Peschanaya Bays • Olkhon Island • Chivirkuysky Gulf • Wooden Irkutsk • Trans-Siberian Railway •
People of Lake Baikal
People of Siberia • Buryat nation in Baikal • Russians in Baikal •

Explanation of the local terms and geographical names at lake Baikal

Archaeological sites of Lake Baikal

There are a lot of archaeological curiosities on Baikal's shores and on its islands, affirming the fact that this territory has been inhabited since the Stone Age. The position of the lake between forest and steppe zones made a certain imprint on the culture and economic activity of the native people and on regional historical processes.

Man's activity in Pribaikalye traces back to more than 100 thousand years ago. The discovery of the upper paleolithic stopping places of Malta and Buret' in the 1920-30s enabled scientists to ascertain that about 25 thousand years ago people in Pribaikalye lived in big permanent settlements. They made both long-term homes of poles, sod, flagstones and bones of big animals, and light portable summer homes. The inhabitants of these settlements hunted mammoth, hairy rhinoceros, bison and reindeer. Living in the severe Ice Age people were able to make and feed the fire. They were capable of counting and knew how to keep calendars. They also kept religious rites.

Numerous neolithic and aeneolithic burials contain a rich variety of funeral implements. Things made of Sayan nephrite that are discovered in Pribaikalye and the Amur basin contribute to the intercommune exchange that was well developed in the VI-II thousand years B. C.

Numerous Baikal rock carvings also date from neolithic times. The most famous of them are the Shishkinskiye carvings stretching for about 2 km in the upper reaches of the Lena River. Ancient artists left carvings depicting animals, hunters and people in boats.

One of the masterpieces of early Scythian art is the Korsukovsky hoard discovered in 1983. Its former owner saved everything valuable he had in a bronze pot.

The Ivolginskoye site, the remains of an ancient town with the neighboring burial plot, is considered to be the standard for investigation of culture, architecture and everyday life of the II-I century B. C. The town residents engaged in cattle-breeding and agriculture, the smelting of cast iron and bronze and the forging of iron.

"Khun" sites are replaced by tent-like graves, located in groups on Olkhon Island and on the shores of Baikal. The tent-like graves, made of sandstone, arranged in a circle and equally sloping from the centre of the burial site, remind one of a yurt (or a tent) used by nomads. They are thought to have been left by Kurikans who lived in the VI-XI century A. D. For self protection the Kurikans had to build fortified towns and defensive walls, some of which still exist. The sites of these towns were first discovered in the XVII-th century by explorers. Formal scientific archaeological exploration of Baikal's ancient sites began in the XlX-th century.