Cave lion figurine made of mammoth tusk found at Denisova Cave

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on November 20, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Russia, Siberia

A fragment of a cave lion figurine estimated to be 45,000 years old was unearthed in Siberia’s Denisova Cave by researchers led by Mikhail Shunkov of the Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography.

Credit: Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography

The precious small - 42mm long, 8mm thick and 11mm high - figurine of a cave lion (Panthera spelaea, lat) was made by an Upper Palaeolithic artist between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago. It was found inside the 11th layer of the southern gallery of the Denisova Cave.

This is the oldest sculptural zoomorphic image ever found in Siberia and throughout the territory of Northern and Central Asia.

The precise age is yet to be confirmed, but the cautious dating given by Siberian archaeologists means that this might be the oldest animal figurine in the world.


The lion’s head is missing, what we see is its hind legs, groin, back and belly, covered in an ornament of eighteen rows of nothes. There are two extra rows with four notches on the lion’s right side.

‘The figurine depicts an animal with its tummy tucked in, its hind legs bent. It is either galloping, jumping or getting ready to jump. The animal is shown in a typical for big cats position for the moment when they are ready to catch a prey’, said Mikhail Shunkov, head of the Institute’s Stone Age Archaeology Department.

The mammoth ivory for the statuette was delivered from quite a distance away, Russian scientists say. It had to be carried for at least 100 kilometres from the northern footsteps of the Altai Mountains.

Credit: Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography

After finishing the figurine, the cave artist used red ochre to paint it.

So far traces of it were found mostly around the stomach area - which even led to an idea that it could be symbolising a bleeding wound - but researcher Alexander Fedorchenko believes that most likely the whole animal was painted red.

Remains of ocher were found only in the southern gallery of the Denisova cave.

Authors: Anna Liesowska & Svetlana Skarbo | Source: The Siberian Times [November 20, 2019]

Dishing the dirt on an early man cave

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 26, 2019 / comment : 0 Anthropology, Early Humans, Earth Science, Genetics, Siberia

Fossil animal droppings, charcoal from ancient fires and bone fragments litter the ground of one of the world's most important human evolution sites, new research reveals.

Flinders University researcher Dr Mike Morley taking samples from Denisova Cave complex [Credit: Dr. Paul Goldbert, University of Wollongong]

The latest evidence from southern Siberia shows that large cave-dwelling carnivores once dominated the landscape, competing for more than 300,000 years with ancient tribes for prime space in cave shelters.

A team of Russian and Australian scientists have used modern geoarchaeological techniques to unearth new details of day-to-day life in the famous Denisova Cave complex in Siberia's Altai Mountains.

Large carnivores such hyena, wolves and even bears and at least three early nomadic human groups (hominins) - Denisovans, Neanderthals, and early Homo sapiens - used this famous archaeological site, the researchers say in a new Scientific Reports study examining the dirt deposited in the cave complex over thousands of years.

"These hominin groups and large carnivores such as hyenas and wolves left a wealth of microscopic traces that illuminate the use of the cave over the last three glacial-interglacial cycles," says lead author, Flinders University ARC Future Fellow Dr Mike Morley.

"Our results complement previous work by some of our colleagues at the site that has identified ancient DNA in the same dirt, belonging to Neanderthals and a previously unknown human group, the Denisovans, as well as a wide range of other animals".

But it now seems that it was the animals that mostly ruled the cave space back then.

Microscopic studies of sediment left in the cave includes fossil droppings left by predatory animals such as hyenas and wolves [Credit: Dr Mike Morley, Flinders University]

Microscopic studies of 3-4 metres of sediment left in the cave network includes fossil droppings left by predatory animals such as cave hyenas, wolves and possibly bears, many of their kind made immortal in ancient rock art before going extinct across much of Eurasia.

From their 'micromorphology' examination of the dirt found in Denisova Cave, the team discovered clues about the use of the cave, including fire-use by ancient humans and the presence of other animals.

The study of intact sediment blocks collected from the cave has yielded information not evident to the naked eye or gleaned from previous studies of ancient DNA, stone tools or animal and plant remains.

Co-author of the new research, University of Wollongong Distinguished Professor Richard (Bert) Roberts, says the study is very significant because it shows how much can be achieved by sifting through sedimentary material using advanced microscopy and other archaeological science methods to find critical new evidence about human and non-human life on Earth.

"Using microscopic analyses, our latest study shows sporadic hominin visits, illustrated by traces of the use of fire such as miniscule fragments, but with continuous use of the site by cave-dwelling carnivores such as hyenas and wolves," says Professor Roberts.

"Fossil droppings (coprolites) indicate the persistent presence of non-human cave dwellers, which are very unlikely to have co-habited with humans using the cave for shelter."

Profiles of sediment showing a Denisova fossil poo gallery, including hyena, wolf and other unidentified [Credit: Dr. Mike Morley, Flinders University]

This implies that ancient groups probably came and went for short-lived episodes, and at all other times the cave was occupied by these large predators.

The Siberian site came to prominence more than a decade ago with the discovery of the fossil remains of a previously unknown human group, dubbed the Denisovans after the local name for the cave.

In a surprising twist, the recent discovery of a bone fragment in the cave sediments showed that a teenage girl was born of a Neanderthal mother and Denisovan father more than 90,000 years ago.

Denisovans and Neanderthals inhabited parts of Eurasia until perhaps 50,000 to 40,000 years ago, when they were replaced by modern humans (Homo sapiens).

Source: Flinders University [September 26, 2019]

First glimpse at what ancient Denisovans may have looked like, using DNA methylation data

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 19, 2019 / comment : 0 Anthropology, Early Humans, Forensics, Genetics, Human Evolution, Siberia

If you could travel back in time 100,000 years, you'd find yourself living among multiple groups of humans, including anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans. But exactly what our Denisovan relatives might have looked like had been anyone's guess for a simple reason: the entire collection of Denisovan remains includes a pinky bone, three teeth, and a lower jaw. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Cell have produced reconstructions of these long-lost relatives based on patterns of methylation in their ancient DNA.

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps [Credit: Maayan Harel]

"We provide the first reconstruction of the skeletal anatomy of Denisovans," says author Liran Carmel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "In many ways, Denisovans resembled Neanderthals, but in some traits, they resembled us, and in others they were unique."

Overall, the researchers identified 56 anatomical features in which Denisovans differed from modern humans and/or Neanderthals, 34 of them in the skull. For example, the Denisovan's skull was probably wider than that of modern humans or Neanderthals. They likely also had a longer dental arch.

Carmel, along with study first author David Gokhman and their colleagues, came to this conclusion by using genetic data to predict the anatomical features of the Denisovans. Rather than relying on DNA sequences, they extracted anatomical information from gene activity patterns. Those gene activity patterns were inferred based on genome-wide DNA methylation or epigenetic patterns, chemical modifications that influence gene activity without changing the underlying sequence of As, Gs, Ts, and Cs.

A preliminary portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps [Credit: Maayan Harel]

The researchers first compared DNA methylation patterns between the three hominin groups to find regions in the genome that were differentially methylated. Next, they looked for evidence about what those differences might mean for anatomical features based on what's known about human disorders in which those same genes lose their function.

"By doing so, we can get a prediction as to what skeletal parts are affected by differential regulation of each gene and in what direction that skeletal part would change--for example, a longer or shorter femur," Gokhman explains.

To test the method, the researchers first applied it to two species whose anatomy is known: the Neanderthal and the chimpanzee. They found that roughly 85% of the trait reconstructions were accurate in predicting which traits diverged and in which direction they diverged. By focusing on consensus predictions and the direction of the change rather than trying to predict precise measurements, they were able to produce the first reconstructed anatomical profile of the little-understood Denisovan.

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps [Credit: Maayan Harel]

The evidence suggests that Denisovans likely shared Neanderthal traits such as an elongated face and a wide pelvis. It also highlighted Denisovan-specific differences, such as an increased dental arch and lateral cranial expansion, the researchers report.

Carmel notes that while their paper was in review, another study came out describing the first confirmed Denisovan mandible. And, it turned out that the jaw bone matched their predictions.

The findings show that DNA methylation can be used to reconstruct anatomical features, including some that do not survive in the fossil record. The approach may ultimately have a wide range of potential applications.

Western Siberian rivers and lakes emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 11, 2019 / comment : 0 Climate Change, Environment, Natural Heritage, Siberia

Carbon is everywhere, and it is constantly on the move between land, water and atmosphere. While quantities of carbon exchanged between land and atmosphere are rather certain and easy to measure, the amount of carbon that travels between water and atmosphere is uncertain and is not so easy to quantify. This is especially true for regions that contain a lot of water and a lot of carbon in permafrost, as for example Western Siberia, that is home to one of the world's largest rivers, the Ob' River, and where permafrost covers more than 40 percent of the land area.

West Siberian landscape [Credit: Egor Istigechev]

When permafrost thaws, carbon that was previously frozen for thousands of years, is released and can end up in rivers and lakes, where it is turned into greenhouse gases and emitted from the water surface into the atmosphere. If the planet continues to warm, more of this frozen carbon can end up in rivers and lakes causing even greater rivers and lakes greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn will further warm up the planet.

Yet, nobody has attempted to quantify combined rivers and lakes greenhouse gas emissions in regions where permafrost has undergone different degree of thawing, mainly because these regions are remote and inaccessible. Western Siberia is a good example of such region. Such knowledge gap limits scientists' abilities to understand the impacts of permafrost thaw on rivers and lakes greenhouse gas emissions, and makes it harder to predict how these emissions may change in the future.

Svetlana Serikova performed several field campaigns to Western Siberia in a transect over 1 500 km distance, travelling from the very south of the region with no permafrost, all the way to the Arctic Ocean where permafrost is stable. She measured rivers and lakes greenhouse gas emissions in different seasons and in different years.

The new findings provide increased knowledge about the effects of thawing permafrost on greenhouse gas emissions from inland waters.

"I found that Western Siberian rivers and lakes are sources of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, the magnitude of which varies depending on the state of permafrost in this area. For example, river greenhouse gas emissions were greatest in areas where permafrost is thawing, whereas lake greenhouse gas emissions were greatest in areas where permafrost is still intact," says Svetlana Serikova.

She also shows that currently greenhouse gas emissions from all Western Siberian rivers and lakes exceed the amount of carbon that Western Siberian rivers transport to the Arctic Ocean. Such finding means that a major part of previously frozen carbon that ends up in rivers and lakes in this region is emitted as greenhouse gases from the water surface into the atmosphere, making Western Siberia a hotspot for river and lake greenhouse gas emissions following permafrost thaw.

"This finding is important because it highlights the necessity to account for rivers and lakes greenhouse gas emissions, especially in regions that are severely affected by climate warming, when attempting to quantify the amount of carbon exchanged between land, water and atmosphere. Failing to do so will increase the risk of underestimating the impact of climate warming on such areas and will result in false predictions of the Earth's changing climate," says Svetlana Serikova.

Svetlana Serikova's dissertation is available online.

Source: Umea University [September 11, 2019]

Iron Age grave of Xiongnu woman wearing huge black gemstone belt buckle found in Siberia

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 09, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Eurasia, Russia, Siberia

An extraordinary 2,137-year-old belt buckle been dug from a grave of a young woman who lived before the birth of Christ.

AT1/29 burial with jet belt buckle [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

The ancient fashionista, nicknamed Natasha by archaeologists, was found with a black rectangular accessory worn as a belt buckle.

Her grave was discovered during the draining of a vast man-made reservoir in the mountainous Republic of Tuva, Siberia, which stretches across 240 square miles.

The ancient necropolis is described as 'The Russian Atlantis' for it is usually submerged under 56ft of water before being drained for a few weeks every year.

Detail of jet buckle with semiprecious stone inlay [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

Chinese wuzhu coin that adorned the belt of the woman in AT1/29 [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

The find was made in 2016 at the Ala-Tey necropolis in the Sayan Sea [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

The giant reservoir known as the Ala-Tey necropolis in the so-called Sayan Sea is upstream of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam, Russia's biggest power plant. The region is also a favourite vacation spot for Vladimir Putin.

The mobile lookalike is made of black gemstone jet, a type of lignite, with inlays of semi-precious stones. It measures 7 inches by 3.5 inches and is inlaid with decorations of turquoise, carnelian and mother-of-pearl.

Burial AT1-86 with jet decorated belt [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

Jet buckle from AT1-86 engraved with mountain goats [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

Openwork bronze belt buckle horses in combat from grave AT1/42 [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

Bronze belt buckle depicting horses in combat from grave AT1/42 [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

The so-called 'Sleeping beauty' in silk clothes found at the site [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

Archaeologist Dr Pavel Leus said: 'Natasha's' burial with a Hunnu-era (Xiongnu) iPhone remains one of the most interesting at this burial site.' 

'Hers was the only belt decorated with Chinese wuzhu coins which helped us to date it,' said the academic. 

Graves of prehistoric civilisations dating from the Bronze Age to the time of Genghis Khan are located at the reservoir.

Ala-Tay mountain in early June after the run-off [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

Ala-Tay mountain at the end of June after the reservoir is refilled [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences]

Previous findings include two partly-mummified prehistoric fashionistas buried with the tools of their trade.

One was called 'Sleeping Beauty' because she was dressed in silk for the afterlife and was at first believed to be a priestess. However the woman is now thought to have been a leather designer. The second was a weaver laid to rest with her wooden spindle packed inside a sewing bag.

A total of 110 burials appeared on an island in the reservoir at Ala-Tey site.


Leader of the expedition Dr Marina Kilunovskaya from the St Petersburg Institute of Material History Culture described the Ala-Tey site as 'a scientific sensation'.

Dr Kilunovskaya added: 'We are incredibly lucky to have found these burials of rich Hun nomads that were not disturbed by [ancient] grave robbers.'

Another Atlantis site called Terezin has at least 32 graves and is closer to the shore.

Scientists admit they are in a race against time to examine the sites and save priceless treasures from damage by water.

Author: Will Stewart | Source: Daily Mail Online [September 09, 2019]

Denisovan finger bone more closely resembles modern human digits than Neanderthals

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 04, 2019 / comment : 0 Anthropology, Early Humans, Fossils, Genetics, Human Evolution, Siberia

Scientists have identified the missing part of a finger bone fragment from the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia, revealing that Denisovans - an early human population discovered when the original fragment was genetically sequenced in 2010--had fingers indistinguishable from modern humans despite being more closely related to Neanderthals.

The two fragments of Denisova 3's fingertip, reunited in digital form [Credit: Bennett et al. 2019]

This finding uncovers an important piece of evidence to the puzzle surrounding Denisovan skeletal morphology and suggests that finger bone characteristics unique to Neanderthals evolved after their evolutionary split from Denisovans.

The Denisovans lived in Asia for hundreds of thousands of years, sometimes interbreeding with Neanderthals and perhaps archaic Eurasian humans, with some present-day human populations still carrying Denisovan DNA.

However, only five Denisovan skeletal remains have been found--mostly molars--and the finger bone fragment previously recovered and used to generate the genome was too incomplete to reveal much about the whole appendage.

E. Andrew Bennett et al. matched the missing fragment to the original by using DNA extraction and sequencing techniques to capture its entire mitochondrial DNA sequence.

Side-by-side comparison of Denisova 3's digitally reconstructed finger (right) with the same bone from a recent human (center) and a Neanderthal (left). Notice how wide the tuft (fingertip, toward the top of the image) is on the Neanderthal bone compared with the other two [Credit: Bennett et al. 2019]

They then reanalyzed scans and photographs of the fragments and compared them with finger bones from Neanderthals, as well as Pleistocene and recent modern humans at various stages of development.

The researchers found that the digit was a fifth finger bone from the right hand of an adolescent female Denisovan who likely died at about 13.5 years old.

The authors say researchers should take caution when identifying potential Denisovan skeletal remains, since they may appear more similar to modern humans than to Neanderthals.

The findings are published in Science Advances.

Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science [September 04, 2019]

Arctic permafrost melting will aggravate the greenhouse effect

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on August 27, 2019 / comment : 0 Arctic, Climate Change, Earth Science, Environment, Natural Heritage, Siberia

Scientists from Russia and the United States studied the composition of the deep layers of permafrost in Eastern Siberia to better understand the hazards of the permafrost thawing to our planet and its inhabitants. Their findings suggest that the release of organic matter from the permafrost will intensify the greenhouse effect. The results of their study were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Credit: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

An ice-coated ground that never thaws, permafrost accounts for nearly 25% of land on Earth. Permafrost has increasingly drawn the attention of scientists due to global warming, since permafrost thawing may trigger extensive releases of ancient organic carbon and possibly result in a huge environmental disaster. There is no clear understanding of the consequences of the permafrost meltdown, which may be fraught with other risks aside from a global rise in sea levels.

Scientists from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Lomonosov Moscow State University in collaboration with researchers from Florida State University undertook the first ever study of organic matter contained in the deep permafrost layers in the Kolyma River basin in Eastern Siberia, aiming to understand what happened during permafrost thawing periods in the past and predict how present-day global warming may affect permafrost and what this could lead to.

In an attempt to find out what organic material is buried under the layers of ice and what would happen if it breaks loose, the scientists took soil samples at depths of 3 to 15 meters from two deposits of different geological ages to study the soil molecular structure using mass spectrometry. The experiment showed that permafrost thawing may produce microbially degradable rich organic matter, which, in turn, will cause massive greenhouse emissions and speed up global warming.

One of the authors of the study and junior research scientist at Skoltech, Alexander Zherebker, Ph.D. (Chemistry), stressed the significance of the study:

"We examined Pleistocene and Holocene deposits representing a pool of carbon which is best conserved and was only partly transformed during the melting periods; it is made up of 2% organic matter and 90% ice. We pinpointed the components that underwent the biggest change and those that are most susceptible to microorganism action. It transpired that biodegradable components are present both at great depths and very close to the permafrost surface. According to our projections, the Arctic region will very soon have a marked impact on global warming."

Source: Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology [August 27, 2019]

Gene transcripts from ancient wolf analyzed after 14,000 years in permafrost

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on July 30, 2019 / comment : 0 Fossils, Genetics, Palaeontology, Russia, Siberia

RNA - the short-lived transcripts of genes - from the "Tumat puppy", a wolf of the Pleistocene era has been isolated, and its sequence analyzed in a new study by Oliver Smith of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues publishing in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. The results establish the possibility of examining a range of RNA transcripts from ancient organisms, a possibility previously thought to be extremely unlikely because of the short lifespan of RNA.

The Tumat puppy was found on the banks of a river in the Sakha Republic, Russia [Credit: The Siberian Times]

DNA, which encodes the "hard copy" of genes, is known to survive for thousands of years under favourable conditions. But RNA -- the short-lived working copy of a gene, which is transcribed from DNA in the cell and forms the instructions for making proteins -- is rapidly broken down in living tissue by a suite of recycling enzymes. That instability typically continues after death, and because of that, researchers have generally assumed that the likelihood of finding intact an ancient cell's complement of RNA -- its transcriptome -- was vanishingly small. But there have been a few exceptions, mostly in plants, which led the authors to ask whether there might be ancient animal transcriptomes well-preserved enough to be sequenced.

They isolated and analyzed RNA from liver tissue of a 14,300-year-old canid, possibly a wolf or partially domesticated wolf-like creature, that had been preserved in Siberian permafrost until its discovery, as well as tissue from two 19th- and 20th-century wolves for comparison. Using a variety of transcriptomic techniques and quality control measures, the team showed that the RNA sequenced from the Pleistocene-era canid was truly representative of the animal's RNA, with many liver-specific transcripts that matched more modern samples from both wolves and dogs.

Fig 1. Regressions of ancient liver and historical skin samples, Method 1: Relationships between 95th percentile of expressed genes in each control tissue sample (x-axis) and each ancient sample or control samples from other tissues  (y-axis). Black points in graphs comparing ancient samples are the relationships between the control tissue and the equivalent ancient tissue. Red points overlaid show the relationship between the control tissue and other ancient  tissues specified in the graph subtitle. Yellow lines are least squares linear regression fit for black points. Green lines are least squares linear regression fit for red points. Filled lines indicate a significant linear regression. Dashed  lines indicate a nonsignificant linear regression. (A) BGISEQ-500 data, de-duplicated; (B) HiSeq-2500 data, de-duplicated; (C) BGISEQ-500 data, duplicates retained; (D) HiSeq-2500 data, duplicates retained. The underlying data for this figure are derived from Varistran output, summaries of which can be found in S2 Data and S3 Data [Credit: Smith et al. 2019]

The Siberian canid's transcriptome is the oldest RNA sequenced by far, surpassing the next oldest transcriptome by at least 13,000 years. The authors note that unlike paleo-genomics, paleo-transcriptomics is unlikely to become routine, because even in the best conditions, RNA is not as well preserved as DNA.

Nonetheless, there are likely to be a large number of other naturally frozen specimens for which deciphering the transcriptome is possible, opening up for researchers not just the genes of ancient organisms, but the flux of cellular activity encoded by the transcriptome.

"Ancient DNA researchers have previously been reluctant to attempt to sequence ancient RNA because it is generally more unstable than DNA, and more prone to enzymatic degradation," said Dr Smith. "However, following our recent successes in sequencing ancient RNA from plant material, we speculated that a well-preserved animal specimen, frozen in the permafrost, just might retain enough material to sequence. To our delight, we found that not only did we find RNA from various tissues, but in some case the signal was so strong that we could distinguish between tissues in a way that makes biological sense.

"Knowing that RNA acts as an intermediary between DNA and proteins, both of which are more stable, it might be tempting to ask, 'so what?'. But we think the future of ancient RNA has great potential. For example, many of the most clinically relevant viruses around today have RNA genomes, and the RNA stage is often crucial to understanding the intricacies and complexities of gene regulation. This might have repercussions when discussing the environmental stresses and strains that drive evolution."

Source: Public Library of Science [July 30, 2019]

Siberia forest fires spark potential 'disaster' for Arctic

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on July 30, 2019 / comment : 0 Climate Change, Ecosystems, Environment, Natural Heritage, Russia, Siberia

Gigantic forest fires have regularly raged through the vast expanses of Russia's Siberia, but the magnitude of this year's blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of a long-term impact on the environment.

Battling wildfires in the Vilyuisky district [Credit: Svetlana Pavlova/TASS]

As fires sweep across millions of hectares enveloping entire cities in black smoke and noxious fumes, environmentalists warn of a disaster threatening to accelerate the melting of the Arctic.

More than 3.2 million hectares (7.9 million acres) were in the grip of fires on Monday, mainly in the vast regions of Yakutia in the north and Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk in Siberia, authorities said.

The fires, triggered by dry thunderstorms in temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), were spread by strong winds, Russia's federal forestry agency said.

The acrid smoke has affected not only small settlements but also major cities in Western Siberia and the Altai region as well as the Urals such as Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg, and disrupted air travel.

"The smoke is horrible. I am choking and dizzy," pensioner Raisa Brovkina, who was hospitalised in Russia's third-largest city Novosibirsk, told state television.

On Sunday, the smoke reached neighbouring Kazakhstan.

A "concentration of pollutants exceeding the norm" was recorded in several cities, including the capital Nur-Sultan, said the Kazakh meteorological service.

'Ecological disaster'

Aside from health fears for the local population, environmentalists warn the fires may accelerate global warming.

"The forest fires in the eastern part of the country have long stopped being a local problem," the Russian branch of Greenpeace said in a statement. "It has transformed into an ecological disaster with consequences for the entire country."

According to the environmental group, almost 12 million hectares were burnt this year, causing significant CO2 emissions and reducing the future capacity of forest to absorb the carbon dioxide.

Map of Russia, highlighting Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions where more than 3.2 million hectares of forest went up in flames on Monday [Credit: AFP]

"Then there is the added problem that soot falling on ice or snow melts darkens it, thus reducing the reflectiveness of the surface and trapping more heat," the World Meteorological Organization told AFP in a statement.

Some scientists posted satellite images from NASA showing the clouds of smoke reaching Arctic areas.

Greenpeace Russia expert Grigory Kuksin said the soot and ashes accelerate the melting of the Arctic ice and permafrost—the permanently frozen layer that has begun melting—releasing gases that reinforce global warming.

Kuksin called the impact on the climate "very serious."

"It is comparable to the emissions of major cities," he said. "The more fires affect the climate, the more conditions are created for new dangerous fires."

Greenpeace has launched a petition demanding Russian authorities do more to fight the fires.

No resources to fight fires

But the situation is complicated by the fact that Russia does not have enough money to contain the wildfires, environmentalists add.

The majority of the fires rage in remote or inaccessible areas and authorities make the decision to extinguish them only if the estimated damage exceeds the cost of the operation, experts say.

Otherwise, the role of Russian authorities is limited to monitoring the wildfires, they say.

Kuksin of Greenpeace said Russian officials do not prioritise financial resources to put out fires in remote areas, taking issue with such an approach.

"The maximum amount possible should be put out from the start," he said.

"We need to plan and allocate resources, but we continue to save money claiming it is 'economically impractical'."

Author: Maria Panina | Source: AFP [July 30, 2019]

Receding waters of made-made lake in Siberia reveal ancient burial ground

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on June 25, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Russia, Siberia

Unique necropoli in remote republic of Tuva with more than one hundred undisturbed burials from the Bronze era to the time of Genghis Khan appear eerily from under the water only once a year. The precious archaeological site is located at the bottom of the so-called Sayan Sea, an artificial reservoir created upstream of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam, Russia’s biggest power plant.

The archaeological site is located at the bottom of the so-called Sayan Sea [Credit: RGO/The Siberian Times]

Scientists can only work here from mid-May to the end of June, with water daily destroying burials made at sea shores, and threatening graves hidden on the reservoir bed. Last year a 2,000-year-old mummified ‘sleeping beauty’ dressed in silk emerged from one of the stone graves.

In this case, the artificial sea - which one day will wipe all traces of this ancient site altogether - has worked as a blessing, as it washed off several layers of soil and revealed a rectangle-shaped stone construction with the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ inside it.

Archaeologists are in a 'race against time' to recover treasures [Credit: RGO/The Siberian Times]

Luckily for archaeologists, the burial had been so well-sealed with a stone lid that first it enabled a process of natural body mummification, and then protected the mummy when the grave was submerged after construction of the dam, on which work started in 1963.

The young woman was laid to rest wearing a silk skirt held by a beaded belt with a precious jet gemstone buckle. There was a rich funeral meal and a pouch of pine nuts prepared for her afterlife, and inside her most intricately-made stylish wooden bag was her Chinese mirror.

Among the young fashionista’s other treasures were turquoise beads used to decorate the belt, a set of much smaller purple beads, fragments of a belt’s ring made of copper alloy and a bone belt buckle with beautiful engraving. There was also an iron knife with a ringed handle.

"This site is a scientific sensation", said Dr Marina Kilunovskaya from the St Petersburg Institute of Material History Culture, who leads the Tuva Archaeological Expedition. "We are incredibly lucky to have found these graves of rich Hun nomads that were not disturbed by robbers. We discovered 110 burials at the Ala-Tey burial site, which is usually 15 metres underwater. Another site which was made at what is now the Sayan Sea shore is getting quickly destroyed by crumbling soil. It is called Terezin, and there we found 32 graves."

A prehistoric 'fashionista' - dressed in silk for the afterlife - has been dubbed 'Sleeping Beauty' [Credit: IHMC RAS/The Siberian Times]

Another view of the 'Sleeping Beauty' [Credit: IHMC RAS/ The Siberian Times]

Rectangular-shaped stone construction in burial 21 with the remains of the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Some of the wooden artefacts found at the site [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Purple beads found in burial 21 [Credit: Sankt-Peterburg TV, Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Charcoal belt buckle found in burial 21 [Credit: Sankt-Peterburg TV, Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Leather bag found in burial 27 [Credit: Sankt-Peterburg TV, Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Wooden comb found in burial 27 [Credit: Sankt-Peterburg TV, Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Bone belt buckle found in burial 27 [Credit: Sankt-Peterburg TV, Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Bronze mirror from the burial 21 [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Bronze mirror from the burial 27 [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Human remains and grave goods uncovered in Terezin [Credit: Institute for the History of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Human remains showing charcoal belt buckle uncovered in Terezin [Credit: Institute for the History  of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Detail of the charcoal belt buckle uncovered in Terezin [Credit: Institute for the History  of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Charcoal belt buckle found in Terezin [Credit: Institute for the History  of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Human remains showing bronze belt buckle uncovered in Ala-Tei [Credit: Institute for the History  of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Detail of bronze belt buckle uncovered in Ala-Tei [Credit: Institute for the History  of Material Culture/The Siberian Times]

Russian archaeologists thought that the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ woman must have been a priestess based on how rich was her burial. Further studies of the finds led them to believe that in fact she was an ancient leather designer, buried with her work instruments - several pieces of leather and tendon threads tacked inside a little bag.

Not far from this ‘Sleeping Beauty’, scientists found the mummy of a Hun weaver, with a wooden spindle packed in a leather bag. Preserved in her burial through thousands of years were sparkling glass beads, two stone pendants and two belt buckets made of bone, one with linear and another one with circular patterns, and a birch bark double cover with holes along its edges.

"Both mummies that were found with fragments of leather, threads and a spindle could have carried a special role in the Hun society", said Dr Kilunovskaya.

"Huns cherished women. It wasn’t a matriarchy, yet women  - mothers and skilled artisans - were treated with great respect. The scientist also explain great attention that was paid to belts found inside the burials. For nomads a belt was an extremely important part of their clothing, indicating wealth and society rank. They didn’t use pockets, so all key elements of day-to-day life had to be hung on belts - which in case of Huns women were intricately decorated."



Among the other finds were masterpieces of the infamous animal style with female belt buckles depicting scenes of tigers fighting dragons, and beautifully made bronze bulls, horses, camels and snakes.

Other treasures from the underwater necropoli came from China. These were silk, mirrors and coins made during the Han dynasty time (206BC-220 AD) which is described as a golden age in Chinese history and culture.

This summer the work at this Siberian Atlantis will be over by the end of June.

Tuva archaeological rescue expedition in flooded areas is possible thank to a grant from the Russian Geographical Society, and help from Society for the Exploration of EurAsia (Switzerland).

Author: Svetlana Skarbo | Source: The Siberian Times [June 25, 2019]