Krasnoyarsk forest-steppe in the context of cultural and historical processes in Siberia in the Holocene

This article discusses the Krasnoyarsk forest-steppe as a cultural and historical space, and analyzes its place in the cultural genesis of the Holocene in Siberia. Modern archaeological data from the Middle Yenisei region makes it possible to formulate the conclusion that specific development of the region in the Mesolithic was similar to cultural and historical processes in the entire Siberia with certain affinity to Eastern Siberia. This can be explained by geographical proximity between the region under study and Eastern Siberia, as well as availability of high quality stone raw materials which were very scarce in Western Siberia. In the Neolithic, forest-steppe was the center where archaeological cultures emerged under marked influence of cultures from the Baikal region. This process was associated with cultural and historical developments in Eastern Siberia and more precisely in the Cis-Baikal region and Angara region, which is confirmed by the evidence from stratified archaeological sites of the Krasnoyarsk and Kansk forest-steppe. In the Advanced Neolithic, there was a connection between the inhabitants of the Krasnoyarsk and Kansk forest-steppe and Neolithic population of Western Siberia. Cultural and historical space of the Krasnoyarsk forest-steppe changed in the Paleometal Age. We do not know much about the subsequent historical and chronological period before the appearance of the Tagar population in the region. Small number and diversity of archaeological sources of this period were not accidental. Chronological differentiation of evidence is problematic; foreign cultural influences before the Late Bronze Age were multidirectional, which suggests the marginal nature of cultural and historical space of the Krasnoyarsk forest-steppe in the Bronze Age.