Burnt bones by Europe's largest lake: Zooarchaeology of the Stone Age and Early Metal period hunter-gatherers at Lake Ladoga, NW Russia Oula Seitsonen a, ⁎, Sanna Seitsonen b , Lee G. Broderick c , Dmitriy V. Gerasimov d a Department of History, Philosophy, Culture and Art Studies, P.O. Box 59, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland b Arkteekki ltd, Finland c Department of Archaeology, University of York, The King's Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK / Oxford Archaeology ltd, Janus House, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES, UK d Peter the Great's Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya Nab. 3, RU 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia abstract article info Article history: Received 24 December 2015 Received in revised form 15 November 2016 Accepted 18 November 2016 Available online xxxx Lake Ladoga, Europe's largest lake, is situated in northwest Russia east of the Baltic Sea. This article is the first compilation of all the zooarchaeological material recovered from the Stone Age and Early Metal Period hunter- gatherer sites in the area analysed and published up to 2014. All the faunal remains preserved in the acidic soils are small pieces of calcined bone, except for two sites where anaerobic conditions have also preserved un- burnt bones. An overview of the analysed assemblages, including identified species and carcass treatment is pre- sented, and the chronological trends briefly summarised. Based on the zooarchaeological material the prehistoric subsistence base was aquatically oriented throughout the Stone Age and Early Metal Period. Day-to-day subsis- tence seems based on fishing near the campsites, supplemented with seasonal food sources. Prehistoric inhabi- tants of Lake Ladoga were also committed to invest technology, time, and human resources in the specialised, risky sealing forays. The abundant lake resources offered a stable, self-renewing resource base for the area's pop- ulation and, for example, fishing maintained its importance in subsistence even after the introduction of cultiva- tion – in places into the 20th century. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Zooarchaeology Stone age Early metal period Hunter-gatherer Burnt bone Environmental change Lake Ladoga Russia 1. Introduction Lake Ladoga, Europe's largest lake, is situated in northwest Russia east of the Baltic Sea (Fig. 1). Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the area became the stage for a fresh upsurge of Finno-Russian archaeolog- ical co-operation (e.g. Lavento, 2008; Lavento et al., 2001; Nordqvist et al., 2009), illustrated by the rapidly growing records of archaeological sites (Nordqvist et al., 2008) and informed by modern techniques such as radiocarbon dating (see Kulkova et al., 2012, 2014; O. Seitsonen et al., 2012) and faunal analyses (see S. Seitsonen, 2008, 2010; and this paper). In this paper we compile all the information about faunal material recovered from the Stone Age and Early Metal Period hunter-gatherer sites in Lake Ladoga area, analysed and published at least in a report form up to 2014 (also S. Seitsonen, 2008, 2010). Based on these data we present a long-term overview of the faunal assemblages and pat- terns from c. 8600 cal BCE to CE 300. Practically all the faunal remains preserved in the acidic soils of the area are tiny fragments of calcined and burnt bone, apart from two exceptional sites where anaerobic conditions also preserved unburnt bones. Fragmented material presents special challenges for the methodological and analytical approaches adopted, owing to the complex taphonomic processes affecting the for- mation of burnt bone assemblages. It is also one obvious reason why zooarchaeological studies have previously been very scarce in the area. First we present a brief overview of the methodological and theoret- ical issues that need to be taken into account when studying the heavily calcined and burnt bone remains, and describe the analytical framework adopted. Then we describe the study area and its palaeoenvironment, the chronological framework used, and the zooarchaeological material. We present overviews of the analysed assemblages, identified species, and carcass treatment, and finally, summarise some temporal trends observed in the materials corresponding with the chronological periods. 2. Study of the burnt faunal remains Almost all of the Stone Age and Early Metal Period faunal material in the Lake Ladoga area, as well as in the wider region, consists of heavily fragmented calcined and burnt bone, which rarely exceed 1 cm 3 and a few grams in size due to the acidic soil environment and various post-depositional processes (e.g. Fortelius, 1981; Mannermaa and Deckwirth, 2010; Ukkonen, 2001). This necessitates that special atten- tion is paid to the taphonomic factors affecting the zooarchaeological Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 11 (2017) 131–146 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: oula.seitsonen@helsinki.fi (O. Seitsonen), smseitsonen@gmail.com (S. Seitsonen), lee@zooarchaeology.co.uk (L.G. Broderick), dger@kunstkamera.ru (D.V. Gerasimov). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.11.034 2352-409X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep