Returning to Oleni' ostrov: Social, Economic, and Skeletal Dimensions of a Boreal Forest Mesolithic Cemetery

Abstract

Since its excavation in the 1930s, the cemetery on Yuzhny' Oleni' ostrov (Southern Deer Island, Lake Onega, Karelia) has attracted attention by virtue of its size and the abundance and diversity of its funerary remains. Originally reconstructed as an early Neolithic cemetery through a Soviet historical determinist reading of the site (Ravdonikas 1940; Gurina 1956), Oleni' ostrov more recently has been adduced as evidence for a high degree of social and economic complexity among Mesolithic boreal forest foragers (O'Shea and Zvelebil 1984). This paper reviews aspects of the Oleneostrovski' cemetery in order to assess the extent to which it might reveal the degree of social complexity among those who produced it. The nature both of the site itself and of the excavations are considered, as are the content and contexts of the two previous interpretations of the cemetery. Then, a detailed evaluation is presented of biological data (age, sex, long-bone robustness, and trace-elemental indicators of dietary meat protein intake) for the individuals buried at Oleni' ostrov. It is suggested here that a revised reconstruction of Oleni' ostrov is required. Thus, by way of conclusion, alternative explanations for some of the mortuary variability evident at Oleni' ostrov will be explored. This culminates in a scenario for the creation and maintenance of the Oleni' ostrov burial ground, wherein the cemetery served as a ritualized central place, allowing small scale dispersed foragers to maintain an integrated social and mating network in the absence of centripetal forces of economic or subsistence origin.