Late Pleistocene–Holocene sedimentation and Late Upper Paleolithic–Neolithic human occupation of the Vitim River valley (Baikal–Patom Highlands, Eastern Siberia) at Kovrizhka I–VI.

Abstract The Kovrizhka sites are some of the most studied and highly informative for the entire northern Cis-Baikal region of Siberia and illustrate the history and development of ancient cultures in the Vitim area during the Late Upper Paleolithic to Early Neolithic. To better understand human settlement practices during this time, we constructed a model of Late Quaternary landscape formation and human occupation in the Vitim River valley based on a geomorphological study and radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites Kovrizhka I–VI in the Baikal-Pathom Highlands. The model reconstructs human habitation of the valley from 19.9 to 6.7 ka and connects settlement patterns to general landscape features, stone (mineral) and food resources, the flood regime of the Vitim River, and dynamics of landscape formation. A secondary focus of this study is to assess the timing and geomorphological remnants of megafloods originating from breakthroughs of the Muya (Vitim) glacial paleolake in Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 3 and 2, and their impact on human settlement. The last megaflood could not have been later than the earliest settlement on Kovrizhka II (19.9 ka). However, erosive flood activity is observed at all stages, especially a shift in floods at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary.