Yanshina Oksana, Kuzmin Yaroslav

The Earliest Evidence of Human Settlement in the Kurile Islands (Russian Far East): The Yankito Site Cluster, Iturup Island

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 5: 1, 179 — 184

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The Russian Far East has always been considered one of the possible routes for Upper Paleolithic humans to migrate from North and East Asia to North America. Although the Kurile Islands act as a natural ‘bridge’ between the Japanese archipelago and Kamchatka Peninsula, archaeological research has been relatively sparse.
In the early 1980s, preliminary data were obtained by Prof. Yuri V. Knorozov (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology & Ethnography, St. Petersburg) from what appeared to be an early archaeological complex near Yankito Creek on central Iturup Island. Two conventional radiocarbon dates suggested that the site dated to around 7000 RYBP (ca. 7600–7900 cal BP), representing an extremely early occupation compared to other sites in the Kuriles. In an effort to improve our understanding of Yankito, we conducted field investigations in summer 2007. Here we provide a brief report on our recent research, including artifacts recovered and additional radiocarbon dates to compare with the earlier findings by Y.V. Knorozov.