NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA—A 5,000-year-old site consisting of pits in the ground that were used for processing and smoking fish has been unearthed in Siberia. “This year we came across an unusual facility, a Neolithic smokehouse,” Vyacheslav Molodin of the Russian Academy of Sciences told The Siberian Times. “This method is known and is still used by some Siberian and Extreme North ethnic groups. The fish starts smelling, but it didn’t bother our ancestors,” he said. The bones of other animals were also found in the pits, including a wolverine, ermine remains, a dog, and a fox. Wolverines are native to the taiga, and not the local steppe, raising the question of how a wolverine ended up in a smokehouse pit. “For some time the pits were used for ritual purposes but it’s a huge mystery which we have yet to understand,” Molodin added. To read about medieval archaeology in Siberia, go to “Fortress of Solitude.”
