Strongholds of the Taiga

This aerial photograph shows the western Siberian taiga surrounding the Amnya complex, a Neolithic fortified settlement dating to 6000 b.c. that overlooks the Amnya River. The site is visible as a cleared area in the forest.

From a sandy spit of land rising more than 20 feet high in the boreal forest of the Lower Ob River region, the vast expanse of the West Siberian Plain stretches to the horizon. The taiga landscape, thick with stands of Siberian pine, spruce, and larch, is traced with wide

Sophie Pinkham is a writer who teaches at Cornell University. Her next book is The Spirit in the Trees, a cultural history of the Russian forest.