Labrets and their role as markers of ethnocultural relations in the Neolithic of the Pacific North and adjacent territories

The issue of labrets is significant for addressing questions of ancient ethnic history in the North Pacific region and adjacent areas. Since antiquity, labrets were made from soft, light-colored stone, as well as from bone and antler. They came in various shapes and were typically worn in pairs, inserted through perforations in the corners of the mouth and on the lips. The material evidence and literary sources accumulated to date on this subject, analyzed through archaeological and historical-ethnographical methods, allow for insights into the historical connections between the ancient populations of the North Pacific and inhabitants of other regions. The author focuses primarily on the earliest archaeological labrets from the Neolithic period of the Russian Far East, having been directly involved in the discovery of some of them. The main objective of the article is to identify these Neolithic-period artifacts (including the earliest ones) from a number of regions, which were obtained by archaeologists primarily through excavations and have absolute dates. There is information that at the beginning of the current century, approximately 100 ethnographic and archaeological specimens of labret-type items were held in research and educational centers and museums in Russia, the USA, and Japan. However, this number is underestimated by several dozen, due to unaccounted-for items from the Lower Amur Region and Kamchatka. For a long time, the most numerous collections of labrets in the Pacific region were considered to be materials from the Aleutian Islands, as well as from sites of Eskimo cultures on the adjacent northeastern coast of Alaska. Research conducted on the Aleutian Islands in the 1960s-1970s is considered fruitful. It was based mainly on fossil materials from the most important sites of Chaluka and Anangula. Labrets dating back approximately 4,000 years were discovered in the Neolithic layer of Chaluka. A plausible motivating factor for the origin of these specific ornaments-labrets-can be considered the desire of ancient North Pacific people to resemble, in some way, the powerful, tusked walruses that inspired both fear and admiration. This is supported by historical-ethnographical observations. Nowadays, two main areas in Northeast Asia are known where significant series of early Stone Age labrets with absolute dates have been found: the predominant group of artifacts from Kamchatka and almost all ornaments from the Lower Amur Region. They are mostly dated to the 3rd millennium BC and the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. For the Kamchatkan labrets (Ushki I), there are dates exceeding 10,000 years ago. The labrets that appeared in this region subsequently spread across a vast territory, playing a role as distinctive markers of ethnocultural relationships, influences, and borrowings. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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