FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES

The island of Sakhalin is situated on the eastern coast of the largest landmass on Earth, the Eurasian continent. The extreme southern point, Cape Krilon, extends to 45°54' north latitude, and the extreme northern point, Cape Elizaveta, to 54° 24'. Sakhalin extends in the meridian direction between 141 °38' and 144''55' east longitude. The island is 948 km long, with a maximum width of 160 km and a minimum of 26 km (at the Poyasok isthmus). The area of Sakhalin is 76.4 thousand sq.km. Sakhalin is separated from the continent by the narrow (less than 8 km) and shallow Nevelskoy strait, and from the island of Hokkaido by the La Perouse Straits. The island is washed by the warm waters of the Sea of Japan on the south and west, and by the cold Sea of Okhotsk on the north and east.

The Kuril archipelago lies at the boundary between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, stretching from the island of Hokkaido to the Kamchatka Peninsula. The archipelago consists of two ranges: the Greater and Lesser Kurils. The Greater Kurils extend almost 1200 km, from 43° 39' (Cape Veslo on Kunashir island) to 50°52' north latitude (Cape Kurbatov on Shumshu island). This range includes about 30 islands, the largest of which are Kunashir, Iturup, Urup, Simu-shir, Onekotan, Paramushir and Shumshu, in addition to a great number of smaller islands and rocks. The Lesser Kurils are six small islands (the largest Shiko-tan) and a great number of rocks which parallel the Greater Kuril chain for a distance of 105 km between 43°21' and 43°52' North latitude. The total area of the Kuril Islands is 15.6 thousand sq.km.

One of the most difficult questions of the ancient history of Sakhalin and the Kurils is the problem of its original settlement by man. To answer this we must consult the geologic record to determine when land bridges connected Sakhalin and the Kuril islands to neighboring territories during the last quaternary geological period. These bridges appeared when the level of the Pacific Ocean and Far Eastern seas dropped as the climate cooled and glaciers formed from sea water. The bridges were once again submerged when the glaciers retreated and the melting raised the sea level worldwide.

During the next-to-last ice age (ca. 40-63 thousand years ago) Sakhalin was connected to the continent and Hokkaido. It was via this land bridge that Woolly Mammoths and other animals penetrated to the Sakhalin-Hokkaido Peninsula (remains of the last mammoths have been found both on Sakhalin and Hokkaido). Then, ca. 40 thousand years ago, this land bridge was submerged by the rising sea level of the Pacific Ocean and Far East seas as a result of climatic warming. Sakhalin became an island with outlines similar to the present day.

Then, ca. 24-25 thousand years ago, a sharp cold snap in northern Asia heralded the beginning of the last ice age, in which the climate between 17 and 19 thousand years ago was at its most arid and cold. At this time Sakhalin was once again connected with the continent and Hokkaido by land bridges. The southern Kuril Islands were connected with Hokkaido and the northern with Kamchatka. These land bridges were submerged by the ocean ca.10 thousand years ago when a new period of global warming began on the Earth, and Sakhalin and the Kurils more or less assumed their present-day outlines.

The majority of Russian and foreign archeologists believe that human settlement of Sakhalin and the Kurils began during the Paleolithic era. In their search for food, the hunters of Paleolithic period may have ranged as far as Sakhalin, and later Hokkaido and the southern Kurils. The northern Kurils may have been settled from Kamchatka. But in fact at present no one has yet been able to give a definitive, reasoned answer to the question of when exactly the first humans appeared here. There is simply not enough factual information available. Not one site which can be absolutely and unqualifiedly dated to the Paleolithic era has been found on either Sakhalin or the Kurils. Indirect evidence that occupation of the islands by ancient man began during the Paleolithic period is provided by finds of archeological materials on both Sakhalin and the Kuril islands having a generally Paleolithic appearance, as well as the discovery of Paleolithic sites on Hokkaido, in the Amur basin, and in Kamchatka.

Much more is known about the Neolithic era on Sakhalin and the Kuril islands. At about this time, humans developed stable economic systems based on integrated usage of all available natural resources of the islands and adjacent seas. The primary occupation of the ancient peoples of the islands during the Neolithic was hunting and fishing, supplemented by hunting of marine mammals and gathering. The Neolithic cultures of Sakhalin and the Kuril islands were not isolated. They developed under conditions of constant contact and mutual influence with cultures of neighboring territories. The proximity of the northern Sakhalin Neolithic culture (Imchin) to the lower Amur Neoliths is of special interest a number of investigators have postulated that the ancient population of northern Sakhalin probably originated from the Neolithic tribes of the Lower Amur. It is likely that the ancestors of the present-day Nivkhi lived on the Lower Amur and northern Sakhalin during the Neolithic period.

In the 1st millenium B.C. the Okhotsk culture spread to Sakhalin, the Kuril islands and northern Hokkaido. Their economy was maritime. Hunting of marine mammals (whales, dolphins, sea lion, seals, sea otters, fur seals) became the primary occupation of the island population at that time. Fishing and coastal gathering was also developed.

It is not clear to what ethnic group the Okhotsk culture belongs. It is possible that they are the 'Tonchi' spoken of in Ainu legends, which were recorded, with minor variations, by field researchers in the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Here is the legend, as presented by B. 0. Pilsudsky: "When the Ainu arrived on Sakhalin, they met with a tribe there that lived in dugouts and made clay pots. They called themselves the 'tontsy.' They were of medium height, not too short, with black eyes and hair not unlike the Ainu in appearance. The women did not wear tattoos. They wore short dresses made of animal skins or Manchu cloth; the shoes were made of seal. (One variant states that they kept neither dogs nor deer.) They fished with hooks instead of nets. They did not use nooses to catch sable, but rather traps and crossbows when pursuing game. The 'tontsy' used boats similar to modem Gilyak boats to travel to Manchuria and bring back Manchu goods... It is from them the Ainu learned how to reach Manchuria. The 'tontsy' were inclined to steal and had a special passion for Ainu women, which they occasionally managed to steal away, though more often (incidentally, only in the north) they raped and then killed them. This the Ainu could not forgive, and from time to time they waged war on the 'tontsy'... The hostility and war with the Ainu forced the 'tontsy' to retire, and they left the island in their boats."

Who were the Tonchi? This is a puzzle which remains unsolved to this day. Some researchers believe that the ancestors of the Nivkhi hide under this name, others prove that it refers to the ancestors of the Aleuts or Eskimos, while still others consider them to be an Ainu tribe.

In the late stages of the Okhotsk culture on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, metal tools, weapons, dishes, and adornments appeared. Their distribution was a great stimulus for cultural contacts because the metal was brought to the island from various early Far East metallurgy centers in China, and later the Japanese islands.

The first written records about the peoples who settled Sakhalin and the Kurils began appearing about the time of Christ. The first mention of these people appears in Chinese geographies dating to the Han dynasty period (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), which only incidentally mention the "land of hairy people" (moo min go), "land of black-legged people" (yuan gu go), and "people of Lao" (lao min). Thick hair covering is an identifying anthropological characteristic of the Ainu. Therefore, most probably moo min go was the country of the Ainu, who lived on southern Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Hokkaido long before Europeans came to the Far East One of the Han tracts mentions that the "black-legged people" were "clothed in fish" (i.e., they wore clothes made of cured fish skin). Clothing of this type was worn in the very recent past by the Nivkhi who lived on northern Sakhalin and the Lower Amur, as well as by the Ainu, Nanai, and other peoples of the Amur basin. The "Nation of Lao" refers to the Nivkhi, according to Japanese researcher KShiratori.

The Tzyunii and Kusho tribes are mentioned in the Chronicles of the T'ang dynasty, which ruled China from 618 to 907 A.D. According to Japanese researcher S.Wada, 'Tzyunii' refers to the Gilyem or Gilyak tribes (i.e., Nivkhi), and 'Kusho' to the Kui or Ainu. There is also a mention from this same period of a people called the Lyugui who lived beyond the "Northern Sea" This could mean Kamchatka and the Kurils, or perhaps Sakhalin. The T'ang Chronicles speak of the early contacts of the ancient population of the islands with China. The information in the Chinese sources is confirmed by ar-cheological evidence: 6th-13th century Chinese beads and eamngs, 10th century coins, and 10th-13th century copper bells have been found by Japanese and Soviet archeologists.

Tungus-Manchu tribes called the Mohe founded the Kingdom of Bohai, which extended over parts of the present-day Maritimes, Lower Amur, northeast China and north Korea from 698 to 926 A.D. During the period of its greatest power it included as well the lower reaches of the Amur river. Among those who paid tribute to the Bohai kings were the Kusho tribes (probably Ainu).

In 1115 a new state, theJin ("Golden") Empire, was founded by Tungus-Manchu tribes called theJurchen. This empire encompassed nearly all the present-day Maritimes, a considerable part of Inner Mongolia, and northeastern and northern China. Their chronicles mention the "savage Tszilimi" on the extreme eastern fringes of the Jin Empire: in all likelihood, a reference to the Nivkhi.

Ruins of Chinese-style medieval fortresses found in the south and north of Sakhalin are of great value in studying the contact of the ancient Sakhalin peoples with neighboring territories. These fortresses are a system of embanked earthen walls, divided in the center by gates and surrounded by moats. The Ainu reported that these fortresses were built during an invasion of Sakhalin by peoples from the west over the sea.

This information would seem to be substantiated by the Chronicles of the Mongolian Yuan dynasty, which ruled China from 1271 to 1368. Sakhalin became the target of Mongolian expansion in the second half of the 13th century. Mongolian detachments reached the mouth of the Amur in 1263 and quickly subdued the Nivkhi of the Lower Amur and northern Sakhalin. The Ainu, however, offered the stiffest resistance to the newcomers, and fought Mongolian domination for almost four decades. The first Mongolian invasion of Sakhalin, launched in 1264, ended in total failure. Other invasions followed in 1284 and 1286, and by 1287 Mongolian troops, including Han Chinese infantry, were permanently garrisoned on the island. The Ainu reacted to mis occupation with a series of daring raids against Mongolian outposts on the mainland. Finally in 1308 the last Ainu chieftain submitted to the Yuan dynasty and agreed to pay tribute. The Mongolians, however, fought for Sakhalin longer than they ruled it, quitting the island forever sometime after 1320.

The Chinese made yet another attempt to conquer the peoples of the Lower Amur and Sakhalin during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). In 1411 the Emperor Ming Ch'eng-tsu sent a military expedition to the Lower Amur headed by the court eunuch Yi Shiha. In addition to more than 1000 soldiers and officers, there were doctors, architects, scribes, sculptors, tile-makers, and masons in the detachment Upon reaching the Amur delta in 1413, Yi reported that "the land here bears no bread, produces neither silk nor linen; its inhabitants breed only dogs and hunt wild reindeer. They eat fish and meat, and are clothed in beast skins."

Yi treated the natives to Chinese meals and wine, gave them clothes and utensils, and invested their elders with brocades, banners, official seals and paper money. The Chinese built a temple of Eternal Harmony and a monument with inscriptions in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol and Jurchen on a high cliff in the Tyr district. The inscriptions told of the expedition and building of the temple, and praised the Chinese emperor.

In 1433 the Chinese emperor again sent Yi Shiha to the Lower Amur, this time with a detachment of 2000. Upon reaching Tyr the Chinese found only the foundation of the temple,which had been destroyed by the local inhabitants. Yi ordered it rebuilt. All the same, the Chinese were unable to maintain possession of the Amur delta. The peoples living on the Lower Amur and Sakhalin remained independent right up to the 16th century.