Zhokhov Island (Russian: Остров Жохова, romanized: Ostrov Zhokhova; Yakut: Жохов Aрыыта, romanized: Joqov Arııta) is an island in the East Siberian Sea, situated 128 km north east of Novaya Sibir Island, the easternmost of the New Siberian Islands. Administratively the island belongs to the Yakutia administrative division of Russia.[1]
Geography
Zhokhov Island is part of the De Long group. The nearest island is Vilkitsky Island, the southernmost island of the group. Zhokhov is 10.8 km (6.7 mi) in length and has an area of 77 km2 (30 sq mi). The highest point of the island is 123 m (404 ft).
Although the island itself is unglaciated, the sea surrounding Zhokhov Island is covered with fast ice, even during the summer, and the climate is severe.
Rush/grass, forb, cryptogam tundra covers the Zhokhov Island. It is tundra consisting mostly of very low-growing grasses, rushes, forbs, mosses, lichens, and liverworts. These plants either mostly or completely cover the surface of the ground. The soils are typically moist, fine-grained, and often hummocky.[5]
History
Mesolithic humans occupied the island as early as 6000 BCE. Tools of stone, bone, antler, and ivory have been found, as well as wooden arrow shafts and a sledge runner. Animal remains suggest a culture dependent on the hunting of polar bears and reindeer.[6] Evidence published in 2017 suggests that the early inhabitants of Zhokhov Island were among the first humans to selectively breed dogs. Findings indicate that larger dogs may have been bred for hunting and smaller dogs weighing 16 kilograms (35 lb) to 25 kilograms (55 lb) were bred for pulling sleds.[7] DNA extracted from a 9,500-year-old dog, Zhokhov, named after the island, contributed significant genetic material to the Greenland Dog, the Alaskan Malamute and the Siberian Husky.[8]
Ostrov Zhokhova is also mentioned in the Soviet "sad comedy" film by Georgii Danelia "Osennii Marafon" (Autumn Marathon). The film's "hero" Andrei Buzykin's daughter and her husband depart to take up a job in the weather station on Zhokhov Island, to Andrei's horror.
^Ershova, V.B., Lorenz, H., Prokopiev, A.V., Sobolev, N.N., Khudoley, A.K., Petrov, E.O., Estrada, S., Sergeev, S., Larionov, A. and Thomsen, T.B., 2016. The De Long Islands: A missing link in unraveling the Paleozoic paleogeography of the Arctic.Gondwana Research , 35, pp.305-322.
^Kos'ko, M. and Korago, E., 2009. Review of geology of the new Siberian islands between the Laptev and the East Siberian Seas, North East Russia. Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series, 4, pp.45-64.
^Makeev, V.M., Davydov, V.K., Ustritsky, V.I., 1991. Discovery of middle Carboniferous deposits with tropic fauna on the De Long Islands.Paleozoic Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Arctic . Sevmorgeologia, Leningrad, pp. 167–170.
^CAVM Team, 2003, Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map. Scale 1:7,500,000. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Map No. 1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska.
^Pitul'ko, V. V. (1993). "An Early Holocene Site in the Siberian High Arctic". Arctic Anthropology. 30 (1): 13–21. JSTOR40316326.
^Grimm, David (May 26, 2017). "Earliest evidence for dog breeding found on remote Siberian island". Science. 356 (6340). doi:10.1126/science.aan6897.
