Archaeological works at the Early Upper Paleolithic site of Sabanikha-3 in the Middle Yenisei region in 2023

This article presents results offi eld work which was done in 2023 at the Early Upper Paleolithic site of Sabanikha-3 located on the left bank of the Krasnoyarsk Reservoir in Bograd District of the Republic of Khakassia. This work was a continuation of research of 2020 and 2022, and was aimed at studying planigraphy and lithic assemblage of the site. A 16.5 sq. m area bordering the southeastern side of the excavation pit of2022 was excavated to the depth of 5.5 m. The lithic assemblage contained overfive thousand artifacts. A large part of the assemblage consisted of debitage with large amount of products of primary reduction, and typologically expressive toolkit. Spalls and cores were typical of primary reduction aimed at producing blades and flakes in the framework of volumetric unidirectional and bidirectional reduction. The toolkit was dominated by end-scrapers of various kinds. Many of them were made on intensively retouched blades and flakes. In addition to lithic artifacts, a collection offive bone and antler items was discovered, including a bone needle, two antler rods, fragment of a bone artifact with the prominent head (hairpin?), and fragment of tubular bone with a kerf. Specific features of the toolkit as well as distribution of artifacts in the cultural layer preliminarily indicate that the excavated site resulted from an individual visit to the site for carving and processing skins of several reindeer and argali. Bone needle and piercing tools show that clothing was made at the site. The assemblage of2023 demonstrates technical and typological similarity with assemblages of2022 and 2020, and common features inherent in the Early Upper Paleolithic of the Chulym-Yenisei interfluve.