New data on lithic industries from the Ust-Kutarey area in the North Angara region

As a result of large-scale rescue archaeological work in the North Angara region, associated with the construction of the Boguchanskaya hydro-electric power station, many archaeological sites were discovered, including Ust-Kutarey, Senkin Kamen, Gora Kutarey, and Ruchey Povarny. Presently, active analyses of the obtained materials and their introduction to scientific use are in process. Because of the specifics of cultural sediment formation and problematic of studying the region, detailed research, planigraphic analyses, and comparison of the same-age sites in the region become particularly important. As a result of a detailed study of the archaeological materials from the Ust-Kutarey site, conditionally “pure” Neolithic complexes as well as mixed complexes (with an admixture of Bronze to Medieval Age ceramics) have been identified. To provide more clear understanding of the situation in the Ust-Kutarey area as a whole, the collection of samples (blades, cores, stone toolsfwas selected for a comparative analysis of materials from the adjacent sites (Gora Kutarey and Senkin Kamen), which allowed to establish that the territory in the mouth of the Kutara River is a solid cultural layer, and the interval between the sites was formed due to their significant destruction by the Russian village Kutarey in the 20th century and complete deforestation in 2008-2010. The lithic industries in the sites in the Ust-Kutarey area are related mostly to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Techno-typological analysis showed the concentration ofmicroblade production in the Ust-Kutarey site, and high amount of adzes and axes, fan-type scrapers in the Gora Kutarey site. In the Senkin Kamen site, a decline in the concentration offinds was recorded and no significant collection of tools was discovered. In general, the sites located in the mouth of the Kutarey River show a continuation of Mesolithic traditions of Ust-Kova I. The conducted research allows expanding the source base for the Neolithic to Paleometal period to clarify the cultural and chronological scale of the region in future.