Pottery complexes from layer 2 of the Ustie Reki Kutarei site in Northern Angara region

Wide-scale rescue works associated with building of the Boguchany Dam fostered a new stage in archaeological research in the Northern Angara region and active analysis and publication of the evidence obtained in excavations. These works have resulted in representative collections of archaeological materials from the sites in the mouth of the Kuturei River (Ustie Reki Kutarei, Senkin Kamen, Gora Kutarei, and Ruchei Povarny). Since these sites are mostly represented by short-term encampments without closed complexes, and deposits on the edge of the riverbank terraces where the majority of the sites are located, are poorly stratified, manifesting compression of the deposits (macrolamination), a detailed study of archaeological evidence and its planigraphic context is crucial. In this case, pottery constitutes the main cultural and chronological marker. This article presents the results of analysis of the unpublished potteryfinds from layer 2 of the Ustie Reki Kutarei site, compared with the previously studied and published collection of archaeological evidence from layer 3 and lithic assemblage from 2 in order to clarify the cultural and chronological attribution of the evidence found at the site. The analysis of pottery decoration and morphology has shown that most of the vessels can be dated to the second-first millennium BC. However, taking into account the presence of laminar tri- or tetrahedral stone points similar to the points of the Uolba cultural tradition (8000-6000 BP) in the layer as well as some presence of earlier pottery (Ust-Belskaya, pottery with textile imprints), the existence of an earlier component cannot be excluded. Pottery studies make it possible to expand the sources of the Neolithic-Paleometal Age and clarify the cultural and chronological scale of the region.