Assemblages of surface artifacts from the Razdelniy I and II sites (evidence of 2022 and 2023)

This article describes monitoring of the Razdelniy I and II multilayered archaeological sites in Central Kamchatka in 2022-2023. The study focused on the areas with anthropogenic impact caused by a fiber-optic cable laid through the area of the sites. A drone was used for visual inspection, photofixation, and aerial photography of the areas. A survey of the Razdelniy I and II sites resulted in a collection of archaeological surface finds numbering 118 artifacts. This study presents primary analysis of artifact collections, data on their location, technical and typological appearance, and cultural and chronological attribution. It was observed that surface archaeological evidence at Razdelniy I and II occurred as scattered, non-clusteredfinds. Technical and typological features of the artifacts were consistent with material evidence from the stratified part and correlated with two habitation stages at the sites in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. The first stage was associated with the microblade assemblage from cultural horizon 2 of the Razdelniy I and II sites, which correlated in its appearance and chronology with complex of the Late Ushki culture of Kamchatka. The later habitation stage was manifested by the evidence from cultural horizon 1 with the Mesolithic technology of blade production using unidirectional and bidirectional reduction ofprismatic cores. The results of study and fieldwork of2021-2023 indicate that extensive Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic settlements existed in the Razdelniy stream valley.