Neolithic - bronze age complexes of Ust-Kutarey archaeological microregion in North Angarа region: history and main issues

Purpose. We define the main criteria of allocating the sites in the mouth of the River Kutarey to a certain archaeological microregion and main circle of issues connected with Neolithic-bronze age cultures on the considered territory, as well as the perspectives of studying the Ust-Kutarey archaeological complexes. Results. This work contains brief results of researching Ust-Kutarey microregion sites in the years 2008-2012 in the context of investigating Neolithic-bronze age complexes in North Angara. During the large-scale archaeological works connected with the renewal of construction of Boguchany hydroelectric power station on the territory of North Angara, a considerable amount of material demanding generalization and coordination with the cultural and chronological scheme of the region was collected. Some of the most interesting artifacts were received from rather stratified archaeological sites of the Neolithic and a bronze age in the Ust-Kutarey archaeological microregion. It includes the sites of the Mouth of the River Kutarey, the Senkin (Blue) stone, the Stream Povarny and Kutarey Mount located on the left bank of the Angara River in the middle part of its current in the mouth of the River Kutarey, where more than 30 thousand artifacts were discovered altogether. Preliminary works allowed us to identify the most perspective sites with an accurate stratigraphy where excavation by the continuous square were carried out. The accumulated material requires generalizations and matching with the cultural-chronological scheme of the region. In spite of the fact that complex studying of the monuments on this territory began in the 1970-s, many questions of methodological, chronological and periodization nature remain open. As the stratigrafic situation on locations of the Northern Angara region is difficult because of the «compression» nature of deposits and a mixture of materials of the Neolithic era and the bronze age in one layer, one of the important cultural and chronological markers is ceramics. The stone artifacts from Neolithic-bronze layers technologically do not differ. Concusion. In the context of the issues presented, studying 3 layers in the Mouth of the River Kutarey site is viewed as the most promising. Although the layers are of «compression» character, the stratigraphic situation and the ceramic complexes found in these sites allow us to date the materials collected, which will give further opportunities for constructing a single chronostratigraphic scale of the region.