New multilayered Upper Paleolithic site of Malta-Most-3 in the Belaya river valley in the Southern Angara region (rescue works of 2020-2021)

This article presents preliminary results of rescue archaeological works at the multilayered site ofMalta-Most-3 in Usolie District of Irkutsk Region in 2020-2021. The site is located on the watershed surface between the Belaya River and its right tributary Maltinka River on a slightly inclined slope with a relative height of35-38 m. A sequence of the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene geological deposits of subaerial origin was uncovered. Six cultural horizons were found in stratigraphic occurrence. According to preliminary estimates, they can be dated to Late Kargin-Late Sartan period. Numerous faunal osteological remains mostly belonged to horses and reindeer and, to a smaller degree, to roe deer, red deer, bison, woolly rhinoceros, mammoth, and arctic fox. The total number of stone artifacts and manuports for all archaeological rescue excavations in 2020-2021 and cultural horizons was 171,189 items. In addition to predominant debitage from different stages of lithic reduction, the collections of stone artifacts contain various forms of cores for obtainingflake blanks, blades, and narrow-faced cores (including wedge-shaped) for microblades; scrapers, side-scrapers, chisel-like tools, choppers, bifaces, unifaces, knives, blanks, and tool fragments. The only horn item was a blank of a point with a groove. It has been established that the Malta-Most-3 site has original and unique elements in the contents of its archaeological collections, stratigraphic sequence of geological strata, and traces of paleoprocesses associated with cryogenesis and tectonic events. New data and evidence make it possible to clarify, interpret, and model processes and phenomena associated with evolution of the paleoecological habitat of the Upper Paleolithic communities of hunters and gatherers not only in the limited region of Baikal Siberia, but also in the entire North Asia.