New data on the stone age of the Upper Abakan

The paper summarizes preliminary results of a research project carried out in the Upper Abakan valley (Upper Yenisei basin, Southern Siberia). Several stratified Stone Age sites have been discovered in the previously unexplored area. The sites are associated with the upper strata of the lower terraces, or periglacial sediments. The upper strata of the majority of sites produced remains of Iron and Bronze Ages, and Neolithic, while the lower deposits are assigned to the Final Pleistocene or Early Holocene. The fieldwork was concentrated on the Kuibyshevo II, where cultural remains have been exposed at high erosion terraces. The site is the first lithic workshop near the sources of raw material discovered on the Yenisei. Its lithic assemblage is unique and is important for re-examination of the nature of lithic assemblage variability in the Late Upper Paleolithic of Yenisei.