Stopping points of transport infrastructure in Neolithic and Eneolithic Karelia

Recent decades saw the discoveries of numerous Stone Age archaeological objects on the territory of Karelia, which confirms that the prehistoric population interacted with its environment in many ways. Thus, today it is important to interpret such archaeological sites in the context of the interaction of the region’s prehistoric population with a particular landscape. This article is the first attempt to record the material traces of the Neolithic and Eneolithic transport infrastructure in Karelia, which determines the high degree of the research novelty. The examined data obtained by archaeological exploration are published for the first time. The aim of the research was to diversify the typology of the Neolithic and Eneolithic Karelian archaeological sites according to their functions by revealing the archaeological traces of the transport activity of the region’s prehistoric population. The article interprets the Neolithic and Eneolithic objects included into Kumsa VIII, X and XII sites located along the Kumsa River in the Medvezhyegorsk District of Karelia as stopping points of the river transportation network. These sites are concentrated on the lake-like extension of the riverbed before the rapids that are difficult for navigation. The microtopography of the sites speaks against interpreting them as sedentary residential sites. The findings at the sites suggest that various activities were performed there, which makes them different from limited activity sites like fishing or hunting sites. Interpretation of these sites as stopping points fits the contemporary views on the existence of intensive inter- and transregional communication in the Neolithic and the Early Metal Age, which could not exist without developed transport infrastructure (water communications).