The first site of the Sumnagin tradition in Kolyma dated by the 14C method

In 2018-2020 the archaeological expedition of the North-Eastern Complex Research Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in th Upper Kolyma in the Magadan region discovered and investigated the Stone Age site of Burkhala. It is located in the mountainous area of the Kolyma river valley in a pass over the mountains at an altitude of more than 1000 m. The lithic tools (around 500 items) collected during the excavations of an area of 5,5 sq. m and as surface materials were identified as an assemblage of the Early Holocene Sumnagin culture. Using charcoal retrieved from the occupation layer together with the artifacts, the radiocarbon age (14C) of the site was determined as 9300 years old. Presently, the site is the first and so far the only unmixed site of the Sumnagin culture dated by the 14C method both in the Kolyma river valley and this river basin covering an area of 643,000 sq. km. Besides, the Burkhala site is the earliest Mesolithic site in the North of the Far East (Kolyma, Chukotka and Kamchatka). The materials of the site help put an end to the regional discussion on the status quo of the Sumnagin, Siberdik and Maltan cultures in Kolyma that has been going on since the 1970s.