Objects of stone industry from the Neolithic complex of Konevo-4 (Middle Inya river region, Kuznetsk depression)

This article discusses stone artifacts from a Neolithic settlement in the middle reaches of the Inya River, which were studied during the rescue excavations in 2019. The Neolithic attribution of the assemblage was based on scarce but distinctive pottery. Cores and technical spalls, products of lithic reduction (blanks and debitage), tools (retouched blades with a notch, scrappers, knife, burin-scraper, chisel, spalls from polished tools) were analyzed. Consolidated figures of stone objects are presented in accordance with their categories along with detailed descriptions of parametric and morphological data. Specific features of the assemblage were dominant microblade reduction from prismatic and conical cores, and secondary processing of blades aimed at producing lateral notches for scraping. The rest of tools were not typologically distinctive and could not be used for comparative study. Comparison with the stone industry from the Neolithic settlements in the Kuznetsk Depression and adjacent areas of Mountainous Shoria has revealed the similarity of the assemblage from Konevo-4 with the Early Neolithic series from the Inya-3, -11 (Izylinka stage) settlements, and Pechergol-2 and Dlinnoe Ozero sites and some differences in secondary processing of tools from blades. There were no blades with burin spalls and cutting tools; miniature end-scrappers were sporadic at the Konevo-4 site. The main difference between the assemblage from the Konevo-4 site and industries of the Late Neolithic sites of Inya-3, -11 (Kiprino stage), Dolgaya-1, Novoromanovo-2 and Pisanaya-4 was marked dominance of blank flakes produced by intentional reduction. A working hypothesis about interpreting specific features of the assemblage following the periodization approach and dating the assemblage to the Early Neolithic was made. This hypothesis should be tested on other sources considering long existence of microblade reduction technique for manufacturing insert tools, which continued into the Bronze Age.