Preliminary results of interdisciplinary research in the Kurtak archaeological region in 2023 (Northern Minusinsk basin)

After extensive fieldworks in the Kurtak district, it was established that there were no alluvial deposits with the typical set offacies (channel, floodplain, and oxbow) in the coastal sections which has been washed away by the waters of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir at an altitude of50-90 m above the level of the flooded bed of the Yenisei River. Facies-genetic diagnostics has made it possible to identify severalflood events represented by layered sands, silty sands, rubble fields, and pebbles of catafluvial origin, associated with breaches of glacier-dammed lakes in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River. Archaeological andpaleofaunal evidence was confined to subaerial complex composed of deluvial and aeolian deposits, and paleosols, while deposits of catafluvial genesis were located between the subaerial layers whose dating will make it possible to clarify the chronology of glacial events in the Middle Yenisei valley. Locations of the fauna and Paleolithic sites associated with the catafluvial deposits are still unknown. Dozens of Paleolithic objects have been identified in the Kurtak archaeological district, most of which are represented by surface finds. Analysis of the topographic data from the 1970s-1980s and modern satellite images indicates severe coastal erosion which has led to retreat of reservoir shore by a distance from 60 to 120 m in this area over the past 30 years. This has resulted in the loss of coastal outcrops and Paleolithic sites explored in previous years. During our work, individual artifacts were found on towpath in the area of well-known sites of Ust-Izhul-1, Kamennyi Log, and Kurtak-1. Anthropological remains (fragment of skull and lower jaw) were found in association with the Pleistocene paleofauna at the Berezhekovsky and Kashtankovsky sites.