Early Neolithic site of Novaya Kurya-2 in the Northern Kulunda steppe

New Neolithic site of Novaya Kurya-2 was discovered in 2019 during the survey works in the Northern Kulunda steppe. The site is located near the village of the same name on the left bank of the Staritsa Kurya River. The boundaries of the cultural layer were identified from surface finds and test pits; 88 stone artefacts and 10 pottery fragments were discovered. All material evidence belongs to the same cultural and chronological complex. The stone industry was distinguished by microblade production technique applied to high-quality quartzite as raw material. The pottery is distinguished by large thickness of the walls, ornamental decoration with notches or finger and nail traces; undecorated zones, decoration of the rounded edge of the rim by incisions, and organic matter (hair) in their clay compound. The total collection has parallels in the evidence from the Early Neolithic settlements with flat-bottomed pottery in the Northern Baraba forest-steppe (the settlements of Avtodrom-2/2, Avtodrom-1, Tartas-1, Ust-Tartas-1, and Staryi Moskovskiy Trakt-5) and with the Early Neolithic site in Northeastern Kazakhstan (Shiderty-3, cultural layer 3). The archaeological sites in Baraba are dated to the late 8th - early 6th millennium BC and are associated with the Boborykino culture (V.V. Bobrov) or with the autochthonous Baraba Neolithic culture (V.I. Molodin). V.K. Mertz attributed the Kazakhstan material evidence to the 7th-6th millennium BC and connected it with the Early Kelteminar culture. Some scholars (V.T. Kovaleva, S.Yu. Zyryanova, V.A. Zakh, and V.K. Mertz) suggested that the emergence of similar microblade stone industry and flat-bottomed pottery in Northern Asia might have been associated with the migration from the southern or southwestern regions. New evidence on the Neolithic from the Northern Kulunda steppe may indicate similar cultural processes which happened in the neighboring regions. The emergence of a new cultural component in the region might have been associated with large-scale cultural or migratory impact from the southwestern territories.