Archaeological survey on the lower Synya river (Shuryshkarsky district, Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrug) in 2020

In 2020, the Lower Ob Paleolithic Team from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS carried out archaeological surveys on the Lower Synya River (right tributary of the Malaya Ob River). High left bank was explored from the mouth of the Synya River, including its tributaries, to Ovgort village. In total, 50 test pits up to 5 m deep and stratigraphic profiles consisting of subaerial, subaquatic, and glacial sediments of the Middle-Upper Neopleistocene were made. Three new stratified Late Holocene sites - Yam-Gort-1, -2, and -3 - were discovered. The evidence from these sites included pottery fragments and thermal fragments of pebbles; cultural layers were marked by carbonaceous and ashy filling. Pottery fragments with carbon deposits were mostly undecorated. Decoration on a few decorated fragments was made by stamped wavy ornamentation (comb). Radiocarbon dates of two sites were 4000-3000 BP. Lithic artifacts (tool fragment and a core) were found in situ in the Neopleistocene sediments (Yam-Gort-4 and Unsoim) for the first time in this region. This evidence has not yet been dated but according to the geological and geomorphological situation, it is earlier than MIS 2. The discovery of the Neopleistocene archaeological sites in the Lower Ob region makes it possible to move the border of first human migrations 200 km to the north and establish that peopling of this region started two times earlier than it had been previously thought.