Exploration works in the area of the Shulba reservoir (East Kazakhstan) in 2022

The Shulba reservoir in the upper reaches of the Irtysh River was formed in the late 1980s. Flooding was preceded by rescue archaeological works. The research data of the 1970-1980s were published and gave rise to numerous cultural and chronological constructions on the history of Upper Irtysh population from the Paleolithic till the late medieval period. No systematic archaeological research on the Shulba reservoir has been conducted subsequently. We describe new information about sites at the banks of the reservoir, tributaries and river banks downstream the Irtysh revealed through the shoreline processes and periodic changes in water level. In the course of archaeological monitoring of the reservoir shores, materials attributable to the Upper Paleolithic were found on the banks of the bays near the Osikha River. The assemblages contain flakes and flake tools. The artifacts probably attributable to the Neolithic were found near the Shulbinka River bay. Bronze Age sites were found near Azovka point, the Kovalevka River, near Betkuduk aul: remains of burial grounds including those studied earlier. Among the surface collected artifacts, fragments of a ceramic vessel of the Andronovo appearance and a stone chisel are noteworthy. The artifacts of medieval and recent ethnographic period are represented by numerous funerary structures; these are redeposited accumulations of stones from former mounds (the mouth of the Kyzylsu River). In addition, separate funeral and memorial complexes at the tributaries of the reservoir and a set of sites at the mouth of the Char River downstream the hydropower dam were described. The field survey not only expanded the information on the ancient history of the Upper Irtysh population, but also substantiates the necessity of regular monitoring of the reservoir shores in order to find archaeological objects and plan the measures for their preservation.