Results of field works at the Northern Okhotsk sea shore and in Kamchatka in 2021

The article presents the main results of field research in Northern Okhotsk Sea shore and Kamchatka in 2021. The research was focused on Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Paleometal, and Iron Age sites located in the Olsky District of the Magadan Region and the Bystrinsky District of the Kamchatka Region. Archaeological works were carried out at Astronomicheskiy and Bratiev Capes in Babushkin Bay in the northern Okhotsk Sea. Samples for AMS dating have been collected at all the sites under study. Materials attributable to the terminal Upper Palaeolithic were found in the vicinity to the Anavgai village in the central Kamchatka; these finds provide an insight into the processes of human habitation on the Kamchatka in the Late Pleistocene. The exact coordinates and boundaries of previously established archaeological sites at Bratiev Cape in Babushkin Bay have been determined. The archaeological collections from the Northern Okhotsk region include various types of stone, bone, and wood implements and anthropological fings attributable to the Ancient Koryak culture in Babushkin Bay. The unique finds including fragments of bronze ornaments and a glass bead are significant for the cultural interpretation of the identified burial complexes. New types of artefacts including wooden objects and ornamented bone items were found. These collections add information of the material complex of the Ancient Koryak culture , which probably existed in the Babushkin Bay area synchronously with the Atargan settlement (10th-13th centuries AD). Clarification of the age and characteristics of the main periods of development of the Ancient Koryak culture remains an urgent problem.