Stratigraphy of the Pisanaya-4 settlement near the Tomskaya Pisanitsa petroglyphic site

This article discusses some problems in relative chronology of archaeological assemblages discovered at multilayered sites at the border of the Lower Tom and Middle Tom River regions, in their stratigraphic context. The research was aimed at establishing natural stratigraphy of the Pisanaya-4 site at its different sections, conducting archaeological attribution of the series of artifacts, identifying chronological and stratigraphical features of archaeological assemblages, and evaluating the data obtained for periodization of archaeological finds from the Tom River region and Kuznetsk Depression. In total, evidence from seven sites located on the high floodplain and at the edge of the first terrace above the floodplain has been analyzed. The depth of the stratigraphic pits was 2 m. General stratification of soil mass in the floodplain zone depended on intensity and frequency of seasonal floods in the Holocene and pedogenicprocesses in alluvial material. A distinctive situation of multiple layers with artifacts of the Neolithic-Chalcolithic, Early and Advanced Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Middle Ages with pebble layers between archaeological and chronological horizons has been observed. The terrace has shown poor traces of periodic floods in the Holocene soils; alluvial deposits consisted of light brown clay loam. These sections contained some Neolithic-Chalcolithic artifacts dislocated to humus deposits and Late Paleolithic stone artifacts in the underlying clay loam alluvium. The data obtained reveals the stratigraphic nature of the Pisanaya-4 site which is new for this region and relatively rare for the entire forest-steppe belt of Western Siberia. The chronostratigraphic data on cultural and chronological assemblages of the Late Paleolithic, Early Neolithic, Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age, Advanced Bronze Age, and Early Middle Ages at the Pisanaya-4 site is an important component for periodization of archaeological finds in the landscape context of the sites in the Tom River region.