Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 48 (2) 2020   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2020.48.2.003-013

Annotation:  A Multidisciplinary Study of Finds from Suchu Island (1973 Season, Excavation II, Dwelling 1) A Zoomorphic Antler Staff from an Early Neolithic Burial at Pushkinsky, the Orenburg Region Cultural Attribution of Early Bronze Age Tombs Under Kurgans in Azerbaijan Two Rare Finds from the Maikop-Novosvobodnaya Sites in the Black Sea Region The Marfa Kurgan in the Stavropol Territory: An Example of an Ancient Architectural Structure On the Earliest Use of Plate-Formed Cheekpieces and the Emergence of Horse Riding (Based on Finds fr Wooden Constructions in Bronze and Iron Age Burials in Japan and Korea The Southeastern Sindica Frontier: The Raevskoye Fortifi ed Settlement Polychrome Style in Mangystau, Kazakhstan Metal Artifacts from a Newly Discovered Cemetery in the Severnaya Sosva Basin, Northwestern Siberia The Ethnoarchaeology of Russians in the Syro-Palestinian Region (18th–19th Centuries) Traditional Buryat Beliefs About Birds Bridal Symbols in the Don Cossack Wedding Celebration of Nowruz in Bukhara and Samarkand in Ritual Practice and Social Discourses (the Second Architectural and Archaeological Studies in the Tobolsk Kremlin During the 1950s (Based on Photograp Trepanations in Sauromato-Sarmatian Crania from the Lower Volga A Case of Surgical Extraction of the Lower Third Molars in a Cranial Series from the Pucara de Tilca   

A Multidisciplinary Study of Finds from Suchu Island
(1973 Season, Excavation II, Dwelling 1)

V.E. Medvedev¹ and I.V. Filatova²

¹Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

²Amur State University for Humanities and Pedagogy, Kirova 17, bldg. 2, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 681000, Russia

We analyze new finds from a Neolithic dwelling 1 from excavation II at the Suchu Island, on the Amur River. We analyzed an assemblage of 3788 lithics and ceramics, along with field records housed at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of SB RAS. The article continues the series of publications in this journal, outlining the findings at Suchu—one of the key Neolithic sites in Northeast Asia. Dwelling 1 is a 0.8-meter-deep round semi-underground structure dug into the sandy loam. In its center, there was a hearth, and walls lacked ledges. On the floor, numerous pits from posts that had supported the roof were found. The stratigraphic and horizontal position of finds was registered; artifacts were analyzed through morphological typology, petrographic and X-ray analysis, and microscopy. Our analysis reveals hunting, fishing, and butchering tools, those for processing stone, wood, and bone, those for plant processing, and digging tools. Various sedimentary and igneous rocks were used as raw material. In terms of cultural chronology, standard pottery was mostly attributed to the Lower Amur cultures (Malyshevo and Voznesenovskoye), while some was apparently manufactured by immigrants. Principal technological, constructive, morphological, decorative, and functional characteristics of each ceramic type were assessed. Unusual artistic and ritual items clustered in dwelling 1 of the Malyshevo type (late 5 th to early 4th millennia BC) are suggestive of a domestic shrine.

Keywords: Suchu, Neolithic, culture, dwelling, tools, analysis