Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 49 (3) 2021   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.3.013-023

Annotation:  First Evidence of Pleistocene Archaeology on the Neyshabur Plain and its Role in Reconstructing the Materials from Dwelling 2 on Suchu Island, the Lower Amur (1977 Season, Excavation III) Results of Radiocarbon Dating of Early Burials in the Firsovo Archaeological Area, Barnaul Stretch o A Mortuary Complex with Animal Skulls at Khankarinsky Dol, a Scythian Age Cemetery in the Northweste A Monumental Horse Burial in the Armenian Highlands Scarab Amulet-Beads from 1st–2nd Century Children’s Burials at a Necropolis on the Iluraton Plateau, Traces of the Dahaean and Sarmatian Cultural Legacy in Ancient Turan and Old Rus Shovels Used by Russians in 17th–18th Century Siberia Hunting Equipment of Russians Living near Tara on the Irtysh in the 17th and 18th Centuries Location of Tatar Settlements in the Middle and Lower Tara Region According to 18th Century Maps From the Serbian Fair to the Russian Museum: On the Ethnographic Relevance of the Gingerbread Collec Tungus-Manchu Traditional Beliefs. Part 1: Fertility Cult and Images of Divine Ancestresses Urbanization Processes in the Indigenous Population of the Altai Republic: Stages, Factors, Prospect The Ratio of Indigenous to Immigrant Populations in the Western Steppe During the Bronze Age (Based A Digital X-Ray Analysis of Middle Bronze Age Skeletal Samples from the Baraba Forest-Steppe Cranial Traumas in a Sample from the Pucara de Tilcara Fortress (Jujuy Province, Argentina)   

Materials from Dwelling 2 on Suchu Island, the Lower Amur
(1977 Season, Excavation III)

V.E. Medvedev¹ and I.V. Filatova^{1, 2}

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

This article presents the final results of excavations at one of the largest Neolithic sites in northeastern Asia— a settlement on Suchu Island on the Amur. Most of the rich collection (3967 spec.), owned by IAET SB RAS (stone tools, ceramics, ornaments, and artistic and ritual artifacts), has not been described before. This publication focuses on the analysis of artifacts from dwelling 2 (excavation III, 1977). We describe the construction of this semi-underground dwelling, circular in plan view. The typological analysis of the lithics indicates a complex economy. Many of them (arrowheads, projectile points, inserts, knives, plummets) relate to hunting and fishing, and to processing carcasses (end-scrapers, scrapers, burins, combination tools), others are chopping tools. The distinctive feature of the lithics is that some are bifacial. The analysis of the ceramics suggests that they belong to the Late Neolithic Voznesenovskoye culture. The use of binocular microscopy allowed us to assess the technological and constructive properties of the ceramics, as well as their morphological, decorative, and functional features. Non-utilitarian artifacts shed light on the worldview of the Suchu people. The collection dates to the mid-second millennium BC.

Keywords: Amur River, Suchu, Neolithic, culture, dwelling, artifacts, analysis