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Humanitarian sciences in Siberia

2017 year, number

THE HISTORY OF STUDYING THE LATE NEOLITHIC OSINOOZERSKAYA CULTURE OF THE WESTERN AMUR REGION

S.V. Kovalenko
The Amur Laboratory of Archeology and Ethnography Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of SB RAS, A2, Uralova prosp., Blagoveshchensk, 676000, Russia
Keywords: Western Amur Region, Osinoozerskaya archaeological culture, stratigraphy, ceramic complex, pressure technique, microwear analysis, tool set, agriculture, archaeological periodization, cartography

Abstract

It is possible to mark two periods in the history of study of the Osinoozerskaya archaeological culture of the Western Amur Region. The first one refers to work of the Far Eastern archaeological expedition under the direction of A.P. Okladnikov in the 1960-1970s in the territory of the western part of Priamurye. The result of the studies of a number of sites and collected data was a new culture of the developed Neolithic, which received name Osinoozerskaya according to the eponymous site found in 1961 by A.P. Okladnikov on the bank of Lake Osinovoe in the Amur region. The cultural and chronological characteristic was given to the settled population living in semi-underground dwellings and being engaged mainly in hunting and fishery. The received archaeological remains allowed researchers to draw a preliminary conclusion that the carriers of this culture had rudiments of agriculture. The second stage of the research of the Osinoozerskaya culture began in the middle of the 1990s after almost thirty-year break in studying the Neolithic of the region, and is connected with collaboration of groups of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science and the Blagoveshchensk archeologists. In addition to the 1960s data of the settlement on Lake Osinovoe, in the last two decades the known sites were partially re-studied, and some new sites were investigated, thereby source base for the analysis of the Osinoozerskaya culture has essentially expanded. Such rare site as a workshop on production of stone trade tools - Mikhaylovka-Klyuch on the Amur River - was found and surveyed. On the Neolithic settlement in the mouth of the Gromatukha River the first seasonal aboveground dwelling within the northern part of an area of this culture was examined. In spite of obtaining new data, many problems connected with debatable questions of emergence of the making economy and chronology of the culture still remain outstanding. Works on studying the Osinoozerskaya culture are continued.