STONE INDUSTRY OF PLEISTOCENE - HOLOCEN IN THE MIDDLE YENISEY VALLEY (BASED ON BYUZA II MATERIALS)
Purpose. The Krasnoyarsk reservoir having flooded the lowest terraces of the Yenisei River, many archaeological sites were disturbed and destroyed, so archaeological data about the period of the Final Pleistocene to the Early Holocene on the territory of Central Siberia became scarce. Nowadays, our knowledge about this period is based on the materials from the sites around Krasnoyarsk city, such as Eleneva cave, Shalunin Byk, the upper layers of Sliznevo site and Listvenka site, and the middle part of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir area: Aieshka I, Kurtak II, Buzunova, Bateni, etc., and, probably, the territorial gap caused by Krasnoyarsk Dam. The Birusinka site and Byuza II, which were discovered in 2014 in the down part of Krasnoyarsk reservoir, prove that. We aimed to describe the findings of Byuza II, identify their types and date them. Results. This article summarizes the complex investigation of the Buza II site. Nowadays, Byuza II is the only one Early Holocene site in the lower part of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir. The site contained numerous findings - about 2000 artifacts were excavated from the cultural layer and 800 were picked from the costal shallow in 2016. Among others, the core collection includes wedge-shaped microcores and edge-faceted microcores on microblades. Fragments of big blades were found in the excavation area, too, which helped to reveal the existence of big cores within the site area. The material collection includes similar fragments of big cores. The cultural layer also had angel burins, transverse burins, burins on concave retouched truncation, sub-rectangular chisel-like tools, medium sized graftoirs, scraper-like tools, burins and retouched flakes. Such tools as scrapers, burins and chisel-like tools were also picked from the coastal shallow. Just one cultural layer and typological similar materials in situ point out that all these materials belong to the same complex. Porphyry slabs along the West-East line laid out a stone alignment with the diameter of 0.8-0.9 m. A bone fragment of an ungulate, which was found among the porphyry slabs, has been dated 14 893 ± 77 years ago (UBA-36027). There is a discrepancy between the expected age of the site and the age of the bone fragment found, which is about 5 thousand years. While the date points out to the cold Nyapan Stage, according to stratigraphy the site refers to the Early Holocene period within 9.7-9.2 thousand years ago. Conclusion. In comparison with a well-known Biryusa site (middle layer), Eleneva cave (15-17 layers), and Bolshaya Slizneva site (2 and 5 layers), Byuza II has no Mesolithic tools and demonstrates the traditional industry of producing big burins. It allows us to use the term «Epipaleolithic» when referring to the site. We conclude that the roots of Epipaleolitic go back to the complexes of the Kokorevo culture and the Final Pleistocene «microblade industry».