THE NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT OF THE OSINOOZERSKAYA CULTURE ON MOUNT SHAPKA IN THE WESTERN PRIAMURYE
Authors: КОВАЛЕНКО С.В. 
Published: September 2024

Гора Шапка - известный археологический объект в Западном Приамурье. Хотя большая часть исследований на этом уникальном памятнике посвящена периоду Средневековья, тем не менее материалы, относящиеся к эпохе позднего неолита, выявленные в разное время (начиная с 60-х гг. XIX в.), и не опубликованные в полном объеме, представляют несомненный научный интерес. Вплоть до 2009 г. неолитические находки носили эпизодический характер. Выполненные в 2009 г. исследования позволили получить новые материалы об объекте, в том числе выявить неолитический слой, относящийся, судя по обнаруженным артефактам, к осиноозерской поздненеолитической культуре. В целом материал коллекции был рассмотрен как поселенческий комплекс с характерной высокой долей утилизированных орудий. Состав инструментария свидетельствует, что изученная территория являлась местом, где происходило активное потребление мясных продуктов и была относительно развита деревообработка.

Mount Shapka, the butte of the second Amur terrace, located in the middle reaches of the Amur River within the boundaries of the southern part of the Zeya-Bureya Plain, is a unique geological and historical monument of the Western Priamurye. Mount Shapka has been known for a long time as a colossal archaeological site. Despite the fact that most of the research on the site is devoted to the Middle Ages, there are particularly interesting materials related to the late Neolithic, identified as a result of studies of different periods and not fully introduced into scientific circulation. Until 2009, finds from the Neolithic period were sporadic. The studies carried out in 2009 made it possible to obtain new data about the object, including identifying the Neolithic layer, judging by the discovered artifacts, related to the late Neolithic Osinoozerskaya culture. A planigraphic analysis of the distribution of tools revealed because of a use-wear analysis over the excavation area made it possible to identify a place for processing wood, meat, and animal skins. When considering the functional characteristics of the collection, a peripheral area of distribution of knife inserts and knife-shaped blades, which had no traces of processing and wear, was also identified. Separately, the article notes the presence of non-utilitarian objects, which are represented by stone pendants and arrowheads without traces of use, the tips of which were decorated with four micro-removals in the form of burin spall from the tip of the item. The artifacts of the collection are considered as a settlement complex with a typically high proportion of utilized tools. The set of tools indicates the studied territory as a place where active consumption of meat products and relatively active wood processing took place. The data on the tools used reflect the nature of the previously little-studied paleo-economics of the Osinoozerskaya culture, which makes it possible to expand the study of the evolution of the ancient economy of the region’s population in the process of human adaptation to the conditions of the changing environment in the Western Priamurye during the middle Holocene.