Tentative Findings from Excavations on Suchu Island, Amur (1973 Season, Excavation I)

Abstract

The article outlines the results of the 1973 excavation season at a Neolithic habitation site on Suchu Island, the Lower Amur. New fi ndings mostly relate to the middle Neolithic Malyshevo culture – stratigraphy and planigraphy of dwellings, their chronological sequence, and construction features, specifi cally the considerable variation of pit depth. Artifacts, totaling 4407 specimens, include stone tools, ceramics, and objects of art and cult. Lithics, mostly made of gray siltstone, were analyzed with regard to typology and function. The tool kit indicates complex economy. It includes hunting, fi shing, and butchering tools, those for processing stone, wood, and bone, those for preparing vegetable food, and those for digging. The ceramics of Malyshevo and other Neolithic cultures from excavation I was subjected to petrographic and radiographic analysis. The results reveal cultural differences in clay and fabric type, modeling, surface treatment, fi ring modes, and forms of vessels. Decoration, too, is culturally specifi c. Apart from Malyshevo people, the excavated area on Suchu Island was often visited by those associated with other cultures of the Middle, Late, and Final Neolithic.