A Study of Finds from Excavation I at Suchu Island, the Lower Amur (the 1974 Field Season)

A Study of Finds from Excavation I at Suchu Island, the Lower Amur (the 1974 Field Season)

A Study of Finds from Excavation I at Suchu Island, the Lower Amur
(the 1974 Field Season)

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.4.022-032

V.E. Medvedev1 and I.V. Filatova1, 2
1Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
2Amur State University of Humanities and Pedagogy, Kirova 17, bldg. 2, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 681000, Russia

Finds excavated at the Suchu settlement in 1974 include lithics, ceramics, and portable art and ritual objects, now owned by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk. Most of them have not been described before. In this study, they are analyzed using methods of stratigraphy, planigraphy (assessment of position within and between dwellings), petrography and typology (lithics), binocular microscopy (ceramics), and chronology (ceramics, objects of art and ritual). The results suggest that finds from excavation I (1974) represent mostly the Middle Neolithic (the Malyshevo and Kondon cultures and the Belkachi complex), Late Neolithic (the Voznesenovskoye culture), and Final Neolithic. Certain artifacts date to later periods (the Bronze and Early Iron Ages and the Middle Ages). Some of the ceramics are unrelated to the Lower Amur complexes. A reconstruction of the dwellings is attempted. The typological analysis of lithics revealed a variety of tool and spall types. Various minerals were employed, the principal ones being siltstone, argillite, and siliceous rocks. Most of the ceramics, portable art, and ritual objects represent the Middle Neolithic Malyshevo and the Late Neolithic Voznesenovskoye cultures.

Keywords: Amur River, Suchu settlement, Neolithic, dwellings, stone implements, ceramics, art