Excavations at the Vishnevka 1 site

The Tselinograd Regional Museum of Local Lore expedition excavated the Stone Age site Vishnevka 1, 2 km from village of Vishnevka, Vishnevka District Tselinograd Region, on the second terrace above the floodplain on the right bank of the Ishim River. The monument has two layers. The stratigraphy is as follows (from top to bottom): 1, sandy loam and loam, dark gray, hummus, with the rubble of siltstone and sandstone (25-40 cm); 2-pale-brown loam (ancient soil) with separate lenses of sand in the upper part (30-40 cm); 3 - pale yellow loam, not stratified, with spots of carbonates (1.5-2.0 m). Below lies river alluvium. The lower cultural layer was preserved in fragments in the upper 5-7 cm of layer 2. The upper cultural layer contained in layer 1 was destroyed by diluvial processes, as a result of which the finds were scattered vertically by 20-30 cm (to the daylight surface). Part of the finds from layer 1 was redeposited from the lower cultural layer. A total of 624 sq. In layer 2 (the lower cultural layer) 121 items of silicified siltstone were found: a core, 44 flakes, two blades, a blade fragment, four tools (a retouched notched tool from a flake, a Klekton notched tool, two retouched flakes) and production waste. The industry has a Paleolithic appearance and belongs to the group of macro-industries. Preliminarily, it can be considered the final stage in the industry's evolution traced at Paleolithic sites such as Vishnevka 4, 5, and b. Layer 1 contains 785 pieces of silicified siltstone, nine quartzite, three flint, and three pottery fragments. There are 25 cores, 198 flakes, 15 blades, 6 blades, 95 tools with secondary processing and production waste among the finds. The tool group is dominated by side-scrapers (11), notched tools (18), serrations (9), and bifaces (9). Many tools come from the lower cultural layer.