Research of Stone Age monuments in the Tselinograd region

The expedition of the Tselinograd Regional Museum continued the study of Paleolithic sites near the village of Vishnevka in the upper Ishim river. In order to clarify the stratigraphy of deposits at Vishnevka 1, a trench (5.0x1.5 m) was laid, at the base of Vishnevka 4 two trenches (4.0x1.5 and 5x1 m), a pit (2.5x1.5 m) were laid and two sweeps were made ravine walls. Three accumulation cycles and two erosional phases have been established. The first cycle includes the alluvium of the second floodplain terrace of the Ishim river, the second cycle provides alluvium overlying the alluvium and diluvium corresponding to the time of the formation of the first Ishim terrace above the floodplain, and the third cycle includes rubble deposits with humus filler filling the ravine in the alluvium fan, and the soil over the diluvium, synchronous alluvium of the Ishim floodplain. There was a Paleolithic flake in the upper part of the diluvium at a depth of 0.35 m (trench 1).

In Vishnevka 1, 18 stone objects were found on the eroded surface, including large wedge-shaped and Levallois cores flakes, some with traces of secondary processing. In Vishnevka 4, collections were carried out square by square on an area of ​​100x90 m. About 2000 stone products were collected. Preliminarily, two chronological complexes are distinguished, differing in patina, weathering and typology. The ancient complex is characterized by disc-shaped, to a lesser extent pole and end cores, separate bifaces, side-scrapers and pointed points. The late assemblage includes numerous double-sided workpieces: axes, knives, axes, adzes, spearheads, including those with a marked groove and a notch on edge, Levallois cores and chips, and individual rough wedge-shaped cores. There are a lot of side-scrapers, pointed-points, serrated-notched tools, beak-shaped points; there are prismatic plates, scrapers, incisors. The recycling of products clearly controls the diversity of the location's inventory.

At the Paleolithic locality Okushkar, collections were carried out, which yielded 67 quartzite sandstone items, including flakes, a biface, and two points. Exploration discovered 16 new Paleolithic sites. The most interesting are the Zhideli 1–2 and Sadovoye 5–7 localities, which yielded Lower Paleolithic material. The Sadovoye 2 site is connected with the buried soil of the first floodplain terrace of the Ulken-Kunduzda river. 11 new Neolithic sites with flint implements were found, including a cave site, and four Bronze Age sites.