Excavations near the village of Telman, Tselinograd region
The Petropavlovsk detachment of the North Kazakhstan expedition continued the study of a group of sites of the Stone Age on the Ishim river, near the village of Telman, Atbasar district, Tselinograd region. Here, the river valley forms an extensive network of oxbow lakes, flowing lakes, and tributaries. To the shores of these reservoirs (height up to 2.5 m), which are the remnants of the first floodplain terrace of Ishim, and are associated with sites. As a rule, the bulk of the material was concentrated on the gentle slopes of the terraces. As it turned out during the excavations, this is due to certain economic considerations of the ancient inhabitants of settlements and sites. A total of six sites have been excavated at the Telman VII site, 496 sq. m. At a depth of 0.4 m, remains of above-ground residential structures in the form of household and post holes were found. The resulting flint inventory (2533 items) has a pronounced Mesolithic character. The basis of the collection is made up of inserts with or without processing, incisors, micro incisors, inserts with a beveled edge, side incisors, inserts with a blunt edge and end notch.
At the Telman VIII settlement (1600 sq. m), the thickness of the cultural layer in the upper part of the terrace is 0.3–0.4 m (the lower part is destroyed). During cleaning, numerous utility depressions with a diameter of up to 0.6 m and post holes were recorded. Note the presence of two oval-shaped pits on the site. One of them is of considerable size (4.0x2, 1.4 m).
At the bottom, there is a carbonaceous layer 2 cm thick, along the contour of the pit there is calcination. Finds (5161 copies) are represented by flint products and waste, as well as single fragments of ceramics. The material of the settlement is heterogeneous. There are two complexes - early and late. The first one is identical in terms of raw materials, technique and typology to the finds from the Telman VII site, the second belongs to the Neolithic.
In the late complex, gray or brown jasper-like rock, mined near the settlement, was used as raw material. Incisors, cutters, lateral incisors are still widely used. At the same time, arrowheads on plates and bilaterally processed symmetrical and “horned” trapezoids, axes, and also ceramics appear.
At the Telman X settlement (1524 sq. m.), the concentration of finds outside the housing structures, almost near the water itself, was clearly visible, and the buildings were located higher up the slope of the terrace. In total, 19,000 objects made of jasper, slate, sandstone and about 300 fragments of ceramics were found at the site. Scrapers represent products on plates and flakes, arrowheads, darts, spears, side cutters, wide plates with retouching, trapeziums, axes, chippers, retouchers, and abrasives. The ceramics is thin-walled, unevenly fired, with an admixture of gruss and grass, ornamented with comb technique and slight pitting.
The Telman IX site (216 sq. m.) is two-layered. The initial settlement of the site dates back to the Mesolithic and the material (over 2000 specimens) is identical to that of the Telman VII site. Similar are the remains of the ground structures of these sites - utility and pillar pits, hearth spots. The secondary settlement dates back to the Late Neolithic. During this period there was a small workshop. Products are represented by waste (more than 14,000), several tools on flakes, as well as fragments of spearheads, darts and arrows.
The Telman XIV site (540 sq. m.) has two layers, which is also confirmed by the conditions of occurrence of cultural remains (8535 specimens). The Mesolithic complex is confined to sandy loam, while the Neolithic complex is confined to black silty soil that overlies part of the Mesolithic site. An oval pit 1.3 m deep was found in the area of distribution of the Mesolithic material, at the bottom, there was a layer of coal (6–8 cm) in the form of a regular circle with a diameter of 1.5 m. Small crushed bones were found above the coal layer. This pit may have a cult purpose.
The Telman I workshop (776 sq. m.), when stripped at a depth of 20-30 cm, produced several powerful accumulations of flakes (over 50,000), cores, chippers, and retouchers. In addition to these tools, about 20 arrowheads on plates were found trapeziums, chisels, scrapers and scrapers are rare. The pointed-bottom pottery with an admixture of grass is decorated with a comb stamp.