Exploration work in Northern Kazakhstan
The Petropavlovsk detachment of the North-Kazakhstan expedition, to map the Stone Age monuments, conducted reconnaissance on the Ishim River in the Tselinograd Region and for the first time examined some lakes in the north of the republic, in the valley of the dried-up Kamyshlovka River.
Eight new Stone Age monuments have been discovered near the “Telman” state farm, Atabasar district. 120 objects made of light gray and light brown jasper were collected at the Telman XI site (1000 sq.m.). Four arrowheads represent the tools with double-sided processing, scrapers on flakes and a small number of blades, mostly without secondary processing. There are single finds of blades with a beveled edge, incisors and staples. At the Telman XII site, collections were made from 1200 sq. m. Among the 135 objects made of gray jasper, there are few tools: several scrapers on flakes, one prismatic core and an arrowhead with double-sided processing. The material from the Telman XIII site differs from the material from sites XI-XII in a slightly different set of tools. In the main, these are knives on medium and large flakes. The Telman XV settlement area of about 500 sq.m is being opened up. On the slope of the terrace, 100 items were found, including scrapers on flakes and blades, side incisors with an end notch, knives on a massive blade with a pronounced handle, blades with processing, a fragment of the two-sided processed spearhead, arrowhead on a plate (length 1.5 cm) and two-horned trapeziums. (Collections from the Telman XVІII site are represented by an ax, an adze, seven different scrapers, two fragments of spearheads, a piercer, an angle cutter and a microblade with opposite retouching. The inventory of the seven sites described above finds broad analogies in the Neolithic settlements of Northern Kazakhstan.
3 km east of the village of Timoshevka in the same region, a mining site for boulder jasper was discovered. The monument covers an area of 10,000 sq. m. The material is on a modern surface, I am significantly patinated. The raw material of the same jasper yield has been used for several millennia - from the Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. It is indicated by the finds of Paleolithic tools directly at the place of extraction, and pieces of Timoshevka jasper are present at all known sites in this region. Paleolithic finds are represented by large flakes and blades, ax-shaped blanks, bifaces, side-scrapers.
Three new monuments were found in the North Kazakhstan region. 3 km southwest of Petropavlovsk, on the territory of the Michurin state farm, flint objects and ceramics (244 specimens) were found. Flint products are represented by three cores of prismatic and conical shape, scrapers on plates with a straight or slightly rounded blade, scrapers on plates and liners. These products find broad analogies in Mesolithic monuments of Northern Kazakhstan: Yavlenka II, Zhabai-Pokrovka I, Telman VII. Pottery and stemmed arrowheads date from the Early Bronze Age.
Eight flint objects were collected 1.5 km south of the Bulaevo town, on the remnant of the terrace of the dried-up river Kamyshlovka: three cores in fragments up to 10 cm high, a cutter on a large plate, two plates without processing and two flakes. Near the village of Medvezhka, Bulaevo District, 10 flint objects were found - a trihedral point, retouched along one side, two scrapers on flakes of an almost circular shape, two unworked blades and five flakes. Both locations date back to the Neolithic.