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The Kamchatka Peninsula

The Kamchatka Peninsula is located in the northeastern part of Eurasia in Russia. From the west, the peninsula is washed by the Sea of Okhotsk, from the east it is washed by the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

About 900 archaeological sites have been discovered on the territory of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The multilayer sites near Bolshoye Ushkovskoye Lake in the Kamchatka River basin are the most studied of them. 

The periodization of the archaeological sites of Kamchatka includes five stages: the first period of the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic (~13300 – 12500 BP), the second transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic age (~12000 – 10100 BP), Initial (~9900 – 8600 BP), Early (~ 7800 – 4500 BP), Middle (~ 4000 – 1500 BP), Late (~ 50 – 1020 AD) Neolithic,  Old Itel´men culture (~1200 – 1700 AD).

The features of the First period stone industry are bifacial tanged arrowheads and javelin-heads, chalcedony burin-like tips, small stone beads and pendants. The feature of the Second period is microblade technique of manufacturing the stone tools with yubetsu technique. Tools on blades, insert technique, and probably the sled dog breeding appear in the Initial Neolithic. Ceramic, wickerwork, prismatic pensil-shaped cores, arrowheads, burins on blades, adzes are typical for the Early Neolithic. Three-edged arrowheads, wooden dishes appear in the Tarjinskaya culture during the Middle and Later Neolithic. Roughly trimmed one-sided adzes are replaced by grinded ones, labrets appear. Features of ideologically formed society and using stone tools are typical for Old Itel´men culture.

Sites

Ushki V

A multi-layered complex that includes four periods of settlement in the late Pleistocene – Early Holocene.

Stolbovaya I

A complex of multi-time archaeological sites of the Early and Middle Neolithic period on the North-Eastern coast of Kamchatka Penisula.

Bolshoi Kamen'

Publications

Dikov N. N. Arkheologicheskiye pamyatniki Kamchatki. Chukotki i Verkhney Kolymy: (Aziya na styke s Amerikoy v drevnosti). M. 1977. 391 s.

Ponkratova I. Yu. Arkheologicheskiye issledovaniya na p-ove Kamchatka (XIX – nachalo XXI v.) // Gumanitarnyye nauki v Sibiri. 2018. T. 25. № 2. S. 49–55.

Ponkratova I. Yu. K voprosu o periodizatsii arkheologii poluostrova Kamchatka // Gumanitarnyye issledovaniya v Vostochnoy Sibiri i na Dalnem Vostoke. 2020. № 1 (51). S. 30–48.

Ponkratova I. Yu. Nachal'nyj neolit poluostrova Kamchatka (po dannym issledovaniya stoyanki Ushki V) // Gumanitarnye issledovaniya v Vostochnoj Sibiri i na Dal'nem Vostoke, 2019. S. 13–20. 

Ponkratova I. Yu. Rannij neolit poluostrova Kamchatka // Gumanitarnye nauki v Sibiri, 2020. №1. S. 15–22.

Ponkratova I. Yu. Srednij neolit poluostrova Kamchatka // Vestnik NGU. Seriya: Istoriya, filologiya. 2020. T. 19, № 5: Arheologiya i etnografiya. S. 86–102.

Ponomarenko A. K. Tar'inskaya kul'tura neolita Kamchatki [Tarya Neolithic culture of Kamchatka]. In: Tihookeanskaya arheologiya. Vladivostok: Dal'nevost. feder. un-t, 2014.Vol. 30. S. 7–230.