“Without Resorting to Petri's Scheme Based on the Finds at Ulan-Khada”

This article presents the results of studying of the archaeological collections from multilayered Biryusa site located on the coast of the Yenisei River. We analyzed the discoveries made by A. S. Elenev in 1892, excavations by N. K. Auerbach and V. I. Gromov in 1926–1927, as well as the studies of E. R. Rygdylon in 1946. The goal of this article is to summarise the results of excavations of of these archaeologists from the Krasnoyarsk Museum and employees of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archaeology AS USSR (works of 1961). It is especially important to introduce the scientific community to the entire unique set of sources of the Biryusa Archaeological Microdistrict considering the fact that the Biryusa site and other archaeological objects have been flooded by the Krasnoyarsk reservoir. Artifacts of the Biryusa site obtained from the excavation of E. R. Rygdylon have been analysed for the first time. We publish some archival materials of the epistolary heritage of the Siberia explorers. The obtained conclusions are based on the traditional archaeological methods: typological, stratigraphic, analogy and other. They are supplemented by geological and palaeozoological data, radiocarbon dating and other natural science methods. Most sources were found in the collections of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. We have also studied artifacts from excavations of Biryusa site performed by the the Leningrad archaeologists. All researchers have agreed that the region near the Biryusa River mouth was already inhabited in the Upper Paleolithic. Four radiocarbon dates have been obtained for the earliest cultural layer 4 with the range from 13,840±90 to 14,680±180 BP. Materials of all Paleolithic layers have been identified as belonging to the Afontova culture. Based on the ceramic finds, bronze and iron tools, artifacts of the upper cultural layer A have been classified as a mixed assamblage of Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Middle Ages. The intermediate ceramicfree cultural layer is dated to Mesolithic based on a series of "eared axes" with head slots. Collection storage of the Biryusa site in several scientific centres requires the cooperation of different researchers in order to publish the entirety of materials obtained in the Biryusa Archaeological Microdistrict

Archaeology · Excavation · Geography · Radiocarbon dating · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction · Geology · Paleontology · Stratigraphy