Preceramic Assemblage of the Elovka-Nugan 1 Site in the Tunka Valley

The Tunka Valley remains one of the least studied areas of Baikal-Yenisei Siberia, and the Early Holocene is still a major gap in its archaeological record. Excavations at Elovka-Nugan 1 site in 2025 revealed a preceramic lithic assemblage, attributed here to the Mesolithic on the basis of stratigraphy, typology, and regional comparisons. A buried humic horizon (level 3b) was exposed in one of the test pits sunk into the gentler slope at the foot of the high surface, at a depth of 0.3–0.6 m, below an Early Neolithic layer with net-impressed pottery (~7.7 ka cal BP). The lower level was separated in plan and by elevation. In the absence of direct radiocarbon dates, attribution relied on soil stratigraphy, lithic technology, and parallels with dated Early Holocene assemblages. The 19 diagnostic artifacts include wedgeshaped microcores, retouched microblade inserts, a lunate side scraper, a slate retoucher, and other tools. Exact analogies to the slate retoucher are unknown, but similar polished slate items occur only in assemblages attributed to the Mesolithic. Lunate scrapers, by contrast, are characteristic mainly of Final Paleolithic assemblages of the Southern Angara region, as at Verkholenskaya Gora 1 (layers 2 and 3), and are also present in layer 1 of that site, which contains Early Holocene materials. Wedge-shaped cores largely disappear by the Neolithic. The host soil may be correlated with Early Holocene floodplain deposits previously dated to ~9.6–9.2 ka cal BP at the same site; the overlying Neolithic layer provides a firm terminus ante quem of ~7.7 ka cal BP. The combination of wedge-shaped cores, a lunate scraper, and a slate retoucher is consistent with an Early Holocene Mesolithic industry in the Angara-Belaya region, while slate tools are absent in Late Glacial contexts. The absence of pottery, the microlithic technology, and the stratigraphic position exclude a Neolithic or later age. Although the assemblage is undated directly, the estimated age of ~9.6–9.2 ka cal BP for the enclosing sediment is consistent with the typological evidence. If this attribution is correct, this is the first identified Mesolithic assemblage in the Tunka Valley, filling a critical gap. The Elovka-Nugan 1 assemblage offers a reference point for Early Holocene occupation in a poorly studied area. Expanded excavations and direct dating are required, but the discovery demonstrates that slope deposits with a second humic horizon within a fully developed soil profile can preserve earlier materials beneath later deposits.

Early Holocene · Early Neolithic pottery · Mesolithic · terminus ante quem · Tunka Valley · Archaeological and Geological Studies · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology