Archaeological Survey in Central Taymyr
V.V. Pitul'ko
Institute for History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, 18 Dvortsovaya nab., 191186 St.
Petersburg, Russia
Recei ved 14 February 1997 and accepted in revised form \0 October 1997
Abstract - There are very few sites covering all periods of human occupation in Taymyr,
where surface finds predominate mainly, and the recent sites were largely unknown before
the discovery of Oleny Brook. The results of the first excavations at Oleny Brook on the
Upper Taymyra River in Central Taymyr were reported first as a contribution at the Laptev
Sea System workshop in St. Petersburg (Pitul'ko, 1996). The cultural layer of the site is
within the permafrost and contains organics materials including well-preserved wood pieces,
bark, fish bones and even fish scales. Artifacts of the Oleny Brook site assemblage are made
mainly of antler and bone. The collection contains artifacts of the most general kind which
are typical of most northern aboriginal sites. They include bone/antler knifehandles, spearand arrowheads, fish spear points, a part of a swivel block, and a decorated peice of bone.
Ceramics and stone flakes were found, too. The site is carbon-dated to 1,880 +/- 75 BP, LE
5176 (uncalibrated age). Some features of the geology of the site are supposed to be rather
remarkable, especially keeping in mind the results of carbon dating. It could be said, that
the survey has raised more questions than answers if any - both archaeological and
geological.
Introduction
When speaking on the Taymyr archaeology it is impossible to avoid Leonid P. Khlobystin, my
teacher and the "Godfather" of archaeological studies in Taymyr. Although his fundamental
monograph (Khlobystin, 1982) dedicated to Taymyr archaeology still remains unpublished, his
main conclusions concerning the ancient habitation in Taymyr are well-known and are the only
source of information on this subject. A series of excellent field projects undertaken by
Khlobystin in 1967-81 years ended in 1981 and had never been resumed. His survey was
focused first of all on the main river systems of the Taymyr region - the Pyasina and
KhetaJKhatanga Rivers.
On his expeditions, numerous archaeological sites located in the Pyasina, Dudypta, Kheta and
Khatanga River basins were found but a great number of those are relatively late. Concerning
the earliest peopling of the territory, Khlobystin points out first of all assemblages from the
Pyasina River sites (Pyasina I, III, IV, V; Lantoshka II site; Malaya Korennaya II, III;
Kapkannaya II) and Tagenar VI site, the latter being "the only site dated exactly", to 6,020 +/100 BP (LE 884) and marking the upper chronological boundary of the Taymyr Mesolithic
(Khlobystin, 1982). At the same time, there is a high probability that the peninsula was
occupied much earlier. Such a suggestion is based on a find collected from the surface of the
2nd terrace in the Pyasina River valley near the confluence of the latter with the Polovinka
River. Here was found a chopper-like tool made of greenstone flinty rock. Tools looking
similar to the Polovinka artifact in style and made of the same (or almost the same) raw
material, are very characteristic to the Afontovo and Kokorevo cultures of the Yenisey province
of the Siberian Late Palaeolithic, as was noted by L.P. Khlobystin. Assuming that Tagenar VI
and the other Mesolithic sites are not actually the most ancient on the Peninsula, Khlobystin
considered the possibility of the peopling of that area (or at least the peopling of some
territories) about 12,000 BP (Khlobystin, 1982), and this now is confirmed by the recent data
In: Kassens. H., H.A. Bauch, I. Dmitrenko, H. Eicken, H.-W. Hubberten, M. Melles, J. Thiede and L. Timokhov (eds.)
Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999,457-467.
V.V. Pitul'ko
Institute for History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, 18 Dvortsovaya nab., 191186 St.
Petersburg, Russia
Recei ved 14 February 1997 and accepted in revised form \0 October 1997
Abstract - There are very few sites covering all periods of human occupation in Taymyr,
where surface finds predominate mainly, and the recent sites were largely unknown before
the discovery of Oleny Brook. The results of the first excavations at Oleny Brook on the
Upper Taymyra River in Central Taymyr were reported first as a contribution at the Laptev
Sea System workshop in St. Petersburg (Pitul'ko, 1996). The cultural layer of the site is
within the permafrost and contains organics materials including well-preserved wood pieces,
bark, fish bones and even fish scales. Artifacts of the Oleny Brook site assemblage are made
mainly of antler and bone. The collection contains artifacts of the most general kind which
are typical of most northern aboriginal sites. They include bone/antler knifehandles, spearand arrowheads, fish spear points, a part of a swivel block, and a decorated peice of bone.
Ceramics and stone flakes were found, too. The site is carbon-dated to 1,880 +/- 75 BP, LE
5176 (uncalibrated age). Some features of the geology of the site are supposed to be rather
remarkable, especially keeping in mind the results of carbon dating. It could be said, that
the survey has raised more questions than answers if any - both archaeological and
geological.
Introduction
When speaking on the Taymyr archaeology it is impossible to avoid Leonid P. Khlobystin, my
teacher and the "Godfather" of archaeological studies in Taymyr. Although his fundamental
monograph (Khlobystin, 1982) dedicated to Taymyr archaeology still remains unpublished, his
main conclusions concerning the ancient habitation in Taymyr are well-known and are the only
source of information on this subject. A series of excellent field projects undertaken by
Khlobystin in 1967-81 years ended in 1981 and had never been resumed. His survey was
focused first of all on the main river systems of the Taymyr region - the Pyasina and
KhetaJKhatanga Rivers.
On his expeditions, numerous archaeological sites located in the Pyasina, Dudypta, Kheta and
Khatanga River basins were found but a great number of those are relatively late. Concerning
the earliest peopling of the territory, Khlobystin points out first of all assemblages from the
Pyasina River sites (Pyasina I, III, IV, V; Lantoshka II site; Malaya Korennaya II, III;
Kapkannaya II) and Tagenar VI site, the latter being "the only site dated exactly", to 6,020 +/100 BP (LE 884) and marking the upper chronological boundary of the Taymyr Mesolithic
(Khlobystin, 1982). At the same time, there is a high probability that the peninsula was
occupied much earlier. Such a suggestion is based on a find collected from the surface of the
2nd terrace in the Pyasina River valley near the confluence of the latter with the Polovinka
River. Here was found a chopper-like tool made of greenstone flinty rock. Tools looking
similar to the Polovinka artifact in style and made of the same (or almost the same) raw
material, are very characteristic to the Afontovo and Kokorevo cultures of the Yenisey province
of the Siberian Late Palaeolithic, as was noted by L.P. Khlobystin. Assuming that Tagenar VI
and the other Mesolithic sites are not actually the most ancient on the Peninsula, Khlobystin
considered the possibility of the peopling of that area (or at least the peopling of some
territories) about 12,000 BP (Khlobystin, 1982), and this now is confirmed by the recent data
In: Kassens. H., H.A. Bauch, I. Dmitrenko, H. Eicken, H.-W. Hubberten, M. Melles, J. Thiede and L. Timokhov (eds.)
Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999,457-467.