Результаты комплексного исследования памятника Куртеке (Восточный Памир)

Abstract

The materials of most of the archaeological sites of the Eastern Pamirs are known from lifting samples. One of them is the Kurteke rock shelter, that was discovered in 1960 by V.A. Ranov. At that time at the site there were distinguished two cultural layers dated to the Neolithic-Eneolithic and Eneolithic-Bronze period. This site is also interesting because on the walls of the rock shelter , directly above the cultural layers there are rock paintings of anthropomorphic and geometric figures. Modern data have shown that the first layer associated with the settlement of the site belongs to the final Pleistocene (older than 13 thousand years ago). In the course of the new stage of the study, palynological and carpological analysis of the soil, the study of undetectable faunal remains using the ZooMS method, and the documentation of rock carvings of the site were carried out. A comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the Kurteke materials showed that the stone industry presented here is typical of the mountainous part of Central Asia; the climate during both periods of human settlement of the site was arid, and despite the presence of cereal plants, no direct indications of their domestication were found; the faunistic composition of the site is represented by taxa typical for the territory of the Eastern Pamirs today; in the rock art there are images common in the territory of Central and Central Asia in the Bronze Age.