The results of excavations at the Algay site in the steppe Volga region in 2021

Abstract

The excavations of the multilayer site Algay in 2021 confirmed the stratigraphical strata of Neolithic and Eneolithic layers. The cultural layers with artifacts of the Orlovskaya culture are well stratified. The faunistic remains of the Neolithic period are numerous and have different localization. This is also evidence of several stages of occupation of this place by people during Neolithic. There are solely wild species of animals. The stone tools are characterized by homogeneity. The stone tools from the hoard were made with different raw sources but they are the same types. There are scratchers of several types, perforators, and geometric microliths (trapeziums with planed backs). According to their typologies these stone tools are the same as the tools from layers 2B and 2A of the Varfolomeevka site. The ceramics was made from fat clay rich of organics and tempered by crushed shells. The lipid analysis of charred food crusts in the pottery showed that they were used for the animal and plant cooking. The pottery decoration is typical for the vessels of the Orlovskaya culture with some differences in comparison to the pottery from the Vorfolomeevka site. Four points made of bones are also found. The stone tools of the Cis-Caspian culture were made of other type of quartzite unlike to the Neolithic ones. The technique of an enhanced push-up was applied for the stone tools in comparison to the Neolithic period. The radiocarbon dates confirmed the chronological framework of developed and later stages of the Orlovskaya culture from 6800 to 6100 BP.