Vadniur I/7 — the final Neolithic and Eneolithic site of the Vychegda River

Abstract

The author presents the results of his own survey of the Vadniur I settlement carried out in 2017. The site is located on the right bank of the Vychegda River in the Syktyvkar city, the Komi Republic (north-eastern Europe). The danger of destruction of the site by the river erosion erged the comprehensive excavation of the total area of 210.5 m2. This has made it possible to preserve the historical and cultural information from the site and to obtain new data for the study of the Neolithic and Eneolithic cultures of north-eastern Europe. Based on stratigraphy, planigraphy and comparative-typological method, two complexes of different periods — Vadniur I/7A and Vadniur I/7B — have been identified. The former includes the remains of a rectangular 11x5 m dwelling with the total area of ca. 55 m2, with three hearths (nos. I, II and IV) and two horizontal ventilation channels (nos. I and II). The construction is associated with a ca. 8.5 m2 section of redeposited cultural layer containing artefacts, which is probably the result of cleaning of the living space in ancient times. The dwelling complex includes 428 stone items, fragments of two ceramic pots and three ceramic objects, small unidentifiable fragments of calcified bones. According to two radiocarbon measurements, the Vadniur I/7A complex dates to the first half of the 4th mil. BC. This data, together with construction features, technical and typological charac-teristics of ceramics and flint tools, allow attributing it to the early period of the Chuzhyael'skaya Culture in north-eastern Europe. Currently, Vadniur I/7A is the oldest structure of this type in Northern Eurasia. The research opens new per-spectives for the study of genesis of the Chuzh"yael'skaya Culture, which is also associated with searching for sources of origin of housebuilding, flint knapping and pottery traditions unique for the northeast of Europe. The Vadniur I/7B complex has been identified as a compact cluster of ceramic vessel fragments and few flint artefacts. They were related to the traces of hearth no. III and together may represent remains of a short-term camp. The comparative-typological method allows to identify it as a site of the Choynovtinskaya Culture of the Eneolithic Volosovo-Garinskaya cultural com-munity of the 3rd — first half of the 2nd mil. BC.