The new archaeological site Tonorak on Vitim River (Baikal-Patom Highlands)

The article introduces into scientific circulation a new archaeological site Tonorak (Baikal-Patom Highlands, Bodaibo district of the Irkutsk region). The Tonorak site is located 93 km upriver from the city of Bodaibo, on the right bank of the River Vitim, on a 20-meter basement terrace. Two cultural horizons embedded in subaeral sediments have been identified. Fragments of smooth-walled pottery were found in the first cultural horizon, including a rim with two rows of oblique straight impressions, as well as a prismatic core and flint microblades, and a fragment of a pebble adze. For ceramics, two obtained radiocarbon dates address to the end of the 9th - 1st half of the 8th century BC. Typological correlations in ceramics and stone industry of the 1st cultural horizon were made with the Ust’-Mil’ culture of the cultural and chronological scheme of Yakutia. A high level of stone-blade production, which was preserved by the turn of the Bronze-Iron Ages, was noted. For the Lower Vitim region, this is the first dated archaeological site of the late Bronze Age, promising for further study. A microblade, a fragment of a chopper, flakes, and chipped pieces of pebbles were found in the second cultural horizon. Its age has not been established. Materials of the Tonorak site are published on the background of the presented review of the current state of knowledge of archeology of the middle - late Holocene of the Baikal-Patom highlands. It is noted that due to the weak stratigraphic reference and a low taphonomy of cultural remains, Neolithic-Paleometal sites continue to be poorly studied, and knowledge about these epochs remains provisional, i.e. for each of the stages of the Neolithic - Paleometal era there are only point representations. Due to the biased attention to more promising objects and remoteness and inaccessibility of territories, a significant part of the valley of the Vitim, Mama and other rivers was visited for a short time.

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