Traces of a 10,000-year-old settlement and more than 20,000 finds (stone tools, numerous remains of animal and fish bones) were discovered by the expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This is a result of the excavations at Mesolithic sites near the Veletma river (the Oka river feeder), referring to the early stage of the Butovo archaeological culture, carried out as preparation for construction of the M-12 Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan highway.
In total, archaeologists have investigated five artefacts near the village of Maloye Okulovo, discovered in different years of the last century: the site of Maloye Okulovo - 10, Maloye Okulovo - 11, Maloye Okulovo - 19, Maloye Okulovo - 20, and Malookulovskaya - 3. The total area of the investigated sites was over 10,000 square meters.
The excavations over a large area showed that the man sites near the Veletma river were inhabited at the time when the glacier covering the most part of Eurasia had already withdrawn from these places. The climate was colder than today, but much warmer than in the previous era, the Pleistocene. Megafauna has already died out. Here, on the Lower Oka river, the taiga (boreal forest) was growing with a predominance of conifers, and with elk and beaver being the main game animals.
According to preliminary expert findings, the sites Maloye Okulovo - 11, Malookulovskaya - 3, and Maloye Okulovo - 19 separated from them by a hollow, preserved the traces of settlements of different ages. In the Stone Age, there were probably seasonal sites as archaeologists discovered material remains of daily activities of a community of ancient hunters and fishermen, such as numerous clusters of articles made of flint and a large number of bone remains of animals and fish.
“This site is unique in a way that we have found organic matter preservation that is rare for such Mesolithic sites. We have found a huge number of animal and fish bones. This is a valuable material for age determination, since we are able to identify the age of the settlement at this place, using the radiocarbon analysis of high precision. With bone remains, the paleozoologists will be able to accurately reconstruct the species composition of animals and fish that people were hunting in ancient times, ” the Deputy Head of the Navashinsky detachment of the Moscow Region Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Daria Yeskova said.
Also, objects of the later eras from Neolithic, Bronze, and Early Iron Ages were found at the sites. The Bronze Age is represented by the short-term settlements of ancient cattle-breeders of the Fatyanovo culture, who came from the west, and the Pozdnyakovo culture associated with the steppes of southern Russia: that was the time of significant migrations, and its traces were found at the excavated sites near the Veletma river. In the late Middle Ages, the territory of the site was occasionally visited, probably for trade purposes, and in the 18th – 19th centuries there were tar distilleries at the place.
Archaeologists discovered traces similar to remains of a large dwelling at the Malookulovskaya-3 site. The bulk of the finds laid in the form of an extensive round cluster with a diameter of about thirteen meters. At the southern edge of this cluster, there were traces of a fireplace, and some of the finds were stretched in a strip along the line of the ancient riverbank. Two artificial pits were found under the cluster of stone artifacts and a large trace of animal and fish bones. The first one, 7x6 meters, had a rectangular shape, and the other was round, about 5 meters in diameter. Many stone finds have been discovered inside these objects. Scientists assume that these pits are the traces of a dwelling complex of an ancient settlement.
“This is a completely unique study of artefacts of the Stone Age in terms of its scope, a rarest case when the area of the site is opened almost completely - both its central part and periphery. Due to the excavations at an extensive area, we can get a complete picture of the structure of the Mesolithic settlement, and reconstruct in detail the way of life and human activity on a huge area adjacent to the residential site ," Daria Eskova noted.
In 1970s-1980s, archaeologists discovered a number of man sites of different ages on a long ridge of sand dunes running along the right bank of the Veletma river and its numerous bayou lakes: from the Mesolithic period, the times of hunters and gatherers, to the Early Bronze Age, when people had already learned to smelt metal and mastered cattle breeding and agriculture. However, systematic excavations have never been carried out here, and archaeologists were able to fully investigate these sites only when this area was involved in the construction zone of the M-12 highway. A thorough study of the objects of archaeological heritage became possible due to cooperation with Avtodor State Company and Autobahn road-construction company: the area around the sites is fenced with a signal tape, and construction equipment does not enter this zone.
“The sites located on the highway are the witnesses of the ancient history, the part of the cultural heritage of our country. The outskirts of the villages of Maloe Okulovo, Volosovo, and Navashino near Murom are important territories for the Russian archaeologists as this is one of the places where our archeology started. It was in here where Count Alexei Sergeevich Uvarov conducted excavations in the 19th century, and whose research led to the discovery of the archaeological artefacts and cultures from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. Not far from these places, near the village of Karacharovo, a Paleolithic man site was discovered, as well as the Sungir Upper Paleolithic site near Vladimir, which became world known for the discovered burials. The Neolithic settlement of Volosovo was explored here, which gave the name to the Volosovo culture of the IV-III millennium BC, as well as the Bronze Age site near the village of Pozdnyakovo, after which the Pozdnyakovo culture was named, which was widespread in the III millennium BC in the Volga-Oka interfluve," the Deputy Director of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Asya Engovatova noted.
The archaeologists have found a large number of items made of split stone at all sites. Among them are arrowheads, scrapers, punctures, and axe fragments. One of the parts of the Maloye Okulovo - 19 man site revealed a large accumulation of stone production waste, which means that some master had processed flint here in ancient times, creating stone tools.
“The finds will help us, on the one hand, to reconstruct the way of life of ancient people in these places, and, on the other hand, to recreate the stone processing technique. The finds near Maloye Okulovo are typical of the Butovo archaeological culture, which was widespread at that time in the Volga-Oka rivers interfluve. With an accurate description of the finds and understanding of the technology, we will be able to compare the features of this Mesolithic culture with the artefacts of earlier and later periods of the human history, and reconstruct the technological progress,” the Head of the Navashino team of the IA RAS, Konstantin Gavrilov said.
