The first results of the study of a new Stone and Late Bronze Age site in the forest-steppe Volga region – the Niva I site

This article introduces and analyzes materials from a new Stone and Late Bronze Age site in the Volga forest-steppe region – the Niva I site. In 2024, Excavation Pit № 1 (96 square meters) was opened at the site. The total collection of artifacts recovered consists of 1710 pieces (634 ceramic fragments from approximately 110 vessels, 57 flint artifacts, 6 sandstone abrasives, and 1013 animal bones). The most striking is the Late Bronze Age (Srubnaya culture) ceramic assemblage, which includes 560 fragments from 94 vessels. The vessels are predominantly jar-shaped with a closed mouth or pot-shaped. Most of the vessels are decorated with comb stamp impressions; large oval or «larval» indentations, dashes, incised lines, and hollow bone indentations are also present. Two dates from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC determine the time of occupation of the Late Bronze Age population at the site. The majority of the osteological collection also dates to this period (unidentifiable bones constitute approximately 60%, the remainder belong to cattle, sheeps/goats, or horses, and isolated pigs, elk, and bears). The Early Eneolithic (Samarskaya culture) is represented by three fragments of rims from different vessels with a collar-like thickening and abundant shell admixture in the dough. Neolithic ceramics (67 fragments from 12 vessels) comprise four typological groups. Three vessels are unadorned except for a pitted-pearl band. A profiled vessel was decorated with incised lines. Four vessels each had triangular punctures on their surfaces, applied in a retreating, in one case sparse, manner, or comb stamp impressions. One radiocarbon dating may be associated with the occupation of the site by Srednevolzhskaya Neolithic culture bearers in the last quarter of the 6 millennium BC, while the second marks a brief episode of visitation by bearers of the Elshanskaya cultural tradition during the early Neolithic, which dates to the last quarter of the 7 millennium BC. The collection of stone artifacts comprises 57 pieces. The raw material is represented primarily by flint in shades of red-brown and gray. Most of the artifacts are waste (flakes, splinters, and longitudinal chips). One distal part of a blade is unretouched. Seven morphologically distinct tools are present: four scrapers, a leaf-shaped point with a distinct petiole, a straight-bladed knife/side scraper, and an angular burin on a longitudinal chip.