Field Season 2016.

During the summer and fall period of 2016, the NILAIP staff devoted their work to continuing the study of the archaeology of the Lower Amur River. During this period, two archaeological expeditions were conducted (at the end of September together with employees of Kyushu State University and Tokyo University) in the Amur, Nanai and Khabarovsk districts of our region. The works were carried out on the banks of Lake Hummi and Lake Bolon (Photo 1), as well as excavations twice on Snake Island (Photo 2), at the famous monument "The settlement of Petropavlovka-5. Unearthed burial ground-1".

Archaeological exploration of the shores of the aforementioned lakes was associated with an attempt to record the development of this territory, depending on the water level of the lakes and the Amur, during the period from the 9th millennium BC to the 1st millennium BC. Unfortunately, it was established that during this period the shoreline of the bays of these lakes was not used by the ancient population. But at the same time two previously unknown sites, tentatively dated to the period of the so-called "early Middle Ages" (7th - 14th centuries A.D.), were discovered.

The most interesting and fruitful were the works on Snake Island, due to the fact that it is one of the few islands on the Amur, which has a rocky base, and for this reason is not destroyed by the waters of the Amur. In the excavations (Photo 3,4The materials related to the period of the 7th millennium B.C. were obtained. - I millennium A.D. In one of the clusters of pottery the bone remains were recorded (Photo 5), which is very rare for the settlements of the Lower Amur of any of the periods. In the course of works 10 samples of coal were taken for Ams-dating of archaeological layers and materials.

Most of the finds are represented by fragmented ceramics and, to a lesser extent, stone artifacts. Most of the archaeological finds, including 5 ruins of vessels (Photo 6, 7) refers to the Paleometallic period (I millennium BC - I millennium AD), and a smaller part, to much older periods of the archaeological history of our region - to the Malyshev culture (Photo 8) and Condon (Photo 9). Despite the small number of fragments of Kondo ceramics - it is the most interesting and valuable finds, because their location at a certain hypsometric level, says about the state level of the Amur in a certain period of time and the direction of further excavations.

The materials obtained during excavations suggest that large-scale excavations at this settlement may increase both the volume of finds and their quality.