Field season 2017. Monument "The settlement of Petropavlovka-5. Dirt Burial Ground-1".

In the period from 27.07. to 10.08.2017, employees of NILAIP conducted archaeological excavations at the monument "Settlement Petropavlovka-5. Dirt Burial Ground-1" located on Snake Island (Photo 1.), near the village of Petropavlovka, Khabarovsk Municipal District, Khabarovsk Territory. 

The site was excavated with an area of 26 sq.m., around the 2015 trench (Photo 2.). As a result of the works there were obtained ceramic materials related to the Paleometallic period (XII century BC-V century AD) in the form of 2 ruins of vessels (Photo 3, 4), 2 large fragments of vessels (Photo 5, 6), which can be reconstructed for the exhibitions. There was also obtained ceramic material, scattered on cultural horizons, which can serve in reconstruction works.

Most of the stone implements are related to the earlier archaeological cultures of the Lower Amur (the Malyshev and Kondon Neolithic cultures). Along with the stone implements, a whole vessel was found archaeologically KNK (Photo 7), with an ornament, almost identical to the ceramic materials of the monument Knyaze-Volkonskoe-1, and also subject to complete reconstruction. Ceramic materials belonging to the Malyshevo Neolithic culture were scattered in the cultural layers, but the primary analysis allows us to assert that the plaster reconstruction of at least 1 vessel is possible.

In the course of excavations were taken four samples of coal for radiocarbon dating (2 samples belong to the vessel of the Condonian culture), 3 samples of soil (total volume of more than 30 liters) for flotation (search for the remains of ancient plants - seeds, nutshells, etc.). One of the samples was taken from the collapse of the vessel of the Condonian culture.

The excavations also revealed a cluster of bones (along with a pig skull), possibly the redeposited remains of a funeral or other trimester.

All obtained materials will be after processing and creation of the Field Report will be transferred to the funds of the Museum of Archaeology, and the reconstructed vessels and part of the stone tools can be used in various exhibitions.