New early Holocene archaeological sites from the Olkhon region

This article introduces materials from several Early Holocene archaeological sites located on the shore of Lake Baikal: Kurkut III, Burliuk I, and Nuga I. We undertake a cultural-chronological analysis of these complexes and outline their dates. Basing on a formal and typological analysis of materials from these sites, we propose that analogues exist in a wide range of Mesolithic contexts from the Olkhon region, dating to the period from 9800-7300 BP. The presence of several characteristic artifact types enables us to suggest a more narrow range of dates between 9300-7300 BP (10500-8200 cal BP) for the Burliuk I complex, and 8000-7300 BP (8800-8200 cal BP) for Kurkut III. Materials uncovered at these sites considerably expand the amount of data available on the Mesolithic complexes of the region and underscore the rarity of concentrations of archaeological finds - as opposed to isolated artifacts - dating to this period.