Studies of the Staryi Tartas-1 Multilayer Settlement (Vengerovsky District of Novosibirsk Region)

Abstract

This article presents the evidence obtained from traditional collecting surface materials at the Staryi Tartas-1 site located on the floodplain terrace on the left bank of the Om River opposite the village of the same name in Vengerovsky District of Novosibirsk Region. The works of 2021 enrich our knowledge about the site and elucidate the individual features of material culture among its inhabitants. A fundamentally new pottery form - a bowl - has been observed in the pottery complex which belongs to the Pit-Comb Ware culture. A rare flattened bottom decorated in a typical manner of that culture as well as wall fragments with traces of distinctive smoothing and false textile imprints, and clear imprints of the walking comb stamp have become available. The remains of a ruined workshop for producing stone artifacts with 47 items which may be described as production waste, have been found. In addition, cores, often converted into tools (27 items), knife-like blades (14 items), and scrapers (9 items) have been collected. All items were typical of the stone industry of the Early Metal Age. The collection included individual artifacts of the Odinov, Krotovo, and Andronovo (Fedorovo) cultures. Complexes related to the ethnographic period and associated with the eastern part of Fort Ust-Tartas included fragments of vessels made on the potter’s wheel, containers for storing and preparing food, such as pan, glazed dishes, two sandstone and shale abrasives, two massive sinkers for nets, made on fragments of primitive bricks with double crisscross notches for fastening to the net. These findings prove incorrectness of the attempts to dispute the location of Fort Ust-Tartas on the basis of written sources, which have appeared in the media.