UDC 902/903

A. A. Vasilevsky ¹, V. A. Grishchenko ¹, L. A. Orlova ²

¹ Sakhalin Laboratory of Archeology and Ethnography, IAET SB RAS and SAKHGU

290 Lenin St., Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 693008, Russia

E-mail: vasilevski@bk.ru; v.grishchenko@mail.ru

² Institute of Geology and Mineralogy SB RAS

3 Akademika Koptyuga Ave., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

E-mail: orlova@uiggm.nsc.ru

The article presents data from radiocarbon dating of Neolithic sites in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. To date, this is the most complete summary of dates, on the basis of which a periodization model of the Neolithic era of the island world of the Far Eastern seas is proposed. The materials accumulated over the previous years of research allowed us to draw a number of conclusions regarding human adaptation to changes in natural conditions in the Holocene, the economic orientation of societies, and the nature of environmental exploitation. The paper discusses the boundaries and features of the functioning of mobile contact zones in the region, as well as the scenario of meridian migration of Neolithic population groups. These conclusions are of a fundamental nature, since they indicate the main range of topics and current problems of studying the Neolithic era on the islands of the Far East and in their immediate geographical environment.

Keywords: Neolithic, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands, radiocarbon dating, island world of the Far Eastern seas, environmental exploitation, adaptation, contact zones.

Introduction

The solution to the problems of periodization of Neolithic island cultures can be found by analyzing the entire set of sources of this era. Currently, Neolithic sites ranging from 10,000 to 2,500 BP have been discovered and studied on Sakhalin Island, and from 8,000 BP in the Kuril Islands. This allows us to draw a number of conclusions regarding the chronological boundaries of periods and stages*; the natural conditions of the existence of societies and their contacts, economic orientation; and the nature of the exploitation of the environment. In this paper, we will focus only on some of the results obtained in the course of research on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Nevertheless, they are of a fundamental nature, since they indicate the main range of topics and current problems of studying the Neolithic era on the islands of the Far East and in their immediate geographical environment (Figure 1). For the Kuril Islands, in contrast to Sakhalin, at the present stage of research, only the most general picture of the periodization and chronology of Neolithic complexes can be given.

The first reports on the Neolithic and Stone Age chronology in general in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were published in the 1980s and 1990s [Shubin and Shubina, 1987;

* The authors are grateful to Dr. Ya. V. Kuzmin for his assistance in obtaining a significant number of date definitions for archaeological sites in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

1. Map of Neolithic reference sites on Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Archipelago.

Kuzmin, 1989; Vasilevsky, 1995; Vasilevsky, Kuzmin, and Jall, 1997; Kuzmin et al., 1998; Kuzmin et al., 1998]. In the last 20 years, lists of radiocarbon dates of the main cultural complexes of the stone and Paleometal epochs have been compiled for Sakhalin (Vasilevsky et al., 2003, 2004; Kuzmin et al., 2003; Kuzmin et al., 2004; Kuzmin, 2006) (in total, more than 80 ^14C dates were obtained for the Neolithic, tab. 1); periodization and chronology of Stone Age cultures are generally developed. For the Kuril Islands, there are about 60 ¹⁴ C-dates, of which 18 are from Neolithic complexes (Table. 2), which is poorly studied archaeologically; the periodization and chronology of this period in the Kuril Islands are still known only in the most general form. This paper presents the most complete lists of Neolithic dates of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands as of the end of 2008. Data on the chronology of the Paleometallic and Medieval epochs are presented in other publications of the authors (Vasilevsky, 1995; Vasilevsky et al., 2003, 2004; Kuzmin, 2006; Kuzmin et al., 2004).

Table 1.

Radiocarbon dates of Neolithic sites on Sakhalin Island

Continuation of Table 1

Continuation of Table 1

End of Table 1

* The Calibb Rev program was used. 5.1.0. * * Samples by O. A. Shubina.

Table 2.

Radiocarbon dates of Neolithic monuments of the Kuril Islands

End of Table 2

* The Calibb Rev. programs were used. 5.1.0, Quick Cal ver. 1.3. * * According to an oral report by Yu. V. Knorozov (1990), the date has a standard deviation of ±100 years. The Teledyne Isotopes laboratory (formerly known as Teledyne Brown Engineering Environmental Services in the 1990s - 2000s; Westwood, New Jersey, USA) is closed as of 2006 (see: Radiocarbon. - 2006. - Vol. 48, N 3. - P. 515).

Sakhalin Island

The Pleistocene - Holocene boundary, the transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic (13-12 KA BP). The break of natural connections in the Sakhalin-Hokkaido chain occurred around 13-12 KA BP with the formation of the La Perouse Strait. Its formation took place in stages, in accordance with fluctuations in the level of the World's oceans, for 5 thousand years. Approximately 8 thousand years AGO, the strait reached its present-day borders (42 km wide). Sharp climate fluctuations in the late and Postglacial periods, the impoverishment of island fauna against the background of vegetation changes significantly contributed to the replacement of crops and economic types on Sakhalin Island-the Paleolithic economy was replaced by an economy based on the exploitation of a complex of natural objects and, above all, the aquatic environment. The milestone of 13-12 thousand years AGO is also marked by global warming in the Far East. In the 1990s, using the lower layers of the Vavai peat bog, Japanese-Russian and Russian groups of researchers independently established that the cardinal change in vegetation composition that characterizes the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene on Sakhalin occurred during the period defined by the dates 12,540 ±

± 630; 11700 ± 80; 11682 ± 970 L. N. [Mikishin and Gvozdeva, 1996; Tsuji Seyichiro, 2002]. Accordingly, experts count the Holocene from 12-11,5 thousand years AGO. Dates indicating the boundaries of major changes in nature during this epoch can be considered: 12 - 10,7 thousand years ago (the beginning of the Postglacial period), 9 - 7,8 (Boreal-Atlantic), 5,2 - 4,3 (Atlantic-Subboreal), 2,2 - 1,8 thousand years ago. L. N. (subboreal-subatlantic). Yu. A. Mikishin and I. G. Gvozdeva (1996) distinguish three stages of the Holocene: the early (12 - 7.8 Ka BP), characterized by a generally temperate climate; the middle (7.8 - 2.2 Ka BP), the warmest; and the late (slightly more than 2 Ka BP), with the sharpest, in contrast to the Middle (7.8-2.2 Ka BP) periods. from the previous stages, by climatic fluctuations.

Lower Amur and Sakhalin, on the one hand, and Hokkaido and the Southern Kuril Islands, on the other, became geographically separated territories 12 thousand years AGO. Sakhalin was still a peninsula until 8 thousand years AGO, and Hokkaido and the Southern Kuril Islands became islands. However, there are many similarities in the history and culture of the tribes that inhabited them, so mutual comparisons are undoubtedly appropriate here.

The boundary between the areas of the Lower Amur Osipov culture of leaf-shaped biface blades and the Tachikawa-type island petiole-point culture (Fig. 2) was located at the junction of the northern and southern geographical zones of Sakhalin. We believe that Osipov ceramics on Northern Sakhalin are not yet known, because the monuments of the corresponding period have not yet been excavated with a wide area. These cultures comprised two neighboring regions: the Amur-Sakhalin and Sakhalin-Hokkaido. The contact zone in the middle part of Sakhalin delimited the continental and island worlds of the transition period from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic. The first one was traditionally associated with the exploitation of the resources of the Amur River and other large rivers (Poronai, Tym, etc.). Groups that descended to the sea along the Amur River migrated to this area and settled in a similar type of landscape in the north of Sakhalin. There could not be any Osipov technologies known on the lower Amur. The Amur Region and Northern Sakhalin were a single territory in the Osipov era. The island world has been associated with the exploitation of marine resources since the Holocene epoch. Despite the separation of territories by the Strait, the tradition of petiole points remained in Southern Sakhalin. Geographically, the transition zone and the island zone proper are distinguished, which leaves an imprint on the paleoeconomical and historical-cultural processes, which will be discussed later.

The lower boundary of the transition period in the territory under consideration is determined in accordance with the dates of early ceramics in the regions adjacent to Sakhalin-in the north of Honshu Island, in the south of Hokkaido, and in the lower Amur-in the range of 13-12 thousand years AGO. Neolithic age on Sakhalin. This is mainly consistent with the Neolithic regional chronology in the island world of the Far Eastern seas on the border of East and North Asia, as well as with modern ideas about the age of Tachikawa-type petiole points in Hokkaido and Sakhalin and leaf-shaped points of the Osipov culture in the Lower Amur and Northern Sakhalin. This chronological boundary is close to the upper date of the Sokol monument-11.8 Ka BP (determined by obsidian hydration) [Golubev and Lavrov, 1988, p. 46], as well as the dates of the East Sakhalin cave and mountain sites (see Table 1).

The most studied monuments of the transition period on Sakhalin are the Paleolithic Ogonki-5 settlement (horizon 1) and the Sokol site (part of the materials) (Vasilevsky, 2008). Presumably, Imchin - 1 (Vasilevsky, 1973; Golubev and Lavrov, 1988), horizon 1 of the Starodubskoe-3 multilayered settlement (Vasilevsky, 1991, 2008), Maly Ruchey (Vasilevsky and Grishchenko, 2002), and a part of the materials of the cave sites are considered to be 10-9 Ka BP, i.e., the end of the transition period. parking lots of Middle Sakhalin.

2. Leaf-shaped biface (1) and petiolate points (2, 3).

Transition stage from Paleolithic to Neolithic, Sakhalin Island.

1-Il'insk-6; 2-4-Ogonyki-5 (horizon 1).

3. Early Neolithic stone industry (1-11) and ceramics (12-14), Sakhalin Island.

1-4-Slavnaya-5; 5-9-Pugachevo-1; 10-14-Slavnaya-4.

Monuments of the transition period are associated with mountain (Ostantsevaya, Vaidinskaya-1, caves on the Orel and Vida mountains), mountain-valley (Ogonki-5), foothill (Sokol) and coastal (Odoptu-2, Imchin-1, Starodubskoe-3) landscapes. In search of food, people made long migrations from inaccessible mountains and upper river valleys to the sea coast and lagoon lakes. This way of life was dictated by the transitional nature of the economic system in the context of global changes in the natural environment.

The end of the Pleistocene-the beginning of the Holocene - the time of the death of the mammoth and the rapid spread of new, modern fauna on the islands. Moreover, the latter penetrated Hokkaido and the Southern Kuril Islands before the formation of straits, which is confirmed by genetic studies of faunal remains [Matsutashi et al., 1999, 2001]. In line with the logic of these events, the formation of a multidisciplinary economy of ancient societies in the region took place. Changes in the environment they developed affected the geographical location of parking lots, the composition of household inventory, determined the type of housing, migration directions, nutrition, and activity rhythms. Probably, during the transition period, societies from the north and south penetrated Sakhalin and Hokkaido, which led a predominantly nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle. The ceramics of this period seem to be known on separate monuments, but there is no consistently repeating typologically uniform information - the issue is poorly studied. The industry is characterized by the flourishing of microplate technology based on the utilization of conical, microprismatic and wedge-shaped nuclei and the widespread use of bifacial processing. The latter is represented by a significant number of bifaces -tips, knives, various points. Undoubtedly, bifaces should also be considered partially polished one-sided convex chopping tools of triangular and trapezoidal shape with a lenticular cross-section. The industry inherits the final Paleolithic one, but it also has these new common features that will develop in the next stage.

Early Neolithic (IX-VII millennium BC). The period is characterized by a steady global warming trend. The consequences of this were the Early Holocene transgression, the formation of the Nevelsky Strait ca. 8 000 - 7 800 L. N., gradual formation of modern landscapes. Early Neolithic societies settled throughout Sakhalin. Early Neolithic monuments have been found in all major landscape zones: on the coast, in river valleys, and in the mountains (Vasilevsky and Grishchenko, 2002, pp. 36-41). As of 2009, more than 40 of them are known. Based on the materials of the Early Neolithic reference monuments Slavnaya-4, -5, Pugachevo-1, Porechye-4, Odoptu-2, two traditions are distinguished, connected with each other by the common technique of making arrowheads from plates (Fig. 3). The first (earlier) one is presented at the Slavnaya-5 site (south-eastern coast of the island). A distinctive feature of the industry is the focus exclusively on obsidian raw materials and plate splitting techniques in the absence of bifacial products. The same tradition applies to the Odoptu-2 parking lot on the north-eastern coast. The only difference between it and Glorious-5 is the minimum amount of obsidian in the inventory. The second (later) tradition is represented by materials from the sites of Porechye-4, Pugachevo-1, and Slavnaya-4 (excavation 2, layers 4 and 5). An important marker of the development of this tradition, which one of the authors considers to be a milestone [Grishchenko, 2009], is

a combination of plate and bifacil technologies. Bifaces of various shapes and sizes are mainly represented by blades and tips of throwing tools. We do not exclude that the absence of bifaces on the monuments of the early group may be explained by both cultural and functional differences in the sites.

A special group consists of products made of pebbles-polished stone rods and tools for processing solid organic materials (axes, adzes, chisels, adze-shaped tools). A peculiar indicator of the distinctive development of Early Neolithic societies on Sakhalin is the discovery of original types of ceramics at each object, despite the fact that these objects are united within the framework of a single tradition of making tips from plates. The diversity of ancient pottery can be explained by the undulating and discrete nature of migration processes in the continent - transition contact zone - islands chain. Using radiocarbon dating, the early Neolithic of Sakhalin is dated to 8780 ± 135-7445 ± 115 BP; the calendar date is 8230-6070 BC, or IX-VII millennium BC (see Table 1).

The Early Neolithic pottery of Sakhalin (Figs. 3, 12-14) is highly variable. However, it has a strong typological similarity with the ceramics of the oldest Jōmon of Hokkaido (including the Yatiyo A and Akapuki sites) [Kitazawa Minoru, 1999]. There, the diversity and lack of a single standard in early Neolithic pottery is even more pronounced. On the same territory, there are different types of ceramics, including those of different origin. On some sites, the ceramic complexes still tend stylistically to the north, while on others, the ornamentation and shape of the vessels indicate the growing influence of the early Jomon cultural circle. In the northern and eastern parts of Hokkaido Island, flat-bottomed dishes are processed with the edge of the shell, decorated with comb ornaments. In the west and south of the island, the ceramics of the initial and early Dzemon are characterized by variations of sharp-and round-bottomed vessels of conical shape with a wide mouth and lush ornamentation of the entire body. Various types of decoration are used (prints, tapestries), but traditionally the main thing is "je mon", i.e. rope impression [Ibid.].

In the VII-VI millennium BC, the shores of the Sangara Strait (Tsugaru) between the islands of Hokkaido and Honshu were the extreme zone of penetration of northern continental traditions. Carriers of the mainland-based plate tip culture passed through Sakhalin and Hokkaido and crossed Tsugaru, but did not go further south on Honshu Island. At this time, the island world of the Far Eastern seas, including Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kuril Islands, was part of Northeast rather than East Asia. The border, respectively, passed through the Tsugaru Strait. The islands of Sakhalin and Hokkaido were both a natural and cultural buffer between the continental and island worlds. Migration waves from the north weakened on the northern islands; in the VII-VI millennium BC, they did not reach the central part of the Japanese archipelago. In the sixth millennium BC, the contact zone shifted again to the north, and cultural demarcation took place along the La Perouse Strait, the natural border between the islands.

The culmination of the Holocene, the middle stage of the Neolithic (VI-mid-III millennium BC). Middle Holocene of Sakhalin (7 200 - 4 200 It was characterized by the warmest climate in the last 10 thousand years, with average temperatures exceeding the current values by 2-3°C. Even with periodic cold spells, the climate was not significantly colder than today's (Mikishin and Gvozdeva, 1996). Chronologically, the middle stage of the Neolithic coincides with the thermal maximum and culmination of the Jomon-Yurakute transgression within the Atlantic period. The beginning of this stage in Sakhalin is marked by a number of changes in the life of societies; the most important ones are listed below.

In the early Neolithic period (7 000 - 6 000 Areas of local cultures of different origins were formed in the middle of the sixth and fifth millennia BC. The localization of four groups of monuments of this time is noted. The Neolithic sonia culture is most clearly traced (Kuznetsovo-3, Sadovniki-2, Starodubskoe-3, Slavnaya-4, raskopo-3; see Table. 1; fig. 4, 1-8). In parallel, other local cultural traditions developed, including in the Tym River Valley and on the northern coasts. There is, in fact, an interlaced placement of monuments with ceramics of similar age and area (to varying degrees of original types), primarily technologically close to the soni (Figs. 4, 8) and Chayvo-6 (Figs. 4, 9) types. In the middle of the fifth millennium BC, the Imchinsky culture appeared in the north of Sakhalin with ¹⁴ C-dates of ca. 5 800 - 5 650 l. n. (parking lot Imchin-2; see Table. 1), as well as a poorly studied culture on the island, but widely known on the continent, with Belkacin-type ceramics. These ceramics with characteristic rope impressions smoothed with a wet hand or suede were found by V. O. Shubin in situ on two monuments - Imchin-2 and Nabil-1 (see fig. Table 1). It is necessary to note poorly studied sites of the second half of the fifth millennium BC in the basin of the Tym River (Chkharnya, Tym zone) with ¹⁴ C-dates of ca. 5 500 - 5 400 l. n. (see table. 1); they form another stable local group of the Middle Neolithic.

In the south of Sakhalin, in the lower horizon of the Sedykh-1 settlement (¹⁴ C - date ca. 4,200 BC; see Table. 1) found archaic "shell" ceramics of the tunaicha type* (Fig. 5, 1, 2, 4), which has similarities to ras-

* Based on the Ainu hydronym Tunaycha, the name of a lagoon in the south of Sakhalin.

4. Stone industry and ceramics of the initial phase of the Middle Neolithic, Sakhalin Island.

1-7 - stone implements of the Sonia culture, Slavnaya-4; 8 - ceramics of the Sonia culture, Sadovniki-2; 9 - ceramics of Chayvo-6.

5. Early Middle Neolithic complex with tunaicha-type ceramics from Sedykh-1 settlement, Sakhalin Island.

1,2,4 - ceramic fragments; 3-chalcedony biface; 5 - 9-lamellar chips.

ney imchinskaya. First, both are made according to the recipe of kneading shells with clam in the dough. Secondly, both are flat-bottomed and rounded (rather than square, as in the Sony culture). Finally, in both traditions (the lower layers of the Imchin-2 and -12 settlements, the Sedykh-1 site), there were the same principles of forming the bottom (with a pallet) and a characteristic corolla (with a slope cut inwards). The question of the area of the Lower Amur origin of the early Imchinsky tradition remains to be investigated. It is important because it reflects the existence of certain historical and cultural communities in the Middle Neolithic period within the vast area of the Eastern Amur Region and Sakhalin Island.

Already in the VI millennium BC, the stabilization of the coastal economy and the corresponding coastal lifestyle is recorded. This is evidenced by archaeological sources. In the most favorable places for such an economy - on the banks of lagoons and channels, in the estuaries of large rivers - the remains of stable coastal settlements consisting of several dwellings were found: Imchin-2, Starodubskoe-3, Sadovniki-2, Kuznetsovo-3 and -4, which date back to the interval of ca. 6 700 - 4 200 The main type of dwelling on Sakhalin in the developed Neolithic period was a semi-dugout, a 0.5 - 1.0 m deep structure measuring 3 - 5 to 10 m across. The ceiling system was supported on interconnected supports, rafters, auxiliary logs and supports. In the north of Sakhalin, both round dugouts in the form of chum, which had a double frame, and square dwellings spread. Monuments of the South Sakhalin Neolithic Sonia culture are characterized by sub-triangular dwellings with a single-layer ceiling.

In the stone industry, plate technology was replaced by more economical and productive flaking. Some monuments show a brief "renaissance" of the former, which is most likely associated with the migration of carriers of other traditions from the continent (Sedykh-1, a complex with tunaicha-type ceramics) (Fig. 5). The tradition has been preserved.-

It is a unique form of chopping tools made by partial grinding on the basis of basic models of axes-bifaces and unifaces. The composition of the tool kit has changed: incisors have disappeared (and the technique of incisive chipping; the exception is tools from the lower layer of Gray-1), they have been replaced by carvers with a sharpened edge retouching. Two-sided retouched tools are widely represented; handle knives, which have replaced knife-shaped plates, predominate. Polished rods, which performed various functions, and calibrators for grinding shafts and handles became widespread. The industries of the developed Neolithic period were focused on local raw materials: siliceous mudstones and siltstones, shale, andesite basalts, jasper, chalcedony, quartz. The obsidian exchange may have continued (obsidian chips and obsidian tools were found), but it no longer played a leading role. The reorientation to local raw materials is associated, firstly, with the degradation of plate and microplate technology; secondly, with the dominance of migrated northern societies that did not participate in obsidian exchange, since the obsidian sources of all Sakhalin cultures were located on Hokkaido Island (Reexamination..., 1992; Kimura Hideaki, 1998; Kuzmin and Glascock, Sato, 2002].

The level of development of Middle Neolithic cultures was high-it is enough to mention coastal navigation and sea fishing (soni), as well as the success of the stone industry. However, in the initial stage of pottery, extremely primitive technological traditions were preserved: rough molding, low-temperature firing, organic impurities. In contrast to the early Neolithic, there is a mass production of flat - bottomed vessels with a capacity of no more than 2.5-3.0 liters. In the north of Sakhalin, there is a rather stingy ornamentation of ceramics with a comb stamp, in the south - stucco decoration. Approximately at the turn of the VI-V millennium BC, there was a sharp change in pottery traditions, which is explained by the mass migration of the population to the island from the lower Amur regions. The square container of the sonya type was replaced by a standard flat-bottomed vessel of the tunaicha-imchin type; the southern recipe for ceramic dough with an admixture of plant fibers, characteristic of the sonya culture ceramics, is "shell".

Late Neolithic period (second half of the 3rd-2nd millennia BC). In the Late Neolithic, as well as in the previous stage, the Amur Neolithic traditions were further spread and developed throughout Sakhalin (Vasilevsky, 2008). They are clearly shown in the similarity of late Imchin-12 and -2 ceramics with the "shell" ceramics of the Orel and Malogavan types (Shevkomud, 2004), and are also seen in the common origin of the Late Neolithic Sedykhinsky complex (Figs. 6; 7), Gorinsky and Udyl pottery. We can confidently say that in the conditions of climate cooling at the turn of the Atlantic and subboreal periods of the Holocene (4 300 - 4 200 Societies that migrated from the Lower Amur region settled on Sakhalin; it was they who brought with them the Voznesenovsky traditions of" shell " ceramics. According to available data

Fig. 6. Fragment of the vessel corolla decorated with a spiral ornament made in the form of a frieze bas-relief composition, from the settlement of Sedykh-1, Sakhalin Island.

7. Artefacts from the Late Neolithic complex of the Sedykh-1 settlement. Sedykhin culture, III millennium BC.

1-3 - "shell" ceramics with an ornament applied by the edge of the shell; 4-polished adze; 5-7-ceramics with an admixture of crushed sand, without an ornament, with traces of processing on the inner surface; 8-retouched chalcedony knife.

According to the data, the Late Neolithic of Sakhalin is radiocarbon dated to ca. 4 200 - 2 800 l. n. (calendar date - 3400 - 1000 years). BC, i.e. the second half of the third-second millennium BC) (see Table 1).

Lower Amur and Sakhalin in the Late Neolithic period were a single huge area of distribution of coastal cultures on the border of East and North-East Asia. They are characterized by completely different principles of pottery than in Japan's Jomon: admixture in the dough of a crushed shell with a clam, rather than plant fibers or sand; ornamentation with a comb stamp, rather than stucco friezes and cord, etc. To a lesser extent, the differences are manifested in the principles of housing construction and the technology of the stone industry. Round in the plan of the house dzemona were almost ground, only slightly buried. They had one tier of strapping. Imchinsky dwellings are oval, quadrangular or round in the plan of a semi-dugout, many of them with double walls. The hearth was built in different ways: in Dzemon-with a fence, in Sakhalin cultures-a pit without stones. These differences can be explained by the climatic features of the northern zone, and initially different traditions. Complete grinding of chopping tools spread to Sakhalin only at the turn of the Neolithic and Paleometallic periods. In Hokkaido, it was widely used as early as in early Jomon. The main economic sector of the Neolithic period in the entire northern coastal region of East Asia was the same - coastal and river fishing, focused on all types of fish available to fishing in those years, from salmon to cod and halibut, produced all year round. There is also an important question about St. John's wort fishing in the island world of the Far Eastern seas. It has undoubtedly played a role in agriculture since the Neolithic period, but in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, this problem is still poorly understood. The natural complement was animal and bird hunting, as well as coastal and forest gathering.

Kuril Islands

The archeology of the Kuril Islands is distinguished by a variety of sites and a bright personality of finds. This is due, on the one hand, to the richness of the natural environment of man in the archipelago, and on the other hand, to the repeated collision on the centuries - old path through the islands of the most diverse cultures of origin. Sakhalin was a kind of bridge through which animals, and then people, transited to Hokkaido and further to the Southern and Small Kuril Islands. Homo sapiens sapiens, according to modern ideas, entered the Southern Kuril Islands through Sakhalin and Hokkaido in the Late Paleolithic, ca. 20 thousand years AGO, because Kunashir, Iturup and Shikotan were part of the Sakhalin-Hokkaido Peninsula. Confirmation of the oldest links between Kamchatka and Hokkaido is the well - known proximity of the cultures of Primorye, Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and Kamchatka in the Final Paleolithic period, 15,000-11,000 years AGO.However, Paleolithic sites have not yet been found in the Kuril Islands.

Neolithic sites on the Kuril Islands are directly analogous to the synchronous settlements of the Jomon culture in the northeastern part of Hokkaido. Active migrations of the Neolithic population to the islands began in the Holocene optimum, the warmest period of the Postglacial period, which is dated in the framework of 8 000 - 5 500 When broad-leaved and coniferous-deciduous forests prevailed in Hokkaido and the Southern Kuril Islands (Korotkiy et al., 1999; Razjigaeva et al., 2002; Kuzmin, 2005, p. 4). 51-53; Razzhigaeva and Hansei, 2006, pp. 60-77]. The inhabitants of the island world in the Neolithic era lived off fishing, sea and forest gathering, hunting birds and sea animals.

The oldest archaeological sites in the Kuril Islands are attributed by archaeologists to the Early Neolithic era (VII-VI millennium BC), and the oldest settlements with dwellings - to the turn of the Early and Middle Neolithic (V-IV millennium BC). Among them are Yankito( Fig. 8), Kitovoe and Kuibyshevo on the island Iturup, Sernovodskoe lake. Located on Kunashir Island, collections from which are kept in the Sakhalin Regional Museum of Local Lore and the Museum of Archeology of Sakhalin State University, the oldest ceramics with "chevron" ornaments were found on several monuments of Iturup Island. The most interesting finds were found at the Yankito site near Kitovoe Village, which was later interpreted by Hideaki Kimura as early Jōmon artifacts (Kimura Hideaki, 1999). The radiocarbon age of the monument is approx. 7 thousand years (see Table 2). This chronologically corresponds to the early Dzemon of Hokkaido, the beginning of the Middle Neolithic of Sakhalin, the Amur Region and Primorye. At the Kuibyshev site, products similar to microplates are known (they could have been used as inserts in composite tools made of bone), as well as tools on lamellar flakes. Morphologically, they resemble Early Neolithic items [Vasilyevsky, 1973]. At the Sernovodskoye settlement, ceramics typical of the middle Dzemon of Hokkaido Island were found - cylindrical vessels (estimated age approx. 5 thousand years). They are decorated with an impression of a thick cord, rolling which on the surface of the vessel creates a pattern resembling a mat woven from rope, in Japanese "jo". The collection is kept in the South Kuril Museum of Local Lore. We date the Middle Neolithic in the Kuril Islands in the range of 7000-4200 BC (see Table. 2), i.e. in the same cros-

8. Stone tools (1-4) and ceramics (5, 6) from the Yankito site, Iturup Island.

9. Ochre-colored ceramic vessel from the Late Neolithic burial ground on Lake Kuibyshev, Iturup Island. Collections of M. M. Prokofiev

In the same geological framework as on Sakhalin (see Table 1). Early Neolithic sites with lamellar cleavage complexes and the corresponding ¹⁴ C-dates earlier than 7,000 BP in the Kuril Islands are not yet known due to insufficient knowledge of the region.

The Late Neolithic period (III-II millennia BC) is most fully represented in the multi-layered settlements of Kasatka Bay, Tankovoye Lake (Kuibyshevskoye) (Iturup Island); the Sernovodskaya River, and Lagunnoye Lake (Kunashir Island). Most of them are located on medium-high sea terraces, the cultural layers are separated by layers of volcanic ash. These settlements are characterized by thick-walled flat-bottomed vessels made of dough with an admixture of organic substances. Ceramics were decorated with magnificent compositions of rope impressions, stucco decorations, including rollers, knobs, figures, cape-shaped protrusions on the edge of the corolla, etc. (Fig. 9). The stone industry completely repeats the technological schemes of the Late Neolithic cultures of the Pacific region. Typical Neolithic tools - knives with a propeller-like cross-section, including those with a neck-intercept at a round base ("button" knives as defined by M. V. Vorobyov [1958] and A. P. Okladnikov [1967]), round scrapers, spearheads, darts and arrows, drills and punctures-are made of lamellar flakes methods of chipping and double-sided retouching. There are chopping tools - well-polished axes, adzes, chisels. The raw materials used are obsidian, jasper, flint, slate, andesite.

It is not entirely clear how correct it is to apply the term "Neolithic" to the monuments of the first millennium BC in the Kuril Islands, since at that time the cultures of the Early Iron Age (paleometalla) were widespread throughout Eurasia. The issue is debatable and due to the weak study of the Kuril archeology is open. In recent years, on the central islands of the Kuril Ridge, a number of monuments with ¹⁴ C-dates in the range of 2300 - 1700 l have been found and preliminarily studied.(Fitzhugh et al., 2002): in the bays of Ainu on Matua Island, Broughton on Simushir Island, and Peschanaya on Chirpoy Island; in the mouth of the Kama River and Aleutica Bay on Urup Island (see Table 2). The authors of the excavations associate them with the Epidzemon; possibly, part of the sites belong to the final Dzemon [Ibid.]. Archaeological sites of these eras, dated ca. 2 500 - 1 700 They have also been studied in the southernmost part of the Kuril Islands (Dolphin Bay on Shikotan Island; Alyokhino on Kunashir Island; Tankovoe Lake, Malaya Kuibyshevka, and Olya-1 on Iturup Island). [Vasilevsky et al., 2003]. Monuments of epidzemon are very widely represented on all the Kuril Islands, as well as in Hokkaido and in the extreme south of Sakhalin. On the one hand, it seems logical to refer them to the end of the stone Age, but on the other hand, at this time the first metal was known both in Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and in the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk region, not to mention Honshu Island, where the early iron culture spread. At the turn of the century, the metal was supposed to appear on the islands of the Kuril Ridge, but so far the question remains open.

Conclusion

Summing up the above, we consider it necessary to repeat some very important positions on the topic of the article. They relate to the mobile contact zone and the main Neolithic trends of the island world of the Far Eastern seas (Vasilevsky, 2008). In the contact zone, there were societies of different origins. There was an active interaction (including inevitable clashes) of the migrating ethnic groups of North and East Asia, the continent and islands. In the Paleolithic and Early Neolithic, this zone repeatedly shifted along the north-south line from the mouth of the Amur River to the Ishikari River (Hokkaido Island) and even further south, to the Tsugaru Strait. In the early and Middle Neolithic, the contact boundary shifted to the north and was established at the present geographical boundaries. Its mobility in the past was determined by environmental changes that caused meridional shifts in landscape zones.

In Sartan times, the contact zone ran along the Tsugaru Strait or further south. In the early Holocene, it shifted from Hokkaido Island to the Ishikari River Valley, about 7,000 years AGO (the initial stage of the development of the sonya culture, VI millennium BC) - to the La Perouse Strait and to the southern part of Sakhalin. In the Neolithic era, the Lower Amur tribes settled on Sakhalin and formed a cultural boundary along the La Perouse Strait. The close proximity of the cultures of Sakhalin, northern and eastern Hokkaido, and, apparently, the Southern Kuril Islands around 7,000 BC, or at the end of the 7th-6th millennium BC, which was significant for the Late Paleolithic and remained in the early Neolithic, is cut short due to a fundamental change in the historical and cultural scenario.

The main trend of the Neolithic period was the settlement of Sakhalin by societies that migrated along the banks of the Amur River and traditionally settled in the usual conditions of the lake and lagoon landscapes of the island. Their progress to the south was hindered by the tribes of the historical and cultural community of Dzemon, whose northern area was formed within the geographical boundaries of Hokkaido and the Kuril Archipelago no later than the VI millennium BC. By this time, the northern traditions of the plate tip culture characteristic of the early Neolithic of Hokkaido Island had not been preserved there. A major natural boundary - the La Perouse Strait-clearly marked the geographical boundary of the cultural division in the Middle Neolithic era. Up to the final stage of the Late Neolithic (3 000 - 2 900 It was a kind of barrier separating the largest historical and cultural regions of the north of East Asia-Voznesenovskaya and Dzemonskaya, Amur - Sakhalin and Hokkaido. Sharp climate fluctuations at the border of the Subboreal and subatlantic regions led to migrations from the area of the final Dzemon-early epidzemon. If on Sakhalin, which was located in the zone of transition from mainland to island land, the historical and cultural situation in the transition period from the Neolithic to the Paleometallic era and later was quite complex, then on the Kuril Islands the culture consistently developed in line with the traditions of the northern area of the Dzemon community up to the early medieval Sakhalin, mainland-based migration to the islands, The Okhotsk culture is connected.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 30.03.09.

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