BLAGOVESCHENSK, May 31.Archaeologists from the Center for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Amur Region have discovered a new monument, possibly a place of worship; the findings are typical for the Osinoozersk archaeological culture of the Neolithic stage in the Western Amur region, the Center’s information channel reports.
Scientists discovered the find while studying the territory of economic development. 
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“The object is unique, there are few of its kind. The monument is a small stone canopy. This is the first time I have seen it in this form in my practice. Perhaps it is some kind of cult place,” says the head of the archaeological department of the Center, Stanislav Kovalenko.
Scientists note that among the finds there are rare stone pendants, chalcedony inserts and arrowheads with a chisel chip from the tip, characteristic of the Osinoozersk culture. In addition, there is a complete absence of stone production waste (flakes and chips), as noted in the Center’s Telegram channel. Now archaeologists will have to determine the boundaries of the new object and process the resulting materials. 
The Osinoozerskaya archaeological culture is the final stage of the Neolithic in the territory of the Western Amur region. The existence of the culture is dated back to 3338–1452 BC (5360–3474 BP).
In the history of research into the Osinoozersk archaeological culture, scientists distinguish two periods. The first relates to the work in the 1960–1970s in the western part of the Amur region of the Far Eastern Electromagnetic Power Plant under the leadership of Alexey Okladnikov. As a result of studies of a number of monuments, a new culture was identified, which received the name Osinoozerskaya – after the eponymous monument located on the shore of Lake Osinovoye in the Amur Region. 
The studied dwellings on the territory of the Konstantinovsky district were of a semi-underground type, round in shape, with small working areas for the production of retouched and polished stone tools, as well as with the remains of ceramic flat-bottomed vessels decorated with dissected molded ridges. The result of the research was the identification of the Late Neolithic Osinoozersk culture (the original name was Voikovskaya), whose bearers lived in the territory in the 3rd–2nd millennium BC. and were a sedentary population engaged mainly in hunting and fishing.
Since the mid-1990s, after an almost thirty-year break in the study of the Neolithic in the region, the second stage in the study of the Osinoozersk culture began, which is associated with the joint work of teams from the Institute of Atomic Ethics and Ethnography of the SB RAS and Blagoveshchensk archaeologists. In addition to the materials from the 1960s, the settlements on Osinovoye Ozero have been partially explored in the last two decades, and the source base for the analysis of the Osinovoye Ozero culture has been significantly expanded. Work on studying this culture is currently ongoing.
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