Palaeoenvironmental reconstructions for the Neolithic pile-dwelling Serteya II site case study, Western Russia

The article presents the results of recent archaeological and geomorphological research conducted on Middle to Late Neolithic site Serteya II in the Serteysky microregion of the Dnepr-Dvina region (NW Russia). The interaction of archaeological and multidisciplinary palaeoenvironmental research allowed for the reconstruction of the natural environment transformations and the natural conditions of the activity of the ancient communities in the lower Serteyka River valley, the left-bank tributary of the Western Dvina River. The terrain relief of the area was formed after the recession of the Weichselian (Valdai) Ice Sheet. The present day Serteyka River valley occupies a subglacial channel that was earlier occupied by a few lake basins of almost two generations. The water basins of the first generation existed within glacial crevasses and between blocks of dead ice, and second generation lakes developed after the melting of dead ice in the Late Valdai. Throughout the entire Holocene, the Serteyka River drained several lake basins as a result of headward river erosion. The Neolithic Serteya II site occupied the surface of a kame terrace and biogenic plain within the palaeolake basin. The pile-dwelling settlement functioned there in a period when palaeolakes existed and were affected by transgression and regression of the water table. The main phase of pile-dwelling development is dated to ca. 4200–3800 cal BP and existed for almost 140 years. It was part of a wider settlement structure in the period of domination of a hunter–gatherer economy and the beginning of agriculture.