Archaeologists have found a 15,000 year-old hunters' camp site from the Paleolithic era near Lake Evoron in Russia's Far East, a source in the Khabarovsk archaeology museum said. "The site dates back to the end of the Ice Age, a period which is poorly studied" Andrei Malyavin, chief of the museum's archaeology department said. "That is why any new site from this period is a discovery in itself."
     The site, found during a 2007 archaeological expedition to Lake Evoron, is the largest of four Stone Age sites, discovered near the Amur River so far, and was most likely established by mammoth hunters.
"We came to this conclusion after studying flint pikes, arrowheads and a stone scraper," Malyavin said, adding that a comprehensive archaeological excavation could take a couple of years. Mr. Malayvin specified that neither animal skins, nor bones were found there. Organic matter does not last long in local aggressive acidic soils.
     In 2006, archaeologists discovered an Iron Age burial mound around 2,500 years old containing a unique fragment from an iron dagger, which had been preserved in the Amur Region's acidic soil. According to Mr. Malayvin, the area of future excavations is quite promising, and there should be enough work for several years. Next year, if the budget permits, a large archaeological expedition will set off to Lake Evoron.

Sources: Novosti (12 November 2007), Vladivostok Times (13 November 2007)