Irkutsk region, Malta village, on the Belaya River, 150 km. from Lake Baikal. In 1928, the first unique finds were discovered here, as well as the site of ancient man of the late Paleolithic era. And from that time large-scale excavations with the involvement of scientists and archaeologists began here. Previously, nothing like this had not been found in Siberia. The oldest finds date back to 20-25 thousand years ago.

In the area of the site were found remains of ancient people, including the burial of a 4-year-old boy, whose remains were subjected to genetic analysis. It was established the following: Caucasoid type, time of life 23 891-24 423 years ago, haplogroup Y-chromosome R, the first discovered ancestor of haplogroups R1a and R1b, mitochondrial haplogroup U resembles that of the extinct hunters and gatherers of the Paleolithic, who inhabited Europe at that time.

A total of 15 structures made of mammoth bones, reindeer antlers, massive slabs of limestone and animal skins, which were used to cover stone and bone frames, were found in Malta. The houses ran along the shore and were grouped by streets. In the center of the site was the largest structure, 14 m long and 4-5 m wide.

The unique collection of finds from the Malta site includes over 850 items: household items, ornamented rods and disks, jewelry, pendants, bracelets, figurines of birds and various animals, as well as several dozen female statuettes, which are known today as “Malta Venuses”. Almost all of these ancient works of art were made of mammoth tusk.

Later, a second Paleolithic site was discovered. The village of Nizhnyaya Buret is a little farther away – on the right bank of the Angara River, 7-8 kilometers in a straight line from Malta.

Even later, the Achinsk site was discovered – a settlement in the North Minusinsk Basin in the Achinsk District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Here, in 1972, a lunar-solar calendar, approximately 18,000 years old, was found. It is a miniature rod carved from mammoth tusk, decorated with a spiral pattern of serpentine stripes and 1065 differently shaped holes. Scientists have established that people lived on the territory of Achinsk long before the settlement was founded, about 30 thousand years ago.

Three of these fossil settlements are called the Malta-Buret culture by modern science. Its representatives hunted mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, bison, lions, wolves and wolverines, and foxes. In doing so, they used tools made of flint plates. They also caught fish and collected the seeds of wild plants. They even made flour by grinding seeds with a stone pestle.

In 2001, another Paleolithic site, the Yanskaya site, was discovered in northern Yakutia near the Severny settlement (Ust-Yansky ulus). Various tools and utensils were also found here. Two fragmented milk teeth (Yana 1 and Yana 2) found at the Yana site (age ~31.6 thousand years ago) were identified as having Y-chromosomal haplogroup P1 (ancestral to Y-chromosomal haplogroups R and Q) and mitochondrial haplogroup U2. In general, genetic sequencing of the remains showed that the population of the Maltese (Ancient North Eurasian, Malta site) was a descendant of the population of Ancient North Siberians (ANS) of the Yanskaya site, who lived 31.6 thousand years ago.

Some examples of fossilized objects from the Malta-Buret culture:

1. Large Malta plate. The outer side is covered with a typical Maltese ornament in the form of a number of spirals made by rows of holes. In the center is the largest spiral, on both sides it is accompanied by two small spirals.
2. Plate with the image of a mammoth. From the group “Diadems and their fragments”, represented by wide and narrow rectangular forms made on plates of split tusk.
3. Bird with a loop. A figurine of a bird with a loop and short wings. The piece has a well-profiled elongated head with a rather powerful beak and a short strongly curved neck.
4. Swan bird. The image is similar to a bird with a long neck.

Anthropomorphic sculpture, Malta Venus (more than 40 statuettes of different designs). Note that there are also male variants of the sculptures. I type – thin tall woman with an oval face and narrow shoulders, saggy and flat breasts, elongated proportions. II type – low, very densely built, full woman with strongly developed wide hips. Type III – medium-sized woman with poorly developed breasts, broad shoulders and narrow pelvis.

6. Gopher / Otter. Hollow figurine of an animal with complex speciation. It has a well-defined head, four paws, back, abdomen. On the front legs of the image is prepared a special platform, for stability on the plane.
7. The image of a fish. The figurine is a one-sided image of a rather large fish, close to a perch in contour, made on a flat detachment of a mammoth tusk.

8. Flying bird. (more than a dozen sculptures repeating each other.)
   The image of a waterfowl in flight, made of mammoth tusk on thin chips of elongated proportions

9. Sculpture (androgyne). Image combined, close to phallic, which shows the characteristic female sign – triangle.
10. Androgyne (central pendant of the necklace). The pendant is the central element of the necklace from the burial of children. Its central part resembles the number 8 and is similar to other pendants in the necklace. The figure has the form of a rounded massive calf of oval shape with elongated conical protrusions coming off in different directions.

11. ornamented nail-shaped rod. Nail-shaped item with a flat cap (hairpins of the Avdeyevsky type); the rod is covered with spiral ornamentation. The preservation is good. The first self-tapping screw in history.

12. 8-shaped pendants. Flat eight-shaped pendants made of mammoth tusk. Included in the necklace from the burial of children (6 items in total).
13. Tusk beads. Mammoth tusk beads (25 items). In the context of the burial, the beads were arranged sequentially and were part of the necklace, some of them showing traces of sewing.

14. Bracelet with dimpled ornament. 1) Bracelet blank on a thin plate with two through holes along the edges. On the outside of the piece is a typical Maltese ornament, forming a row of seventeen dimples along the length of the piece. The displacement of the pits visually forms a wave. 2) Bracelet. A curved thin plate of mammoth tusk with two through holes on the edges. The piece is not ornamented.

15. Many small similar disks were found (could serve as buttons). 1) Small disk from tusk with a hole (“button”). A small disk of sub-square shape with a through hole. The product has a curved shape. The surface is covered with a zigzag ornament in seven continuous lines on the front side. 2) Ornamented disk with a hole (from a burial). A rounded flat object ornamented on the front side with a zigzag ornament. There is a through hole in the center of the disk

Found items can be seen in the State Hermitage Museum, the Kunstkamera, the State Historical Museum, and the Art Museum of Irkutsk. More items on the website : Fossil objects from the settlement of Malta.