Migration in the middle Volga Regionin the first centuries B.C.: Archaeological evidences and its ethno-social interpretation

Abstract

© Serials Publications. The relevance of the problem under investigation is determined by the significant role of migration in the history of ancient Eurasian societies. In some cases migrations influenced the formation of a new ethno-cultural environment, as was registered by archaeological methods which was reflected in the change of archaeological cultures, the termination of the existence of ones and the formation of new cultures. Very often this fact is explained by migration and the influx of new population replacing the natives. But it is not always possible to fix the starting point of this migration and its features. The article is aimed to examine a single particular archaeological phenomenon, which was identified in the Volga-Ural region in the beginning of I millennium B.C., when a number of burial complexes differed in funeral rites and burial set of implements (especially it concerns weapons, a military costume and some military ceremonies). Geographically, they are concentrated in the lower part of the river Sura, and their origins go back to the Western Kama. The historical and archaeological analysis suggests that it was a region of migration of some military union but not mass migration of people. The major method of research is a comprehensive approach based on the study of archaeological sources, involving Ethnographic and Social Anthropologic data. The study revealed and systematized archaeological sites studied by archaeological excavations, defined their chronology and dynamics of development. Analysis of the funeral rite, weapons and a military costume allowed us to reconstruct the socio-cultural character of the population. A comparison of these data with archaeological materials of Kama region, the Southern Urals and Western Siberia revealed the starting point of this migration, as well as intermediate sites, showing the movement, left them by population. There were analyzed the burial rite and grave implements, built their typology and determined their development dynamics, as well as the nearest analogies. Article submissions may be used in the preparation of generalizing monographs on population history as the Volga-Ural region and the whole of Eurasia, in the teaching practice of universities at the lectures and practical lessons, in the development of specialized courses in archeology in Eastern Europe and the ethno-genesis of the peoples of the Ural-Volga region.