УДК 903.25

EDN GADONP

 

Original article

 

Ethnic and Cultural Processes in the Upper Vetluga Region: a Case Study of Kuzinskie Khutora Cemetery

 

Akilbaev A. V.

 

Abstraсt

Introduction. Kuzinskie Khutora Cemetery contains two cultural components. The first one is associated with the ancient Mari culture; the second one is associated with Vym culture. The materials of the cemetery allow us to draw conclusions both about the contacts of these two ethnic groups, and about the connections of the Upper Vetluga region with the Ancient Rus territories, the Upper Kama region, and the Volga Bulgaria.

Materials and methods. The material of the research was nonferrous metal jewelry discovered during all the years of excavations at Kuzinskie Khutora Cemetery and its funeral rite. The comparative typological method (formal typology, search for analogies) made it possible to identify things associated with external influence, and to suggest the ways and nature of their receipt.

Results and discussion. All studied burial complexes are divided into two groups, differing in their cultural origin: ancient Mari and Vym. Four directions of contacts of the population that left Kuzinskie Khutora Cemetery were identified. This is the interaction of the Mari population with representatives of the Vym culture, western, Kama and southern connections. The features and chronological framework of these connections are revealed.

Conclusion. The data materials made it possible to designate local (primarily ancient Mari) and imported jewelry, and also, taking into account the available data on trade routes and the general historical situation in adjacent regions, to build a scheme of trade and cultural contacts in the Upper Vetluga region.

Keywords: ancient Mari culture, Vym culture, Kuzinskie Khutora Cemetery, analogies, ornaments, funeral rite

For citation: Akilbaev AV. Ethnic and Cultural Processes in the Upper Vetluga Region: a Case Study of Kuzinskie Khutora Cemetery. Bulletin of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. 2024;16(1):192—202. EDN GADONP

 

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The article was submitted 06.08.2023; approved after reviewing 10.10.2023; accepted for publication 17.10.2023.

 

Information about the author:

Alexander V. Akilbaev, Leading Researcher in Archeology of the Vasiliev Mari Research Institute of Language, Literature and History (44 Krasnoarmeyskaya Str., Yoshkar-Ola 424036, Russia), Candidate of Historical Sciences, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5710-1158, akilbaev.alexandr@yandex.ru

 

Conflict of interest: the author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

 

The author read and approved the final version of the manuscript.