Riazan Burial Grounds

Riazan’ Burial Grounds 

burial grounds on the middle Oka River, from the mouth of the Moskva to the Kasimov Upland. Dating from the end of the first through the eighth century, they belonged to a population believed to be the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Western Volga Region; some remains of the Gorodetsk culture also belonged to this population.

Burial in the Riazan’ Burial Grounds was in flat-grave pits. In most cases, inhumation was practiced, although some burial grounds, for example, the Borkovo and Kuz’minka burial grounds, had as many as ten to 12 percent cremations. Objects that were placed in the grave with the deceased included iron tools, weapons (for example, swords, spearheads, and arrowheads), horse harnesses, clay pottery, glass beads, and a multitude of metal, copper, and, more rarely, silver ornaments (torques, buckles, plaques, belt plates, rings). Some ornaments had attachments that produced sounds.

REFERENCES

Efimenko, P. P. “Riazanskie mogil’niki: Opyt kul’turnostrati-graficheskogo analiza mogil’nikov massovogo tipa.” In the collection Materialy po etnografii, vol. 3, issue 1. Leningrad, 1926.
Mongait, A. L. Riazanskaia zemlia. Moscow, 1961.

A. L. MONGAIT