Early Medieval burial complex of the burial mound of Maslennikovo I in the Samara Volga region

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the publication of materials obtained during the study of the burial of the early Middle Ages in the burial mound Maslennikovo I. This necropolis is located in the steppe southwestern part of the Samara Trans-Volga region. The excavated mound 1 was built in the Bronze Age in the process of making eight burials of this time. Burial 2, admitted into the floor of the embankment in its southern part, dates back to the Middle Ages. The burial was made in a grave pit in the shape of an elongated oval and oriented with its long axis along the NW-SE line. The buried man lay stretched out on his back with his head to the northwest. The bone of a horses leg lay at his head. Gold foil fragments, which may have been the remains of a symbolic death mask, and earrings were also found in the area of the head. The remains of a wooden object with silver plates at the edges, probably of a quiver on the chest of a deceased burial were found. The remains of a scabbard, which also had silver plates there were in the region of the pelvis and between the thigh bones. Seven silver sewn-on plaques with embossed ornaments and several poorly preserved iron objects were found in the grave. The peculiarities of the funeral rite and accompanying implements make it possible to include this complex in the number of burials attributed by researchers as Magyar (proto-Magyar, Hungarian) and to consider it as the burial of an individual integrated into the ethnocultural environment of the Hungarians of the Middle Volga region of the 9th-10th centuries.