Two Sites of Pyany Bor Culture on the Islands of Nizhnekamsk Reservoir

Abstract

The paper introduces into scientific discourse the materials of two burial grounds of the Pyany Bor culture – Toiguzino Island and Kulushevo Island III – studied in 1995–2009 on the islands of Nizhnekamsk Reservoir in the Tukay District of the Republic of Tatarstan. Befor filling of the Reservoir, Toiguzino Island burial ground was located on the residual hill of the second terrace in the floodplain of the right bank of the Ik river, and Kulushevo Island III burial ground – on the elevation of the second terrace of the left bank of the Ik river to the west of the former Toiguzino village. Both burial grounds have provided finds with characteristic artefacts of the Pyany Bor culture; rescue excavations were performed at Kulushevo Island III burial ground in 1999. Three burials were examined in one of the two tranches (tranch II). These were the inhumations made in a row of shallow sub-rectangular pits. Two of the corpses were oriented to the east-southeast, another one (grave 1) – to the west-northwest. Only this burial contained a preserved inventory. The consist and conditions of the finds from both burial grounds (generally, finds collected on the surface) does not allow for narrower dating than the first centuries AD. The burial grounds are located at the junction of two micro regions (I and II according to D. G. Bugrov) in terms of the settlement structure of Pyany Bor culture in the Lower Ik region. Kulushevo Island III burial ground can possibility be attributed to micro region II (Toiguzino).