Archaeological studies of Elkhovo (Syukeyevo) settlement in the Kazan Volga region

Abstract

This paper presents the results of archaeological studies conducted in 2021 at the Elkhovo (Syukeyevo)settlement (mid-third millennium BC to first millennium AD). An excavation area covering 160 square meters was established on the territory of the monument. The studies revealed a cultural layer consisting of brown loam with lime crumbs up to 50 cm thick. Analysis of the archaeological material obtained from these excavations allowed for distinguishing four development periods: 1) Late stage of the Middle Volga variant of the Volosovo Cultural and Historical Community (mid–late third quarter of the third millennium BC); 2) First period of the Ananyino Cultural-Historical Area (ACHA) (ninth–seventh centuries BC); 3) The subsequent phase corresponds to the Great Migration period and is associated with sedentary populations belonging to the Imenkovo archaeological culture that inhabited the Lower Kama region and Middle Volga between the fourth and seventh centuries AD; 4) Modern period (sixteenth–nineteenth centuries), during which the settlement’s plot was used by residents of neighboring villages as arable land. A comparative typological analysis of the ceramic complex uncovered three coexisting cultures within ACHA: Post-Maklasheevka, Akozino-Akhmylovo, and classical Ananyino. This phenomenon is rare and noteworthy for the Middle Volga region in the Ananyino period. A need is established for further study of the monument in order to understand the processes of cultural interaction within the Ananyino world in its early development period.