The expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Nizhny Novgorod Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve is exploring the cemetery of the Finno-Ugric Muroma tribe on the right bank of the Oka. It was discovered in the fall of 2022 by local residents. They appealed to the Nizhny Novgorod Museum with complaints about the predatory excavations of black excavators.
Archaeologists have dated the cemetery to the first quarter of the 10th century and have collected material that will allow them to learn more about the tribes that lived on the territory of the modern Nizhny Novgorod region. The scientists conducted two excavations with an area of almost 200 square meters and examined 11 burials.
Most of the excavated burials turned out to be male. All the men are buried with weapons: spears, axes, and ice picks. Dirhams were found in four burials, five lead pesos in one. Many tombs have coins, women have jewelry and many fragments of lace on their clothes. The lace is made of paired gold threads.
“Fortunately, the robbers did not have time to completely destroy the monument; their study allows us to conclude that in the 10th century, Murom society was not closed on both banks of the Oka. This riddle also depends on whether the robbers will get out intact burials to science,” said Olga Zelentsova, head of the Volga expedition at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
