Translated by  Nikiforova Svetlana  Gennadievna +7(8482) 680-950

The most ancient finds on the territory of the Samara region date from the Early Stone Age – the age of early paleolith. At that time ancient people dwelt already in Africa, South Asia, in the west and south of Europe. The first people came to our places more than 100 thousand years ago. It is hard to imagine those far times. For almost 200 thousand years, the glacier had been much influencing upon the climate of our planet. That was the time when the periods of ice formation were replaced by the periods when it grew warmer. The first people appeared in the region exactly at the last of such interglacial periods. It was the time when numerous herds of heat-loving animals, even elephants and rhinoceros, dwelt in the forests and partially wooded steppes of the middle part of the Volga. The ancient people preyed upon them. Traces of the ancient people’s activity were found in the North and Central Urals’ foothills, the neighboring regions of the Land along the Volga. Nevertheless, there is no known early Paleolithic camp in the Middle Land along the Volga so far.

About 100 thousand years ago, the early paleolith was changed by the middle one. To that period one refers the Moustier Age, which was called from the cave-camp La-Moustier the southwestern territory in France. Nowadays there are much more mousterienne (fr.) monuments found than those that belong to the Early Paleolith Age. The mousterienne monuments are well- known in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Middle Asia, the Russian plain and Siberia. In the territory of the Samara and Ulianovsk Regions and in the Republic of Tatarstan there was discovered the location of silicic tools belonging to the Moustier Age. One of these locations is on the sand spit Tunguz near the village Hryashchevka of the Stavropol District of the Samara Region on the left shore of the Volga near the mouth of the river Cheremshan.

In 1951 in the natural boundary of Tunguz on the shore of the river Volga archaeologists discovered several silicic tools: 3 point tips, 2 nuclei (stone nuclei which ancient people chipped strips off), four half-finished tools. Last century the local inhabitants used to find bones of such extinct animals as mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, gigantic deer, aurochs, but they paid no attention to the tapering stones until experienced archaeologists according to certain signs understood that those stones were ancient tools.

Ancient people who lived in small groups consisting of hunters and gatherers did possessive farming and got ready nature foodstuffs. They hunted more than 15 kinds of animals. Ancient people of the Paleolith Age were the most skilful hunters. Hunting only collectively, men and the youth were able to set traps made of stones, dig trap pits, throw spears or stone balls that were tied together. Using fire hunters drove the whole herds of wild animals, usually mammoths, to the edge of the precipice. In case the hunting was success, our ancestors got more than a ton of meat, 300 square meters of animal skin and tons of bones.

Sometimes the hunters suffered a reverse. In this case, the people had to eat berries, seeds of wild plants, mushrooms and edible roots. There was no food like this in winter and many people died of hunger, that is why an average length of human life at that time was about 32 years. More than half of adults died before 40 years, about 40% died in childhood, nobody lived till a great age. It was also determined by the scientists that the ancient people had the same diseases as we have, even caries.

Nonetheless, the ancient people differed from the people of today. Their height was about 155-160 centimeters; brain volume corresponded to ours but was at a very low level of development. Our ancestors, probably, could not speak. However, some finds in the ancient people’s burial places and some rock pictures witness that our ancestors’ mind had been gradually awaking, because they already understood the difference between life and death. Nevertheless, it does not mean that the ancients were weak and could not protect themselves. They were able to get fire, sew clothes, build dwellings of mammoth’s bones covered with skins above, weave baskets covered with clay, make wooden dishes. They also knew animals’ habits quite well, and what is more, the ancient quickly adapted themselves to the new conditions after the last glacial period, which came 70 thousand years ago.

At the beginning of the next age of late paleolith (40-14 thousand years ago), man becomes look physically like today’s people. At that time there appeared the tribal system and improved the rock working technology. Thanks to the rock’s working with the help of the series of short chops the people got tips for spears, drills, chisels, knives, point tips , most of which were used to work more durable materials than wood, such as bones and horns which most articles of that time were made of.

Tools became better and that gave our ancestors a possibility to fish. At that period, there also appeared different religious beliefs and primitive art.

In the Samara Region the age of late paleolith is represented with monuments that are situated on its territory. In the Underground Workers’ Gully, there have been discovered 11 points of finds of the tools belonging to the Late Paleolith Age. There also have been examined two camps: the Postnikov Gully I and II, though it was much difficult to find them, for the people of that time lived on high terraces on the territory of today’s park in Samara that is out of town. In these camps there were found the places of fire, tools, waste, and animals’ remains.

           About 10 thousand years ago, the glacier stepped back, the climate became warmer, and as a result, there appeared new rivers and valleys, cold steppes and partially wooded steppes that replaced birch and coniferous forests. Numerous herds of mammoths, gigantic deer and other ancient animals disappeared. The animals that remained were rather less in size than their ancestors: deer, roe deer, wild boars, beats, small animals (foxes, hares). Lakes and marshes were rich of fish and aquatic birds. Thus, one can say that the fauna became close to that of our time.

           10-20 thousand years ago, the Mezolite Age changed the Paleolith Age. The fauna changed and this fact made hunting difficult, for animals became faster, cautious and often non-herd. In this connection, collective hunting lost its importance and let the individual wandering hunting get the chief role. There became widely spread missile weapon: spears throwing with the help of a spear missile device, which was invented during the late paleolithic period; a bow and arrows, invented at the Mezolite. All these things helped the ancient people hunt small animals and birds. The role of fishing became more important; improved the methods and tools using for it, though still the people kept on gathering food and edible mollusks. At the Mezolite Age there were made the first attempts to tame the animals and took the first steps in sphere of crop growing in southern districts of Eurasia.

            Some changing in farming changed our ancestors’ lifestyle. Hunters and anglers began to travel a lot - in search of prey they often changed their place of living. At that time, the people settled in the shores of the Volga and near its small tributaries - Soka, Samara, and Kinel: Voskresenskaya, Monastyrski farmstead, Konovalovskaya and the Postnikov Gully III. Such close location of the camps to the water shows that our ancestors were greatly fond of fishing. Most camps in the Land along the Volga in the Samara Region date from the VII-VIth century B.C.

            During the Mezolite Age man invented some means of conveyance, such as skis, a boat and oars; the people kept improving the stone working technology: appeared the new tools – knifelike strips, also small ones called microliths, which were put into slots of wooden or bone rods and served as knives and daggers’ blades. Arrows tips, tipped scrapers, chisels and other tools were made of silicic plates.

            The last stage of the Stone Age was the Neolith that dates from the VI-IVth century B.C. Archeologists called that time the New Stone Age. Development of the ancient economy got the name of the Neolithic revolution, for at that century there constantly took place many changes in farming and tools’ making technology. Nowadays we successfully use the results of that revolution. At the Neolith Age there appeared weaving and sewing; the people learnt the ways of making ceramics – the first artificial material; they began doing crop-growing and cattle-raising. The hand-modeled ceramic dishes let the people eat the boiled food. The most ancient dishes of our district were made 8 thousand years ago.

           At the New Stone Age, there appeared the new methods of stone- and bone-working. Archaeologists often find polished axes, chisels, cutlery – tools that are necessary for building and wood processing. By the way, the boats made in the way of gouging (canoes) were also spread at the Neolith.

            8 thousand years ago in the Land behind the Volga there lived the tribes which archaeologists called the Yelshan tribes. The dishes they modeled had a tapering bottom. Such shape did not let the dishes fell down, because its low part was dug into the soil. The dwellers of the Yelshan camps used the dishes without any ornament; only small part of it was decorated with small holes and presses as ornament. The dish at the Neolith Age was handmade and only women modeled it. First, they used any sharp thing to trace ornament on the raw clay and then they fired the dish. Each tribe had its individual ornament that serves as a calling card for archaeologists and helps them to determine a cultural belongingness of the monument, because due to ceramics we can say for sure what tribes replaced the Yelshan.

            Later there lived the Volgo-Kama tribes. In the place of their camps there were found the remains of the dishes with a flat bottom and a quite different ornament. It was the ornament in form of the lines of presses made with a thin small stick that was bent a little when tracing the ornament. To the north of these tribes, there lived the Kama tribes who decorated their dish with prints of punches that looked like a roundly curved comb with fine teeth.

            Excavations reveal that about 8 thousand years ago at the turn of the Mezolite and Neolith Ages people also lived on the Samara Bend. For several years, archaeologists had been examining a work-place not far from the village Lbishche. It has been discovered in the shore of the Volga where there is a lot of starting material in form of the silicic pebble. A master set his work-place by the water, because not every silicic hardening is suitable to make good strips, that is why there was no point to pull hard stones up to the high shore. At the place of excavations, archaeologists have found thousands of silicic chips, nuclei and half-finished tools. Unfortunately, the work-place became close to the water in due course and some part of it was destroyed. There might be a settle up in the shore of the Volga, but nowadays there are country houses and that is why there is no possibility to take excavations.

About 7 thousand years ago, people discovered the ways of smelting the first metal-copper. Scientists called that age the Aneolith.

First, the people used nugget copper; they took it as a kind of rock and for that reason worked it with a chipping method. Instead of chips one got dents, for the metal turned to be rather malleable unlike rock, and the people began just to forge it. Such method is called a cold forging. Later some bars of copper as rocks got into the fire and the people saw that heat conduced to the smelting of the metal. In such state, the metal could be poured into a mould that turned into a tool after it got cold. Copper sources are situated not everywhere, and the metal smelting was a very hard case. That is why the first time copper articles were rarely used.

On the territory of the Land behind the Volga, in the Samara region, during the Copper Stone Age there lived the tribes, which belonged to the samara culture. This culture got its name from the river Samara where the first monument of that time, a grave mound by the village Siezgeie of the Bogatovsk district of the Samara Region (the first part of the IVth century B.C.), was examined. The moundless burial ritual characterizes the Samara culture. Our ancestors put the dead into the graves in a stretch position on the back, sprinkled them with red paint – ochre, and put a rich burial inventory there: rock polished chips, chisels, silicic knives, bone daggers, mouldings made of bone (small shapes of bulls, horses and ducks), fangs of wild boars, shells. Neat one of such graves on the sacrificial ground there were found two horses’ skulls, crushed containers and a bone harpoon.

In the monuments of the Samara culture, the scientists have discovered a few peculiar containers having compressed bottom, some of which were decorated with collars. The tribes of the Samara culture led a settled life. Their small settles were situated on sand dunes near the banks in the flood-lands. The base of farming of the Samara culture tribes’  was cattle-raising. There are all reasons to suppose that these tribes were familiar with crop-growing and knew the methods of metalworking.

Later the Hvalynsk tribes replaced the Samara culture tribes. The ceramics of these tribes differs with a round shape of the bottom and combed punch. In the burial places of these tribes archaeologists found copper tools, harpoons and fishing hooks, mouldings made of seashells, bone and even rock polished bangles. The base of these tribes’ farming also was cattle-raising.

The first tamed animal in our territory was a horse – a Tatar horse. At the end of the Vth century the fires cattle-breeders drove here bulls (today’s bulls are three times smaller than their ancestors were). At the Aneolith Age, hunting was also very important in our ancestors’ life. There appeared the new cults: a cult of domestic animals, a cult of metallurgists.

In the middle of the IIId century B.C., that was about 5 thousand years ago,  the new period, called the Bronze Age, came. It means that the tribes, which lived at those places, already mastered metallurgy. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. It is much stronger than pure copper. The advantages of the new metal shew themselves during the process of the use of the tools made of it.

Out of numerous cultures of the Bronze Age there can be distinguished the Poltava, Lbishche-Volskaya, Abashevskaya, Chop-down and other cultures. The Chop-down culture was the most widely spread and numerous of all the rest.

During the period of the Early Bronze on the territory of the Samara Land behind the Volga lived the tribes of the so-called Pit culture, who buried the members of their tribe in deep grave pits. The body of the dead person was put on the back with his or her head toward the East. In the burial places of this culture, archaeologists find round-shaped vessels, bronze knives and awls. However, the chiefs’ burials were always accompanied by a rich inventory, such as pendants made of copper and gold, axes, and chipping tools. Above the grave there was erected an earth embankment, which served as a peculiar monument in honor of the dead man. That were large burial-mounds to 100 meters in diameter that was why the whole tribe was working hard in this monument. A burial-mound is a grave where a person touches all the three worlds. Before the Bronze Age there was not found any traces of such way of burial.

The base of the Pit tribes’ farming was cattle-raising. As archaeologists failed to find any settles of this culture, one may suppose that the tribes led a nomadic lifestyle. The people had constantly to change their places of living in search of new pastures for cattle.

Three and a half thousand years ago the territory of our region was widely settled. Almost in each bank of every river archaeologists discover burial places and settles that were left by the tribes of the Chop-down culture. This name they got due to the peculiarities of the burial ritual. For the dead man they erected “a burial house” which was build of chopped down trees. Inside the grave, the dead man was put with his head toward the north and in a sleeping pose, namely: he was put on the left side with his arms and legs bent. Into each grave there were put vessels with food inside; women were buried with mouldings; into men’s graves there were put knives, awls, herdsman’s horns, arrows’ tips, rarely there were put spears and daggers. This way of the burial reveals that the people believed in life after death and respected their ancestors. Above, the burial house was covered with wooden logs and there was made an embankment.

At an early stage of the Chop-down culture’s development, such embankment was made above one or two graves. Later a burial-mound was made above already the whole group of graves, which served as a monument in honor of all the dead. During the commemorative ritual the people had fire and ate meat.

The traces of such ritual were found in the large burial-mound near the village Hryashchovka of the Stavropol Region. Here archaeologists have found the remains of the big fire with a cow’s skeleton on it. In the middle of the burial-mound, there was buried a tall man. Near his body, there were two big vessels and two bronze knives in wooden cases. That might be the burial of a chief. The point is that there were women and children’s graves around the main burial in the inner circle, and the graves of the fighting men in the outward circle. Such arrangement of the graves shows the system of government in the tribe. The adults and children obeyed the chief’s will in their lifetime and when they died, and men kept performing their function of the tribe’s guards even after their death.

Rather interesting and unique things have stored in each of the burial-mounds: mouldings in form of flat badges that lay on a woman’s chest, which might be sewed to the edge of the round collar of the chemise; bronze badges covered with a thin coat of gold and having spiral curved ends. These mouldings lay on a woman’s skull, and might decorate the headdress that she wore in her lifetime.

The depicting of badge is found in the culture of many tribes. It served as a symbol of the sun and welfare. The Chop-down tribes were actually comfortably off. The base of their economy was formed with composite crop-growing and cattle-raising farming. At that time, the Chop-down tribes raised already millet, wheat, barley; kept cows, horses, sheep, goats and pigs; hunted and went fishing; stored food. Such state of thing led to growth of population. An average length of human life increased to 40 years. On the Earth, at that time, lived about 66 million people.

Eleven settles of the Chop-down culture were discovered on the Samara Bend: near the villages Sevryukaievo, Kolsovka, Komarovka, Usolie, Beryozovka. Mass finds in these settles are the remains of the dish. Things made of bone, rock and metal are rarely found. According to these finds, one can imagine the way the Chop-down tribes built their dwellings. They were able to build half dugouts and land houses. At an early stage of the tribes’ development, they built not very big house but later they began to build quite large ones. Not far from the village Hryashchovka, on the bank of the river Suskan, archaeologists have found the remains of two half dugouts where, in fact, lived all the members of the settle. The biggest dwelling was 270 square meters.

Those who lived in this dwelling built it within not less than half a year. In winter, they chopped down the trees, cut down branches and brought the logs on horsebacks. One can say for sure that the people used horses as means of conveyance due to some details of a horse’ bridle, which were found in the settle. At that time, the people already rode a horse and used wagons. In spring, the adults dug a foundation pit for a future half dugout and deep pits for posts. The house had rather a complicated structure. Two rows of strong and heavy posts on which there were put transverse beams that served as a support for the roof. The roof was made of poles, which were covered with brushwood and sprinkled with earth. The roof’ pitches were of different length that let the air come into the dwelling.

Inside the half dugout, archaeologists have found the remains of 10 hearths and counted that there lived 100-120 people in one dwelling. They were relatives – representatives of several generations. Grandparents, for instance, lived with their grown-up children who had their own families. Such family is called big patriarchal because the leader of it was the oldest man. In the middle of the hours there was well preserved the remains of the big hearth around which the grown-up dwellers of the house gathered to solve important issues. In the half dugout, there were also preserved earth plank beds and ledges that took place of the benches. Such was the ancient furniture.

Inside every dwelling of the Chop-down tribes were found cellars as deep as 4 meters. The vessels, which were tied around with ropes and contained the foodstuffs, were descended down into these cellars. At the bottom of one of such cellars, archaeologists have found a piglet’s skeleton. The walls of the cellar must have broken off and buried the meat, but the mistress decided to leave it there. This fact shows that the Chop-down tribes did not want for food.

Having examined the bones of the domestic animals, which were found during the excavations, specialists determined that the Chop-down tribes preferred to keep the horned cattle. On the second place, there were goats and sheep. The third place belonged to horses. Such finds as herdsman’s horns and flutes also prove that the Chop-down tribes kept cattle. As the proofs of crop-growing serve the finds of bronze heavy tools for cutting the bushes (near the village Yagodnoie), rock hoes and tools for grinding the grains (in the Suskan and Komarovka settles). In the same places, archaeologists have found a very small special spade for peeling the fish, a bone hook and a harpoon; bronze and bone arrows’ tips and bone of wild animals that reveals hunting activity of our ancestors.

A great amount of bronze articles shows that the Chop-down tribes were very skilful metallurgists. Just a few people were occupied with getting copper ore, not the whole tribe. In the north of the Samara Region, there were preserved some ancient mines where the Chop-down tribes openly got the ore more than 5 thousand years ago. In the monuments of the Chop-down culture there are also found articles made of imported bronze.

The process of the metal smelting was a very interesting thing. First, the people burnt wooden logs, which they kept in the earth. The fuel that they got let get the temperature of 950 degrees. Then they moulded a vessel that had thick walls out of clay and prepared foundry shapes (they were made of rock). After that, they dug a furnace in the bank cliff; put there the fuel and the vessel with ore. In 7-15 minutes, the metal began to smelt. Then for 5-20 minutes, they made an extra heating of the alloy. At that time, the people might use leather bellows already to give the air into the furnace. The got alloy was poured into the shapes. The ore smelting took place without other people of the tribe and was accompanied by singing ritual songs. As there were no watches at that time, the singing of a certain number of ritual songs helped to control the time of smelting. Archaeologists-experimenters determined that the completely smelting process took from 23 until 44 minutes.

As it has been already said earlier according to the ornament on the dishes one could determine what tribe (culture) made it. In the Chop-down culture, only women moulded and decorated the dishes. For this case, they used bone, rock punches, shells and even their nails. The marten’s jaws traced the lines of prints in form of small-toothed punch. The Chop-down ceramics is also decorated with the lines of inlays, zigzags and geometrical patterns – rhombs, triangles. The ornament must have had a ritual meaning – it protected the food of evil spirits. After decorating the vessel, the women put it into the fire.

Sometimes archaeologists find rather strange symbols on the ceramics of the Chop-down culture. Some of them resemble ducks; others are difficult to understand. It is, perhaps, an attempt to give any information. The Chop-down tribes spoke the language that serves as the base of many today’s European languages, including Slavonic. However, on some ceramics of the Chop-down culture archaeologists find different ornament. It reveals that the Chop-down tribes were in contact with the neighboring ones. Such relations could be presented by an exchange of ready production, and creation of mixed families. In the last case, a woman from other tribe, first, moulded ceramics of her tribe and then adopted the chop-down traditions.

About 3 thousand years ago, the dwellers of the region learnt the ways of the iron smelting and achieved a great success in crop-growing. The settled population founded its settles and sites of ancient towns on the high cliffs of Jiguli. Such settles were found on the top of the mountain Zadelnaya near the village Jiguli, and on the mountain Lysaya near the village Morkvashi. Here lived the Ananyino (ananyinskie) tribes, which got their name from the village Ananyino. The base of their farming was formed with cattle-raising and crop-growing. They used the dishes of round shape and decorated it with the ornament in form of triangle presses.

Invention of the ways of the iron smelting out of ores was the most important discovery in human history, it has made a great revolution in farming and engineering. Iron is more attractive than bronze, for it is much more strong and handy when it is processed. Nevertheless, the people did not use iron for some time, because it could not be smelted in the open fire. However, after a furnace of a special construction was invented, this problem was solved, and that let the people make many iron tools which were of use in farming. Unfortunately, archaeologists failed to find the remains of such tools, because iron is badly preserved – oxidations are all that is left after a long course of time.

Iron gave the people possibility to cultivate large areas, to rid the soil of the wood. The iron tools were so strong and sharp that no other metal of that time could be compared with them. Thus, the iron tools quickly replaced the rock and bronze ones. Metallurgy and the metal processing became crafts much earlier than any other productions. The wide spreading of iron precipitated the prehistoric system. The tribes who occupied with cattle-raising and crop-growing, and led a settled life began move from one place to another. Such process lasted until the end of the VIIIth century B.C. One of the reasons of appearing of the nomadic cattle-raising was not only the inner development of the settled population, but also drying up of the valleys, because of changes in climate. Many tribes, including the Chop-down ones, became nomadic.

At that period, all the tribes divided into two groups: the settled and the nomadic. This division is well seen on the shores of the Volga. On the right shore, there lived the settled tribes, and the nomadic ones occupied the left shores.

To the settled tribes of the Iron Age refer the Ananyino, Belogorsk, Gorodetsk, Lbishche and Imen cultures, which gradually replaced each other on the Samara Bend. These tribes were occupied mostly in shepherd domestic cattle-raising (horses), hoe, and later plough agriculture.

During that period, the first fortified sites of ancient towns were built. The main rile of this building was protection of the nomadic, that is why the people just hid there (the forts were too high) not lived.

For building of these forts, the people chose places that were protected from two sides with natural barriers, earth walls and ditches from the third one.

Quite a different life led the nomadic tribes. At the period of early Iron Age (the VII-IVth centuries B.C.), on the south steppes of Russia lived the tribes of the Scythians and the Savromattes that were relative in origin. Their languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European Language group. The Scythians lived to the west of the Danube, the Savromattes – to the east.

The Savromattes did not have constant settlements, for they often changed their place of living. The cattle-raising formed the base of their economy. The Savromattes were on the brink of collapse of the tribal system. Their daily activity was concluded in constant robberies and raids upon their neighbours’ territory. In the Vth century B.C., the Savromattes participated in the war of the Scythians against the Persian king Dariy.

Describing the Savromattes’ lifestyle, the Greek historians Herodotus, Pseudo-Hippocrates and Ephoros singled out an active participation of women in social life and in war campaigns. These facts are proved with finds in rich women’s graves where there were found swords-akinakes (an akinake is a short iron Scythian sword 40-60 meters long), and bronze arrows’ tips. Sometimes in their graves, archaeologists find rock altars, which let suppose that women performed also the functions of priestess.

Such necessity actually was required. When men led the cattle to far pastures, a woman had to protect her family. The Savromattes were at war not only with their neighbours, but also with each other. At great wars campaigns they include women into the emergency volunteer corps.

Near the village Vinnonka, there was found a Savromattes sword with a short blade. This find reveals the raids of the nomads upon the population of the Samara Bend. A burial place of a Savromatte was discovered not far from the village Yagodnoie. There was the man’s skeleton that lay on the back with his head toward the east. By his side, there was a horse tooth and bronze details of a horse bridle.

In the IVth century B.C., the tribes of the Prohorovsk culture invaded the territory of the Savromattes who lived on the Land lower the Volga. The Savromattes joined the new tribes and there appeared the confederation of the early Sarmattes tribes.

This new culture existed for the III-IIth centuries B.C. on the Land along the Volga and the Urals. The base of its farming was the nomadic cattle-raising. The tribal system destroyed and the Sarmattes divided into the rich and the fighting tribal aristocracy. Women’s role in social life became less important. There are less found women’s graves, which contain arming articles. The most ancient early Sarmatte burial place dates from the IVth century B.C. and is situated in the burial-mound near the state farm named in honor of Kirov (the Soviet Statesman) of the Krasnoarmeysk Region.

In the IIId century B.C., the Sarmattes left the Urals’ territory and the Land along the Volga; crossed the Don and reached the Land in front of the Caucasus and the north Land near the Black Sea. From the I-st century B.C. up to the I-st century A.D., the Sarmattes were the active political power on the lands of Eurasia.

At that period on the territory occupied by the Sarmattes was a uniform culture, there were no local distinctions. The Sarmattes had trade relationship with Tanais (the ancient name of the river Don) and Bosporus towns. In the burial places of that time there are found some imported articles that were produced in Bosporus and the Land near Kuban (lowlands in the West Land in front of the Caucasus). In spite of the moving of the considerable part of the Sarmattes to the west, their first territory was still populous, however, the center of their culture was replaced from the Land near the Urals to the Land lower the Volga.

The burial places of the middle Sarmattes were found on the territory of the Samara Region near the villages Andreevka and Vilovatoie of the Bogatovsk District, Guardsmen of the Borsk District, Prepolovenka and Sosnovka of the Bezenchuksk District, Hryashchyovka of the Stavropol District, near the hamlet of Istomin of the Volga District and near the state-farm Bereznyaki of the Kinel-Cherkask District.

The majority of the middle Sarmattes’ graves were found in the burial-mounds that were made at the early times. All these graves are different in shape: some are narrow and rectangular, fixed on one of the long walls; others are square, where the buried lay diagonally. The dead were put in stretched position on the back with their head toward the south. The ancient people attached great importance to the fire during the burial ritual: in some graves, one can find small pieces of coal and other substances symbolized the fire: realgar, sulphur or chalk. In men’ burials, archaeologists find clay vessels and weapon like swords and daggers, iron arrows’ tips. Women’s graves contain mirrors and mouldings, mainly beads. In one woman’s burial near the village Guardsmen were found some articles of weapon, which reveals that the weapon was being putting into women’s burials until the time of the middle Sarmattes.

In the II-IVth centuries A.D., the Sarmattes tribes changed considerably their way of the burial ritual. They began to bury the dead in narrow grave pits with their head to the north and not the south as they did before. The wide spread got a ritual of skulls’ deformation: it was achieved by fastening babies’ heads around with durable cloth. All these changes were the result of the influence of the neighbouring nomadic tribes. Relationship between the Sarmattes and their neighbours was not always peaceful, and this made some part of the Sarmattes who lived on the Land lower the Volga leave their place of living and move to the territory between two rivers the Volga and the Don. The population of the Sarmattes that stayed in the Land along the Volga assimilated the newcomers from Central Asia and Siberia.

The territory of Samara was still settled by the Sarmattes at the late Sarmatte time. This fact is proved by the finds of the burials of that period in the Bereznyakov, Gvardeysk, Osinovsk, Chernovsk III, Maloalekseievsk, Andreievsk and Vilovatovsk burial-mounds.

At the end of the IVth century A.D., the tribe of Huns invaded the Sarmattes’ territory and routed their troops. Some part of the conquered joined the Huns and went with them to Western Europe, where they reached Spain and even North Africa. Those who stayed in the South-Russian steppes became assimilated to the other tribes.

After the Huns’ invasion, the numerous groups of the nomads continued to live in the Land lower the middle part of the Volga and in its south part. Their rich burials were discovered on the territory of the Samara Region in the burial-mound near the village Vladimirovka of the Hvorostyan District and near the village Fedorovka of the former Buzuluksk uyezd. The nomadic burials which date from the VI-VIIIth century have been examined near the village Novopavlovka and state-farm named in honor of Kirov.

Thus, the population on the territory of the Samara Region had been constantly changing for two thousand years, and during this long course of time, there was the immutable contradiction of the two worlds, which existed on the Samara Bend –the nomadic and the settled.

• Археологические древности края • Archaeological antiquities of the region • Волжская Болгария • The Volga Bulgaria • Самарская Лука в 13-17 веках • The Samara Bend of the XIII-XVIIth centuries • Освоение края и строительство крепости • The region settling and the fort building • Ставрополь и восстание Пугачева • Stavropol and Pugachyov’s rebellion • Участие ставропольчан в войне 1812 года • Participation of the inhabitants of Stavropol in the war of 1812

• Жизнь города. Ремесла Ставропольского уезда • The town’s life. Crafts of the Stavropol District • Ставропольское купечество • The merchants of Stavropol • Ставропольское дворянство • The nobles of Stavropol • Знаменитые люди в Ставрополе • Famous people of Stavropol • Ставрополь в начале ХХ века • Stavropol at the beginning of the XXth century • Революционные события и установление советской власти • The revolution events and forming of the Soviet regime

• Ставрополь в годы Великой Отечественной войны • Stavropol during the Great Patriotic War. • Строительство ГЭС и перенос города • The construction of the Hydroelectric Power Station and the transfer of the town • Культурная жизнь города • Строительство заводов и развитие города • Строительство ВАЗа и Автограда • Современная характеристика города

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