Ethnocultural situation on the territory of the Upper Oka in the “pre-Romen” period (late 7th to 8th centuries)

The study is devoted to the identification of a group of antiquities of the late 7th - 8th centuries of the Upper Oka region. On the territory of the region, the sites of the Moshchin culture, which had existed from the middle of the 3rd century, practically disappeared around the middle of the 7th century. The end of the Late Dyakovo culture in the Moscow basin and the disappearance of the main part of the Ryazan-Oksk sites in the Middle Oka region belong to the same time. Since the 9th century, numerous sites correlating with the antiquities of the Romensk culture have appeared in the territory of the region. The ethnocultural situation of the Upper Oka in the “pre-romensky” period has not been clearly presented until recently. To date, an array of archaeological material has been accumulated that is characteristic of the period. It is represented by finds of ceramic vessels, jewelry and belt details from the hill forts of Supruty, Petrovskoe, Nikulino, Muravlevo, as well as from the settlements of Kamenka-1, B. Triznovo-3, Torhovo-3, Utkino-1. Based on the analysis of the finds, it can be assumed that the main population of the Upper Oka region in the period of the 2nd half of the 7th - 8th centuries was the bearers of sakhnovka-volyntsevo type antiquities. Finds of vessels of the Moshchin tradition in the complexes of the 9th - 10th centuries of the Supruty ancient hillfort and the Kamenka-1 settlement testify to the existence in the pre-romensky and romensky periods of the remnants of the population that lived in the region from the middle of the 3rd to the middle of the 7th centuries. The study of a unique memorial complex near the village of Gora Uslan allows us to assume participation in the formation of the ethnocultural situation in the Upper Oka region in the late 7th - 8th centuries of the steppe of cultures representatives of the early Khazar Kaganate era.