Cultural Components of the Ust-Vetluga Burial Ground

The cultural components of the Ust-Vetluga burial ground site, which is located on the left bank of the Cheboksary water reservoir, near Yurino village, the Mari El Republic, are analyzed in the article. The burial ground refers to the Late Bronze Age, dating from the early 2nd millennium BC. The burial rite and the grave goods point out to the heterogeneity of the population that had left the burial ground. The analysis of the artifact assemblage and the existing analogies made it possible to identify two substrata. The first, and dominant, one is associated with the Seima-Turbino population groups from the Lower Kama and the Volga-Oka river regions, while the second refers to the forest-steppe Abashevo-Pokrovsk groupings. There are traces of significant cultural integration of the two heterogeneous population groups. The question of the presence of the Middle Volga Abashevo culture people in the burial ground is discussed. In general, the complexes of the Ust-Vetluga burial ground site reflect the emergence of a new syncretic population in the Mari Volga river region.