On the Cultural and Chronological Attribution of Two Burial Grounds of the Late Bronze Age in the Volga-Kama Region (from the excavations by A.Kh. Khalikov)

The paper contains the results of research in two burial grounds of the Late Bronze Age in the Volga-Kama region according to excavations conducted by A.Kh. Khalikov in 1958 and 1962. They were the Maklasheevka barrows “on the descent” and Deukovо I burial ground at the Deukovo I settlement. Over the previous years, despite a series of mentions in special publications, the materials from these burial grounds have not been fully published. Therefore, often diametrically opposite viewpoints there are in the literature concerning the cultural and chronological attribution of these necropolises. The author makes the first most complete publication of materials from these burial grounds, and addresses the burial rite and accompanying ceramic material. Using the analogy approach, the author makes a conclusion that the necropolises are correlated with the antiquities of the Lugovskaya culture, with a strong influence of the traditions of the Cherkaskul culture on the funerary practices of the Maklasheevsky barrows in the uphill area. The operation period of the the Maklasheevka barrows “on the descent” and the Deukovo I burial ground, in the absence of radiocarbon dates, is determined by the entire chronological interval of the existence of the Lugovskaya culture and can be attributed to the 17th–15th centuries BC.