“I saw the Russians when they arrived on their trade business. They are blond, red in face, white in body. As soon as their ships arrive at the pier, each of them immediately leaves to go to a long log stuck into the ground, whose face looks like a man, and worship him with the words: "Oh, my Lord." (from the travel notes of Akhmed ibn Fadlan about travels to the Volga in 921-922)
Where did Mother Russia come from? We were taught at school, the place of its origin is the territory of modern Ukraine. It was here, on the banks of the Dnieper, about 2 thousand years ago, that the Slavs began to form as an independent ethnic group. In 882, having united, they founded the state of Kievan Rus, from which the history of Russia began. For many years, the location of the Slavic ancestral home was not disputed by anyone. But one day he had a competitor - the Middle Volga region. Here, near the village of Imenkovo, archaeologists have found more than 600 ancient settlements and villages that existed between the 3rd and 7th centuries of our era. The mysterious culture was named Imenkovskaya, and for a number of signs it was Slavic.
"Historical detective" and its researchers
Archaeologist Leonid Vyazov is one of the scientists who is now unraveling this "historical detective". And the beginning of the search was laid back in the 80s of the last century, when his predecessor, the famous archaeologist Galina Matveeva, came to the Ulyanovsk region to excavate the Staromain settlement. When archaeologists, led by Matveyeva, laid the first excavations on a deserted hill, they found the remains of a large settlement in the ground. The settlement is the centers around which small communities are formed. 3-5 settlements adjoined each settlement. The building density is 2-4 times higher than the density for the Ilminsky settlement. Apparently, Old Maina was a prominent center of local life.
The settlement, built by an unknown people in the Middle Volga region, was found long before Galina Matveyeva. But it was she who was the first to put forward the idea that the mysterious Imenkovites were Slavs. This version immediately drew strong criticism. The huge number of finds made in the Imenkovsky settlements is sensational in itself. Remains of dwellings and buildings, pottery, tools, decoration and burial grounds. There are a lot of such places rich in finds in Russia. The further scientists studied the life of the mysterious people, the more they became convinced that they were noticeably different from other local ethnic groups. The Imenkovites used other tools of labor, different dishes, they buried the dead in a different way than was customary among the peoples who inhabited these places in the middle of the first millennium. But who were they then?
Was the ancestral home of the Slavs really in the Middle Volga region? The first capital of the ancient Slavs is not Kiev in Ukraine, but the village of Staraya Maina in the Ulyanovsk region. For many years this idea has been defended by local historian and politician Sergei Galand. In the vicinity of the village of Staraya Maina, archaeologists unearthed two ancient settlements at once (presumably Slavic), and founded 1700 years ago. Artifacts of a similar age were also found in the Old Mine itself. Thus, it turns out that the Imenkovskaya culture is much older than Kiev.
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Who lived in the Middle Volga region?
One of the most consistent opponents in the Slavic version of the origin of the Imenkovites is the Kazan historian and archaeologist Yevgeny Kazakov. He considers the Sarmatians to be the creators of the mysterious settlements. The middle Volga region is located on the border of the forest and steppe zones. If the steppe zone in those distant times was occupied by nomads and Sarmatians, then in the forest part the Finno-Ugric tribes ruled, therefore, according to another version, the creators of the Imenkovsky settlements are the Finno-Ugrians.
But how then to explain the conclusions of Galina Matveyeva? It is unlikely that this was done out of a desire to become famous. Wrong times, wrong person. The version that the Imenkovites were exactly Slavs, no matter how fantastic it sounded, did not arise out of nowhere. What makes up the culture of this or that nation? How, subsequently, based on the material remains of this culture, to determine its ethnicity? Scientists have been looking for an answer to this question for a long time. On the one hand, culture is powerfully influenced by fashion, since people in ancient times did not live in isolation, they constantly kept in touch with neighboring tribes, borrowed something from them, adopted, and today it makes it very difficult to identify material remnants, because fashion has changed very much fast.
Factors influencing the ethnicity of the settlement
However, besides fashion, culture is influenced by another powerful factor - tradition. Ancient people were very conservative in terms of construction, decoration, home, dishes, funeral and other rites. And it is precisely according to these cultural traditions, which have been passed down from generation to generation from father to son, that one can distinguish one nation from another. And here the fun begins. Studying the settlement, household items of the Imenkovites on the Volga, and comparing them with the ancient settlements of the Slavs near the banks of the Dnieper, scientists found a lot in common, and these coincidences turned out to be too many to ignore.
“As for their women, they have manists of gold and silver on their necks. They come from their country, and moor their ships on the Tyla, and this is a big river, and build large houses of wood on its banks, and they gather in one house, ten and twenty. (From the travel notes of Akhmed ibn Fadlan about travels to the Volga in 921-922)
Facts indicating the non-involvement of the Slavs in the Imenkovsky settlement
The fact that the Slavs who lived on the territory of modern Ukraine and the mysterious Imenkovites built houses in about the same way is hardly a coincidence.
This is the first and important piece of evidence in favor of the Slavic version. Scientists have reconstructed not only the appearance of the Imenkov dwellings, but many household items and ornaments were also found on the settlements. Thanks to them, one can mentally imagine what the Imenk residents used to furnish their houses and dugouts, what dishes they used, how they dressed. There are especially many ceramics and clay shards on the sites. Alas, cookbooks with recipes for ancient dishes have not survived next to ceramics, but scientists have managed to restore the approximate diet of the ancient inhabitants of the settlements.
It would seem that since the houses and dishes are Slavic, it means the fortifications too. What's next to guess? Everything, our "historical detective" has been solved. But not everything is as simple as the supporters of the Slavic version would like. Studying Imenkovo settlements, scientists drew attention to one curious detail - they are all cape, i.e. built on capes, fenced off on one side by water, and on the other two by steep ravines or streams. Cape fortified settlements are very convenient from the point of view of protection, because the Imenkovites had to build protective ditches and oxen only on the fourth side connecting the settlement with the mainland.
Archaeologists are well aware that every nation builds its cities in different ways. So, cape settlements are characteristic of representatives of the Finno-Ugric tribes, and the Slavs, at least who lived off the banks of the Dnieper, did not build cape settlements at all at that time. There is one more discrepancy - apart from houses-dugouts, typical for the Slavs, houses of another type were found at the Staromain settlement. Such long houses have been explored only at the Staromaini settlement. There are no such dwellings in the Proto-Slavic culture.
The history of the Slavic peoples is one of the most difficult and interesting mysteries in the world, which can only be solved when all the "puzzles" are collected and combined into a single picture.
History of Russia from the origin of the Slavic peoples. Prehistory of Russia: