NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD 93 



the historical progression. This is shown by numerous imported 

 articles, such as enameled articles from the middle section of the 

 Dnieper and articles from the central stretch of the Oka. 



The evolution of the funeral rites gives an equal insight into the 

 decline of the clan society. Instead of the clan burial grounds, of the 

 type exemplified by the "burial house" of Bcrezniaki, after the sixth 

 century A. D., we find funeral monuments in the Upper Volga in the 

 form of elongated kurgans. These are also found along the Upper 

 Dnieper and Upper Dvina and, as a result of recent study, are said 

 to belong to the Slavic Krivichi [Crivici] tribe. 



This would indicate that the prehistoric inhabitants of the Upper 

 Volga, as well as those of the Dnieper region, were the ancestors of 

 the eastern Slavs. 



During the ninth-tenth centuries, instead of elongated kurgans 

 containing several sepulchers of cremated remains, individual funeral 

 monuments were found. These round kurgans contained the remains 

 of a single person with identical cremation procedure. 



Inhabitants oj the region around Lakes Nero and Pleshchcevo dur- 

 ing the middle and second half oj the first millennium. — The previously 

 mentioned distinctions between the cultural character of the Upper 

 Volga region and the neighboring regions of Lake Nero and Lake 

 Pleshchcevo and the Kostroma sector of the Volga are very clearly 

 defined in the sites dating from the middle and second half of the 

 first millennium. The existence at this time of two different tribal 

 groups is proved by the following : 



(a) In the first region, the houses are built on the ground, while 

 those of the latter are half underground. 



(b) In the former region, the dead were cremated ; in the latter they 

 were interred in the same manner as along the Oka, the central Volga, 

 and the Kama Rivers. 



Beside Lake Xero, along the Kostroma sector of the Volga and 

 along the upper stretches of the Kliazma, occur several cemeteries 

 which contain flat tombs. The most important, which dates from the 

 eighth-tenth centuries, lies near the Sarskoe gorodishche, in the out- 

 skirts of Diabol. 



(c) Certain variations may be noted in the type of pottery, orna- 

 ments, and other objects. 



The inhabitants of the first region belonged to the eastern branch 

 of the Krivichi ; the latter to Mcrian tribes, related to the eastern 

 Finnish tribes of the Volga region. 



However, the fundamental characteristics of the historical progres- 

 sion in all these regions were the same. From a detailed analysis of 



