The Balymer complex is an archaeological complex near the village of Balymer (Балымер),
Spassky District
Spassky District is the name of several administrative and municipal districts in Russia. The name is generally derived from or related to the root "''spas''" ("savior")—usually alluding to the concept of the Christian faith.
* Spassky District ...
,
Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...
,
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
The former trade emporium on the
Volga trade route
In the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea and the Sasanian Empire, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Ca ...
covers an area of 4 km
2. It was first explored in 1870 by A. I. Stoyanov.
The settlement, graves and
tumuli
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...
belonged to the
Volga Bulgars
Volga Bulgaria or Volga–Kama Bulgaria, was a historic Bulgars, Bulgar state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now European Russia. Volga Bulgaria was a multi-ethnic ...
or the
(''
Rūsiyyah'') in the 9th-10th centuries, and to the
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...
nomads in the 13th-14th centuries.
It has been suggested that it was at Balymer that
Ibn Fadlan
Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, ( ar, أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; ) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of his ...
witnessed
the funeral of one of the Rus' chieftains (a
ship burial
A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as the tomb for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was pr ...
involving
human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
).
There is also ample evidence of the
Ananyino and
Imenkovo cultures, i.e.
Finnic peoples
The Finnic or Fennic peoples, sometimes simply called Finns, are the nations who speak languages traditionally classified in the Finnic (now commonly '' Finno-Permic'') language family, and which are thought to have originated in the region of ...
.
References
*
*Спицын А.А. Заметки из поездки 1898, Известия Императорской археологической комиссии. СПб. 60 (1898).
*Жеромский Б.Б. Древнеродовое святилище «Шолом» Материалы и исследования по археологии СССР. 1958. No. 61;
*Халикова Е.А. Археологические исследования в Куйбышевском районе ТАССР в 1961г. Краткие сообщения Института археологии АН СССР 104 (1965).
{{Gardariki
Archaeological sites in Tatarstan
History of Tatarstan
Former populated places in Russia
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Tatarstan