On August 14, 2026, Nizhny Novgorod hosted a public presentation of the results of the field season of a joint expedition by the Nizhny Novgorod State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve and the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which had been working at the 2nd Zvyaginsky burial ground in Vachsky District.[1][2] The main finding was that the date of the arrival of Muroma was pushed back from the 8th century to at least the first half or middle of the 7th century.[2]

Course of the Expedition and Finds

The expedition lasted 33 days; more than 50 people took part in the fieldwork — specialist archaeologists, research staff from the museum-reserve and the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as students from a Nizhny Novgorod university who are training to become historians.[1] Over four years of studying the burial ground in Vachsky District, a total of 137 burials have been excavated across an area of 3,500 square metres; the 2026 season alone yielded more than a thousand finds.[2] Among the objects were women's jewellery, Ceramics, and axes. One of the women's burials contained a man's belt; according to Ivan Koshin, a junior research associate at the museum-reserve, this may have been a gift from a man accompanying the woman into the afterlife, or evidence of the particular fashions of the 7th century.[2]

Scientific Significance

Previously, the key question had been where the Muroma disappeared to; in the 2026 season, researchers reframed the question as: where did this Finno-Ugric tribe come from in the first place.[2] According to Anastasia Shvetsova, head of the archaeology section at the museum-reserve, the new 7th-century complexes establish continuity between the proto-Finno-Ugric world and Muroma culture proper: the Muroma, it appears, were not newcomers to the region but developed organically from a population that had lived here since the 5th century — including those who left the burial ground near the village of Podvyazye in Bogorodsky District.[2] The new material also makes it possible to trace Slavs: their culture gradually changed, giving way to Slavic traditions.[1]

Future of the Artefacts

Excavations at the site are not yet complete, and another expedition is planned for the following year.[1] The finds will be sent to the museum-reserve's conservation laboratory: according to Yury Filippov, Director General of the Nizhny Novgorod State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve, the objects will need to be cleaned while preserving their patina, then stabilised to halt the processes of deterioration.[1][2] After restoration, the artefacts will enter the exhibition "Muroma. When the Chronicles Are Silent" in the Nikolskaya Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin.[1][2]

Sources

  1. Vremya N — New archaeological artefacts connected with the Muroma tribe presented in Nizhny Novgorod
  2. GTRK "Nizhny Novgorod" (Vesti) — Archaeologists present results of the latest excavations at a settlement of the Finno-Ugric Muroma tribe