Excavations of the Pilninsky I flat-grave cemetery in the valley of the Anda River near the urban-type settlement of Pilna, conducted in the summer of 2026, provided direct evidence of human sacrifice in the Middle Volga Region in the first century AD. In a double grave of two young warriors, archaeologists found a severed human head placed on a ledge of the burial pit. [1] [2]
The Site
The Pilninsky I flat-grave cemetery lies in the valley of the Anda River in the southeastern part of Nizhny Novgorod Region, near the settlement of Pilna, the administrative center of Pilninsky District. It was discovered in 2009. [3]
The cemetery's materials date to the first century AD and belong to the Piseralsko-Andreyevsky type of site — only seven such sites are known, located in Mordovia, Chuvashia, Mari El, and Nizhny Novgorod Region. [4]
The burials were left by a migrant population: warriors of Finno-Ugric tribes who had come from the Trans-Ural forest-steppe and occupied part of the Middle Volga Region. Researchers regard the Piseralsko-Andreyevsky sites as a precursor to ancient Mordvinian culture, and the cemetery itself as a source for the earliest origins of the Mordvinian ethnos. [4]
Finds of the Season
The 2026 fieldwork was carried out as a salvage excavation: the promontory on which the ancient burial ground lies is being destroyed by landslides. Three burials were uncovered during the season. [1]
Two of them — one male, one female — were found within the landslide deposits. The interred individuals were accompanied by a chainmail coat, arrowheads, bronze ornaments, and beads of Black Sea origin. [1]
The third burial is a double grave measuring 3.5 by 2.5 metres containing two young warriors. Buried with them were spears, palashes (single-edged swords), horse gear, a clay pot, and bronze battle buckles. [1] [2]
Human Sacrifice
On the wide step of the double grave lay a severed human head. The expedition leader, academic director of the archaeological laboratory at Samara University, Sergey Zubov, connects it to ritual practice: "this was a sacrificial offering during the funeral, and the person sacrificed was either a captive enemy or a slave." [1]
Previously, skulls found above graves of this type had been explained differently: it was thought they belonged to the buried individuals themselves, whose bones had not survived. A hypothesis about the sacred significance of such finds had been proposed before, but without confirmation — the 2026 discovery provided it. [1] [2]
Who Is Conducting the Work
The excavations are being carried out by Samara University named after Academician S. P. Korolyov and the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The expedition is led by Sergey Zubov. [1] [3]
Research at the burial ground is expected to continue in the following season. [1]
How the Site Became Known
The burial ground came to light in 2009, when the State Historical Museum received a collection of objects seized from the black market in antiquities: helmets, chainmail, double-edged swords, single-edged palashes, spears, javelins, horse-gear fittings, and clothing ornaments. The objects were dated to the 1st–2nd centuries and, on the basis of close parallels, attributed to the Piseralo-Andreyevo antiquities of the Middle Volga region.[5]
In 2010, an exploratory test pit revealed a second Pilninskiy burial ground nearby — containing a male burial dated to the 2nd–3rd centuries. A geophysical survey in 2021 detected large subsurface anomalies beneath the turf, and systematic work on the promontory began from that point.[5]
The 2023 Season
The 2023 expedition brought together three institutions: the Seimino-Sudzhinsky Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Middle Volga Expedition of Samara University, and the A. Kh. Khalikov Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan; volunteers from the student detachments "Meridian" and "Parallel" worked at the excavation site.[5]
Across 350 square meters, five burials from two widely separated eras were uncovered — the 5th–4th centuries BCE and the 1st–2nd centuries CE. Among them was a female burial from the Scythian period containing a bronze temple pendant and a plaque in the shape of a goat's head; a double burial of a man and a woman in a wooden log coffin with a lanceolate spear and beads; and a single female burial with clasps and a small pot. Another female burial contained no grave goods and showed evidence of binding.[5]
The eroded slopes of the hillsides yielded a chape from a sword scabbard depicting a predator, dating to the 6th–4th centuries BCE, as well as psalia, barbed arrowheads, spearheads, and 1st-century CE horse bits.[5]
| Year | What was done |
|---|---|
| 2009 | a collection of objects from the black market was transferred to the State Historical Museum |
| 2010 | a second Pilninskiy burial ground was discovered by an exploratory test pit |
| 2021 | geophysical survey revealed subsurface anomalies |
| 2023 | 350 square meters excavated, five burials from two eras uncovered |
| 2026 | three burials uncovered, a severed head found on the step of a double grave |
Piseral-Andreyev antiquities
The type takes its name from two monuments — the Piseral burial mounds and the Andreyevsky kurgan; the same group includes the Staroardatovsky kurgan, the Klimkinskiye kurgans, the Sergach burial ground, and both Pilninsk burial grounds. They have been studied since the late nineteenth century, with key contributions from P. D. Stepanov, A. Kh. Khalikov, and V. V. Grishakov.[7]
The debate over the chronology and ethnocultural identity of these complexes remains open: different researchers' datings diverge within the range of the first through third centuries AD, and the origin of the population that left them is linked to the Southern Ural region. All scholars agree on one point — the population was migrant, and the monuments themselves stand at the origins of early Mordovian culture, that is, at the very beginning of the history of the Erzya and the Mordva.[7][5]
Sources
- niasam.ru — NIA Samara — Samara and Moscow archaeologists confirm the hypothesis of human sacrifice in the ancient Volga Region during excavations
- nn.aif.ru — AiF — Nizhny Novgorod — Evidence of human sacrifice found in Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)
- NN.RU — Archaeologists discover traces of human sacrifice in Nizhny Novgorod Region
- n-novgorod.rnews.ru — Archaeologists confirm the hypothesis of sacrifice among Finno-Ugric tribes
- archaeolog.ru — Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Research on the Pilninsk burial ground (archive)
- ssau.ru — Samara University named after Academician S. P. Korolyov: archaeologists confirm the hypothesis of human sacrifice in the ancient Volga Region, 4 September 2026 (archive)
- evrazstep.ru — Zubov S. E. History of the study of Piseral–Andreyevsky type monuments. Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes, 2018, no. 1, pp. 9–16 (archive)