Inna V. Islanova
Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia (ivisl@mail.ru)

Keywords: Early Iron Age, Late Dyakovo culture, sites of the Varvarina Gora type.

Recent studies have revealed the heterogeneity of the Dyakovo culture at different chronological phases as well as its regionally distinct character. An analysis of the materials from western regions of the culture enabled us to distinguish yet another local group of the Dyakovo antiquities named after the type-site of Varvarina Gora. The area of the sites of the Varvarina Gora type includes the Upper Msta basin and the lakes in the upper reaches of the Volga and the Shegra rivers. Twelve habitation sites characterized by handmade flat-walled S-shaped vessels with the maximum widening in the middle part of the body and usually with the ornamented edge of the rim where cord imprints prevail among decorative motifs; biconical weights, bow-shaped mounts, pins with a spiral headplate, rosette plaques and sickles with a loop-shaped end. The sites date to the 2nd–4th centuries AD.