Ilya Akhmedov

The article is a new publication of the detail of a Roman vessel which depicts a “Suebian” and was found at the end of the 19th c. near the village of Kulisheika (Ruzaevsky region of Mordovia Republic). The analogies from Brigetio, Carnuntum, the Suebian prince’s burial at Mušov (Moravia) and the Wielbark burial at Czarnowko (Pomerania), allow to defi ne the fi nd as a detail which was initially part of a Westland-type vessel, which were produced for barbarian nobility in Roman workshops in the 2nd c. AD. The author connects the context of the fi nd with the Central European imports in Finnic burials in the upper reaches of the Moksha and Sura rivers, and in the middle reaches of the Oka, which could be connected with the emergence of the Shapkino-Inyasevo group of sites in the 2nd – 3d c’. The author is of the opinion that the next “western” cultural impulse is the hoard of Roman coins and artifacts of Central European origin that was found near Shilnikovo village in Mordovia, and connects that impulse with the Kashirki-Sedelki group of sites that appeared in the upper reaches of the Don and was similar to Chernyakhov culture. All the above fi nds should be connected with the changes in the ethnic and cultural situation that took place in the forest-steppe part of west Mid-Volga region and the areas in the upper reaches of the Don.