Seima Burial Ground

a burial ground dating from the Bronze Age (the middle of the second millennium B.C.)located in the vicinity of the stanitsa [large cossack village] of Seima, near the city of Gorky, on a sand dune on the left bank of the Oka River.

The Seima burial ground was discovered in 1912. It consisted of approximately 50 shallow graves, each of which contained a skeleton lying in a supine position and a rich burial stock. Objects found in the graves included massive bronze bracelets, daggers, socketed spearheads and celts, flat rings of polished nephrite, the remains of amber ornaments, and many skillfully fashioned flinty arrows, knives, and flakes. The character of the objects found indicate that the Seima burial ground was of an eastern, Trans-Ural origin. Very close similarities have been established between the finds of the Seima burial ground and those of the Turbino burial ground on the Oka River and the Rostovkinskii burial ground on the Tom’ River in Tomsk Oblast, RSFSR.