Eastern contacts of the population of the Kostroma Volga region in the early Iron Age – Middle Ages according to archaeological materials

The article is devoted to the analysis of some groups of archaeological materials obtained in the territory of the Kostroma Volga region and the city of Kostroma, which have an eastern origin and determine the contacts of the region with the regions of the Middle Volga, Kama and Vetluzhye. The chronological range of the existence of these materials suggests the presence of close interactions already in the Early Iron Age and, undoubtedly, in the Middle Ages. Archaeological recording of such cultural contacts allows us to obtain a more detailed and reliable picture of the course of socio-economic, historical-cultural and ethnocultural processes in the territory of the Kostroma Region. The work considers the significance of the region as a kind of contact zone, where in the Early Iron Age there was cultural and technological interaction between representatives of the two largest cultural communities of this era – the Ananyino historical and cultural region (AHCR) and the bearers of the mesh ceramic traditions of the «Upper Volga types». For the Middle Ages, the composition of archaeological finds (fragments of red clay and kashin dishes, coins, iron objects, etc.) is analyzed, which can characterize the probable trade and economic contacts of the Kostroma Volga region with the Volga Bulgaria and the Golden Horde, and the plot of the possible settlement of the Volga Bulgarians on the territory of the region in the pre-Mongol period is also touched upon.