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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Elabuga

From Wikisource

ELABUGA, a town of Russia, in the government of Vyatka, on the Kama river, 201 m. by steamboat down the Volga from Kazan and then up the Kama. It has flour-mills, and carries on a brisk trade in exporting corn. Pop. (1897) 9776.

The famous Ananiynskiy Mogilnik (burial-place) is on the right bank of the Kama, 3 m. above the town. It was discovered in 1858, was excavated by Alabin, Lerch and Nevostruyev, and has since supplied extremely valuable collections belonging to the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. It consisted of a mound, about 500 ft. in circumference, adorned with decorated stones (which have disappeared), and contained an inner wall, 65 ft. in circumference, made of uncemented stone flags. Nearly fifty skeletons were discovered, mostly lying upon charred logs, surrounded with cinerary urns filled with partially burned bones. A great variety of bronze decorations and glazed clay pearls were strewn round the skeletons. The knives, daggers and arrowpoints are of slate, bronze and iron, the last two being very rough imitations of stone implements. One of the flags bore the image of a man, without moustaches or beard, dressed in a costume and helmet recalling those of the Circassians.