Dyakovskaya culture

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Dyakovo culture (Russian: Дьяковская культура, from the excavated monument at Dyakovo - Дьяково) is an Iron Age culture which occupies the significant part of the Upper Volga, Valday and Oka River area[1].

The Dyakovo monuments, mostly sites became the subject of interest in the early 19th century. The earliest phase of the culture was a colonization in the late 9th - early 8th century BC. These sites, situated on riverbanks close to water were small, e.g. Tchyortov gorodok (Чёртов городок) on the Moscow River. The monuments Kuntsevskoye, Troitskoye, Scherbinskoye and other located in the territory of modern Moscow. Such sites are fortified with moats and ramparts added frequently with wooden structures, and have a clear traces of dwellings. 6-7th centuries became a time of crisis for Dyakovo culture, but the reasons are unknown[2].

Dyakovo culture was formed by Finno-Ugric peoples, ancestors of Merya, Muromian, Meshchera, Veps tribes. All regional Finno-Ugric toponymy and hydronym names go back to that languages, for example Yauza River which is a confluent of the Moskva River, and probably the Moskva River itself too.