Abstract: The study of the Ryazan-Oka culture has been going on for more than 100 years. Its main area is the Middle Pooch, with a significant tendency to dominate in the Volga-Oka interfluve from the first centuries of our era until the 60s of the VII century AD. With some degree of hypotheticism, the Ryazan-Oka center, along with the Old Ladoga, can be considered as one of the points of laying the foundations of the Old Russian statehood. The author's team sets itself the task of clarifying certain issues of the formation of the Ryazan-Oka elite on the basis of the latest DNA data and studying the most important cultural artifacts - the cross-shaped fibulae of elite warriors.The scientific novelty of the research is the combination of the study of objects of material culture with the latest DNA data. The study showed that the genesis of the most important attribute of the Ryazan-Oka elite - cross-shaped fibulae - can be associated with the shores of the Western Baltic and the North Sea (including Scandinavia). DNA data indicate the possible origin of a part of the military elite from the shores of the Baltic and the Northwestern part of the Eastern European Plain. Thus, it is quite legitimate to raise the question of migrations (of population and material culture) to the Ryazan-Oka area from the northwest. The latter could have an East Germanic, Baltic, Early Slavic, Baltic-Finnish linguistic affiliation.

Abstract: The purpose of the study of this article is to establish, through DNA analysis, the Y-chromosome haplogroup of an ancient burial found within the location of the famous Nikultsinsky burial ground (Fatyanovo culture) in the Gavrilov-Yamsky district of the Yaroslavl region on the right-bank plateau of the Vondel river. The article describes the archaeological context and the history of the site discovery. The predicted belonging of the individual to the Y-haplogroup R1a and the observed borderline position of the haplotype between the variants R1a-Z280 and R1a-Z93 does not allow rejecting the hypothesis that the described remains belong to the Fatyanovo culture of the Bronze Age III-II thousand BC. At the moment, Y-haplotypes of carriers of the Fatyanovo culture have not yet been cited in scientific articles. Only one work is known in which SNPs of a "high level" were given, which is not enough to identify the genesis and connections of the Fatyanovo culture. In addition, the task of dating and archaeological attribution of the described burial found within the Nikultsinsky burial ground in the zone of its destruction is important. This is due to the fact that the Fatyanovo burials are rare and of high scientific value. The resulting data on the Y-STR haplotype does not contradict the results obtained earlier, and does not allow us rejecting the hypothesis about the Fatyanovo character of this burial.

Abstract: PaleoDNA testing is becoming one of the most complex areas of modern biotechnology. Modern technologies make it possible to qualitatively extract DNA and test it by various methods, including the determination of the Y-chromosome haplogroup and mitochondrial DNA.
The paper describes the results of determining the Y-DNA haplogroups of two ancient burial sites of the XII-XIV centuries from the middle course of the Klyazma. The data obtained make it possible to determine the Y-haplogroup by the markers identified in the study. The article describes the technology using bioinformatics methods and the result obtained, which with high probability determines the Y-haplogroups R1a-M458-L1029 and I1-Z58. This work summarizes the initial stage of research undertaken in 2019-2020. The first evidence of the presence of R1a-M458 and I1-Z58 among the Klyazma population of Northeastern Russia in the XII-XIV centuries not only supports the point of view of the presence of Y-haplogroup R1a for all medieval Russian lands (inhabited by descendants of Eastern Slavs), but also hints that a certain genetic unity with the western parts of the area of the Slavs may exist (since the most serious concentrations of R1a-M458 and I1-Z58 are observed in the western part of the Slavic area).