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The publication deals with the results of archaeological research in 2019 of a number of sites near the village Rzhavets in the Spassk district of the Republic of Tatarstan. The first archaeological sites were discovered here by exploration study in 1961. In subsequent years only some sites of the Rzhavets group of sites were visited, no excavations were carried out on them. The excavations in 2019 were fulfilled due to the destruction of the cultural layer of sites by reason of natural and anthropogenic impact. Cultural strata and two pits of the settlement, presumably dating from the Bronze Age, have been found on the eroded coastline of the Rzhavets I settlement by excavation I with an area of 68 sq . m, in addition to deposits and objects of the modern village. These deposits were covered by a layer of the settlement of the Imenkovo culture, processed by the arable land of the second half of the XIX – first half of the XX centuries. On the Rzhavets V–VI settlement, the research was carried out by excavation I with an area of 160 sq. m. Here cultural strata was destroyed by long–term plowing of the XIX – early XXI centuries, just objects deepened into the virgin soil were preserved. They are represented by three household and two tar pits. Based on the analysis of the few finds and radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples from the filling in one of the pits, the existence of the settlement is dated by the authors back to the pre–Mongol period of Volga Bulgaria, namely to the XI-XII centuries. Thanks to research on sites in the central regions of Volga Bulgaria, the objects associated with the tar industry have been identified for the first time.

The publication deals with the results of archaeological studies at Balymery V settlement in 2019. The work was carried out in relation to the destruction of the site’s cultural layer by the branched ravine network of the left bank of the Volga river. The first archaeological excavations at Balymery V settlement were carried out in 1955 under the supervision of A.M. Efimova by the Kuibyshev archaeological expedition. Two excavations by A.M. Efimova allowed to identify hearths, economic, residential and “sacrificial” pits, and establish the existence of the settlement in the Imenkovo and Bolgar Pre-Mongol periods. In her opinion, settlement of the Volga Bolgars ceases to exist by the end of the 11th – early 12th centuries. The studies of 2019 made it possible to clarify the dating of the site. Based on study results, the development of the territory of Balymery V settlement began in the Imenkovo period (4th–7th cc.). In the Volga Bolgaria period, the territory of the Imenkovo settlement was developed as a result of economic activity and plowing. The existence period of the Volga Bolgars settlement was determined as the interval from the 11th (most likely, its second half) – mid-13th centuries as a result of the studies. After the Mongol conquest, the settlement continued to exist in the Ulus of Jochi’s formation period, as evidenced by the coins of the 1240s discovered both in the cultural layer and in one of the objects.