In 1960 and 1961, archaeologists found a few surviving plates dated the 8th -7th centuries BC at the bottom of the Kuibyshev water reservoir. Those were burial stelai of the Ananyino culture, which existed in the mid-stream Volga region and the Kama river basin in the 9th -3rd centuries BC.

The one metre tall stele on display is made of limestone. It has wedge-like depressions carved in the top and bottom parts, while the middle part shows an axe and a dagger with oppositely directed handles.

Scholars call such statues pseudoanthropomorphic. They symbolize a human figure without depicting it in detail. However, the weapon in the stele is chiselled in the manner in which it would be worn in ancient times: the axe is stuck in the statue’s belt, and the knife is in the sheath.
Statues of this kind were not indicative of the deceased person’s sex, unlike burial decoration articles. For instance, men’s graves contain labour implements and weapons: spears, swords, daggers, and arrowheads while women’s burial accessories include bracelets, sets of plaques, and other metal decorations. Food would also be traditionally put in graves: beef for women and horsemeat for men.

Horses generally played a special role in burial rites of Ananyino tribes. Archaeologists have often found horse harnesses and accessories in graves and horse teeth and bones nearby.