The paper focuses on the contacts between the populations in the forest of the Kama region and the southern steppe region during the Iron Age (8th c. BC-5th c. AD) and early Middle Ages. The research was primarily based on archaeological material. The ramified river systems of the Volga, Kama, Vyatka and Belaya actually provided the main routes for contact between the forest of the Kama region and the southern steppe. During the period in question, new technologies, household activities, and elements of material and spiritual culture penetrated the forest of the Kama region through the trade routes of antiquity and by the mediation of various ethnic groups speaking Iranian, Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages.