No 3 (2023)

In the east of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in Gobustan district, there are numerous Stone Age sites with preserved culture-bearing deposits. Interest in the richest rock art sites concentrated there overshadowed studying the stone inventory of the region’s earliest sites relegating them to the background. In this work, the author proposes a general systematization of the materials of the Gobustan Stone Age. The paper contains detailed typological lists of key sites; suggests the criteria for dividing the material into three cultural and chronological groups; and substantiates a new view on the chronology and local peculiarities of these groups that is different from previously held ones in many respects. For the sites of the Upper Palaeolithic of Gobustan, an estimated age is proposed corresponding to the period prior to maximum of the Würm glaciation (i.e., no later than approximately 25–20 thousand years ago). The lower date of the Mesolithic layers correlates roughly with the end of the Allerød and the Younger Dryas (approximately 14–12 thousand years ago). The emergence of the local Neolithic is attributed approximately to the early 6th millennium BC.

The article presents the results of radiocarbon dating of the Pozdnyakovo culture. The database includes 22 correct dates for samples from four sites obtained with different carbonaceous materials. The paper outlines principles for determining the relative correctness of radiocarbon dates. The authors’ analysis of ¹⁴C data shows that even this series requires a critical approach for some objective reasons. As the number of dates is still limited, the radiocarbon range of the Pozdnyakovo culture is still unstable, but it has a pronounced tendency to stabilize. The summation of radiocarbon dates makes it possible to date the Pozdnyakovo sites tentatively within 1750–1250 CalBC.

Despite the achievements of recent years of palaeogenomic research, the genetic features and diversity of the early Slavic population remain unexplored due to the cremation ritual common in the ancient Slavic tribes. Therefore, each find of an Early Slavic site is an important material. Such a unique Early Slavic object is an individual whose remains were found in a dwelling attributed to the Volintsevo culture from the Kurilovka 2 site in Kursk Region, which dates back to the end of the 7th – first half/middle of the 8th century AD. We extracted DNA from the tooth and used it for genetic analysis. We reconstructed the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence and determined that it belongs to the European haplogroup H1b. The results of the phylogenetic analysis testify the common maternal lineages of the individual from Kurilovka with Medieval and modern European samples and suggest a commonality of the early Slavic and northwestern European mitochondrial lineages.

The article deals with comprehensive study of four horn spoons from the early strata of Troitsky and Nerevsky excavation sites from Veliky Novgorod. The main hallmark distinguishing these artefacts among analogies is highly artistic geometric interlaced ornament, which has not been studied fully and is not discussed in Russian historiography. The complex use of archaeological and artistic analysis made it possible to interpret the origins of interlaced ornament in archaeological contexts. The closest typological and stylistic analogies were found in the medieval urban centres of Middle Sweden, on the boundaries of the Scandinavian and Sami cultures. The research prompted an assumption about the North European origin of these spoons from the Novgorod cultural deposit. The ornaments of these artefacts can be regarded as one of the areas of Scandinavian art influenced by Sami tradition.

The article discusses the results of archaeometallographic studies of iron products from the settlements Myakinino 1, Myakinino 2 and Nastasino 2 – the largest archaeological sites in Moscow region. The authors identify technological patterns for manufacturing smithery products from these sites. It was established that these patterns differed significantly: for Myakinino 1 and Myakinino 2, technological groups I and III p-redominate, while in Nastasino all three groups are represented in equal proportions. The technological model typical for Myakinino 1 and Myakinino 2 was formed on the basis of supplies from two manufacturing centres – the urban and the rural one. The model identified by studying the Nastasino materials has much in common with the pattern characterizing the iron objects from the Istye 2 production complex. The authors use a specific example to demonstrate that rural settlements were included in the complex commodity exchange with urban and rural manufacturing centres.

Based on the evidence from osteological collection of birds (over 7,000 specimens), the hunting of game by the population of the town of Berezov in Modern period was reconstructed. The study identified species composition of game birds and conducted an analysis of the ratio of skeletal elements, fragmentation of bones, and external influences. The main purpose of bird hunting was to obtain an additional source of meat for the population of the town. Over time, the relative significance of poultry in the diet of the urban population decreased, but the intensity of game hunting remained constantly high. The game was hunted all year round. Spring-summer hunting for waterfowl was a dominant type. In winter, they hunted mainly for wood grouse and ptarmigan. Based on the average weight of each species, the authors calculated the potential amount of meat that can be obtained from the hunting for the three main groups of birds. It is shown that in the cold season, the supply of additional meat products from bird hunting decreased almost threefold compared with the spring-summer time.

The paper discusses a hoard of the Early Iron Age from the territory of Bryansk Region. The hoard includes iron cheek-pieces, a brow band, bronze bridle plaques, as well as bracelets – smooth cast and hollow cast ones made using the technique of lost wax investment casting. Objects were placed in a crude handmade pot. The unique complex dating back to the 5th–4th centuries BC was found in the area of the Yukhnovo archaeological culture. The completeness of the analyzed hoard and the circumstances of its finding have direct analogies among the hoards originating from the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. It is possible that the hollow bracelets from the hoard are an imitation of samples found on the territory of Polish Pomerania and adjacent regions.

The town of Vshchizh in Rus has been known from chronicles since 1142. In the middle of the 12th century, it turned from a small border fortress into the capital of a small apanage principality, a vassal to Chernigov. In 1238, the city was ravaged by the troops of Batu and ceased to function as an urban settlement. The article considers glass objects of the Rus period found in the outer town and the posad (suburb) of Vshchizh (the total number is 198 objects). The overwhelming majority of this number is represented with bracelets (186 objects). In addition, there are six beads, four fragments of finger-rings and fragments of two vessels. Most of the finds (182 objects) are products of glass-making craft of Rus, the rest (16 fragments of bracelets) are attributed to Byzantine manufacture. The bulk of glassware dates back to the second half of the 12th – first third of the 13th century AD, and only a small number of items existed, possibly, in the second half of the 13th–14th century AD.

Archaeological discoveries of recent decades have formed the basis for the development of a new concept of Novgorod origin. This study is the first to consider the problem through the prism of contacts between the Slovenes and Scandinavians and to associate it with the patrimonial land ownership of the Rurikids. In 862, this Varangian clan was summoned under an agreement to reign in the union of tribes and received a land area (volost) from the Ilmen Slovenes in the upper reaches of the Volkhov River. This is evidenced with12 toponyms of the 10th–12th centuries AD on the territory of Novgorod and its vicinity. The core of the volost is a river island between the Volkhov and Volkhovets rivers with adjacent lands. On this land of the Rurikids, the princely fortresses found by archaeologists were erected at different times (862, 940s, and 1044). All of them were named identically – Novgorod, as well as the volost itself. Novgorod with its vicinities within the boundaries of the ancient volost was ruled by the prince as a princely town. This was due to the fact that the inclusion of the Scandinavian Rurik’s clan in the tribal structure of the tribal union resulted in recognition of the clan by the Slovenes as the dominant and ruling one. Led by the ruling prince Rurik, Novgorodians began to consider themselves as originating from the Varangian family. In case of the Ilmen Slovenes this tribal identity manifested itself most clearly in high burial mounds which became very common. At the same time, the ethnic structure of the early city-state, formed in 862, which was called the Novgorod volost according to chroniclers, turned out to be multiple, claiming the Slavic-Finno-Scandinavian unity. The Varangians were not seen as an alien element in the Slovenian environment. Therefore, Scandinavian finds are common in the lower layers of Novgorod estates of the 10th–11th centuries AD. They testify to the free residence of the Varangians in the Volkhov region. The same is true for Pskov, where Scandinavian burials were found. The Rurikid volost ceased to exist as a single whole in 1132/1136 with the expulsion of the prince. Expanding urban communities (in terms of streets and town districts) began to claim its lands and shrink its territory. But even at a later time, certain fragmented areas of the Novgorod vicinity still belonged to the prince.

In 1934, the Academy for the History of Material Culture (SAHMC), a leading archaeological institution of Russia, faced a challenge. The Chairman of SAHMC, Academician Nikolai Ya. Marr, who had headed it for many years, was dying, and urgent measures had to be taken to ensure successful work of the Academy after his death. Deputy Chairman F.V. Kiparisov decided to address a letter to the party leader of Leningrad Sergey Kirov in order to secure the leading positions of SAHMC in science; he asked for a personal appointment with Kirov to discuss the future of the Academy and proposed a programme for further development of the institution. The drafts of the letter were prepared in November 1934, shortly before the assassination of S.M. Kirov, but the letter itself was probably never sent to the addressee. The papers are kept in the archival collection of SAHMC at Archives of the Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS. Its full publication will provide important new information on the history of SAHMC activities in the context of the general development of Russian academic science during the troubled period of the 1930s.