Exhibition organizers:
- Sophia Kasym, museum director
- Vladimir Kildushevsky, deputy director of the archeological expedition
(Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS)
- N.V. Grigorieva, student of Saint-Petersburg State University, archeologist


We are grateful to A.N. Kirpichnikov, M.N. Tolstoy, P.F. Afanasenko for providing photos.


General Sponsor: Holding OKHTA GROUP

V.I. Kildushevsky,
deputy director of archeological expedition,
exhibition consultant

Old Ladoga (town Ladoga before 1704), Aldeiguborg in Scandinavian, was founded in 753 according to the dendrochronology data. Medieval towns of Eastern and Northern Europe fail to compete with Ladoga due to very exact and rather ancient date of its foundation. During the first centuries the center was the most important international trade and handicraft settlement on the main lines of Volzhsky and Balto-Dnestrovsky routes “from the Varangians to the Greeks”. Every year large Scandinavian teams arrived in Ladoga and settled down side by side with the Slaves, Finns, other people. They reloaded cargoes from sea ships to river boats, purchased goods from the wooden north, sailed to the East during navigation time to reach Iran, Iraq, Byzantium. European and, mainly, Scandinavian merchants brought fur, slaves, arms to the eastern markets. They exported beads from semi-precious stones, block belts, samite, silk, rich fabrics and clothing, spices, horseman munitions, dinner ware, and, above all, Islamic silver coins - dirham from Front Asia and Central Asia.
Via Ladoga European countries, mainly, Sweden, Norway and Poland, Germany and the Baltic Slaves got great lots of coin silver. As referred to the calculations of American coin collector T. Nunnen, 125 million silver dirhams were exported from the Central Asia to Europe via Ladoga during the Xth century. 6 treasures and both 34 single and group finds of Islamic coins were found in Ladoga and its suburbs, where among the latter there was the most ancient dirham in all finds of dirham coins in the territory of Europe. The ancient coin was minted in Damascus in 699/700.

From the very beginning Ladoga was an international multi communal city. It helped to interethnic tolerance and faith tolerance between the people. The first city residents were pagans who prayed to their Gods and buried according to their customs.

At the Volkhov coasts there were magnificent mounds - hills which were used for family burial vaults of the first city residents. The city was surrounded by ancient cemeteries where Scandinavian burial ground “Plakun” dated to the IX-Xth centuries and located on the place of honor was among the most significant ones.
The archeology of Old Ladoga (the first excavations were initiated here in the very start of XVIII century) is proud of lots of unexpected discoveries. Archeological outcomes helped to understand the past of the ancient city including the Normannic period of its history. Since 1972 the expedition of the Institute for material culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences (headed by A.N. Kirpichnikov) has been working here. The scientists continued the researches of the previous time. In this period at “Zemlyanoye gorodische” which is in the neighborhood to the stone fortress of XVI, located on the places of the fortifications of knight Oleg Veschy, tens wood constructions and more than 27000 individual finds made of wood, stone, iron, bone, bronze, brass, terne metal, glass, amber, semi-precious stone, leather. All the finds took place in the layers dated to VIII-XV centuries.

Culture of those who lived in Ladoga was in the heart of Eurasian integration, mainly in respect of customs and fashion. Thus, found ornaments for women prove complicated ethnic composition of urban population. These are Scandinavian conchoidal fibulas, necklaces in a shape of hammer Toro, iron neck hryvnyas and Slavic temporal rings, sewn on plates and laces made of bronze and terne metals, together with Baltic horse-shoe fibulas, Finnish noisy laces and other finds.

In the course of excavations of 2004 Old Ladoga archeological expedition of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences achieved great scientific results. More than 850 individual finds and remains of four houses were found in the third quarter of IX. The constructions remains were well preserved in the humid soil rich in wood chips and dung. It is possible to identify their repairs, separate design features, porch, stove fragments. Both houses and territories nearby offer a good number of articles of wood, elm, leather, patches of fabric - all those things which are rarely found in the top layers. Such finds as wood and birch bark crockery, leather footwear, fragments of wool and linen clothes, braided belt, various wooden articles help to imagine urban mode of life. The unique finds of a spear with a solid shaft of 1,9 m long together with the runners of baby sleds decorated with wonderful geometric ornament are among the most significant.

The exhibition presents three hand made cricks (restored by V.I.Kildushevsky). The handicraft articles were found in the houses and nearby. There were defective and good glass beads, fabricated parts of brass and bone, bronze wire, tin and lead blocks, crucibles, casting moulds, bronze blocks in the shape of round sticks. Similar blocks were popular in Scandinavia where some moulds for casting were found. They were likely to have been brought as a raw material for craftsmen who lived in Ladoga.

For the first time in Ladoga there were found two big scale weights provided with Arabic inscription of 260 and 130 gram correspondingly, that is equal to 1 and ½ mark of silver.
They were used for weighting large lots of metal, coins included. One scale weight only has been known, it was found in Scandinavia. All these things prove that their owners belonged to both craftsmen and traders.

As referred to the previous archeological excavations, Ladoga craftsmen worked at one and the same place. However, outcomes of 2004 proved the assumption.

Craftsmen generations guaranteed city economic expansion. In one of the houses (house #4) worked figure-caster who produced Slavic lead and tin, brass ornaments: decorative plates, necklaces, temporal rings, rings. At this particular place the moulds for casting, a great number of crucibles, lead blocks, bronze wires were found. In the aggregate they all confirmed that Old Ladoga had ethnographically definite Slavic population.
The exhibited tools are represented by the fragment of blacksmith’s pincers, iron hammer which was used for riveting, grindstones, knives.

There are things related to fishing such as fragments of gun-harpoon, fish hooks, float made of bark. Fishing played a key role in the life of Ladoga residents, that was proved by fish scales and stones including those of sturgeon in the layer. Some samples exceeded a meter.

Such finds as attires, combs, spinning leads from a spindle, needles, stone piercing, stone knife handles, bell, rivets, arrow heads show the way of life and works of Ladoga residents. There are also various beads, some of them were imported, some were of local production. Many of them are true works of art.
V.V. Putin, President of the Russian Federation visited Old Ladoga in 2003 and 2004. He appreciated the work of the Old Ladoga Museum, archeologists, efforts of the Government of Leningradsky Region aimed at protecting cultural heritage. On examining the archeological excavations head of the state commented on the work of archeologists: “ I must say you are doing very important work as this is our alive history, not invented, not assumed, but true facts”.

In 2004 the international school-expedition (project heads are A.N. Kirpichnikov and M.N. Tolstoy) was hold with the objective to study Ladoga antiques. School participants were students, teachers, researches of Leningrad State Regional University of A.S. Pushkin, Russian State Pedagogical University of A.I. Gertsen, Saint-Petersburg State Repin Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Archetecture, Saint-Petersburg State University and Kazan State University, pupils of Suvorov Military School of Saint-Petersburg of Internal Affairs Ministry of the Russian Federation, Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, State Hermitage Museum, Old Ladoga Museum-Reserve, as well as young people from Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Germany, USA, Austria, Norway. Delegation of the General Consulate of Sweden in St. Petersburg headed by Consul General May Anderson, team of representatives of the Sweden museums, scientists of educational institutions and museums of Tatarstan visited the archeological expedition. M.B. Piotrovsky, L.A. Verbitskaya, E.N. Nosov, D.A. Matchinsky, T.N. Tolstaya acted for the expedition.
The expedition activities became possible due to financial and moral help of the Government of Leningradskaya Region, municipal formation “Volkhovsky district”, Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Holding Okhta Group, Fund My Petersburg, the Museum “700 Years - Landskrona, Nevskoye Ustye, Nyenskans”.

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