ГЛАВНАЯ > Exhibitions > Old Ladoga - New Finds
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Old Ladoga - new finds, new discoveries
 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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