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The paper is the first monograph dedicated to the aforementioned antiquities in the region. The analysis of the sites of VIII-X cc. in the Dniester-Pruth interfluve shows that the found antiquities are culturally homogenous, and that they can be rightly attributed to the same archaeological culture according to all criteria. These antiquities belong to the East-Slavic culture, spread between the Dnieper in the East and the Carpathians in the West, Pripyat’ in the North and the mouth of the Danube and the Black Sea in the South, which was called Luka-Raikovetskaya type. The integrity of features of this culture is clearly brought out by the types of settlements, dwellings, ceramics, funeral rite, etc. The integral nature of the Luka-Raikovetskaya type culture, which includes in its area the Dniester-Pruth interfluve as well, is conditioned by the common historical routes followed by its bearers in the studied period.The pursued research enables a firm periodisation of the Luka-Raikovetskaya cultural type in the Dniester-Pruth interfluve, which also finds certain proof in other regions where this culture got spread.An analysis of pottery and other objects enabled the author to argue that there were no grounded reasons to talk about a new wave of the Slavic migrants who could bring the Luka-Raikovetskaya type into the studied region on the turn of VII-VIII cc. The cultural development in this territory was based on the local Prague-Korchak antiquities of VI-VII cc.Besides, it is noted that the current level of our knowledge enables us to believe that the antiquities of the Penkovskaya culture in the Dniester-Pruth interfluve do not get further development.With general integrity of the Eastern Slavic culture of the Luka-Raikovetskaya type in this region, it suffers certain changes on its last stage of development and grows into the early Russian culture in the northern part of the interfluve, which is typical of the whole area of antiquities of this type. In the southern forest-steppe part, at the same time, the studied antiquities lay the foundation for development of the sites typical of the contact zone.The attempts to distinguish local features of the Luka-Raikovetskaya culture in the Dniester-Pruth interfluve have not yielded any objective positive results. A correlation of the evidence from the dated chronicles and data of the synchronous Luka-Raikovetskaya antiquities of VIII-X cc. enabled the author to infer that the latter belong to the tribal union of the Tiverians.
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The article is dedicated to some debatable issues of archaeology and history of the Early Slavs. At the moment, historiography distinguishes three main directions attracting researchers seeking correspondences to the ethnic groups mentioned in written records among the bearers of archaeological cultures found in the Eastern Europe. The first one, “Cherniakhov” or “Southern” direction, interprets the Ants as bearers of the Cherniakhov culture. The second one, “Zarubintsy” or “Northern” direction, interprets the Venedi as bearers of the Zarubintsy culture, and the Ants as tribes of the Kolochinskaya or Penkovskaya cultures genetically tied with the “post-Zarubintsy” groups. The third, a “compromise” one, recognises polyethnicity of the Przewor and Cherniakhov cultures, rather than being purely “Venedi” or “Ants”, yet author links the main line of the Slavic ethnic genesis with the specific elements of these cultures.A comparison of evidence provided by the written records, archaeology and linguistics enable the author to draw the following conclusions: the Cherniakhov sites with Wielbark tradition can belong to the Goths, the tribes of the Kiev culture can correspond to the Slav-Venedi, and be direct ancestors of the Slavic groups of VI c. egistered by Iordannes and Procopius. The period during which the Cherniakhov-Wielbark and Kiev tribes contacted in the Middle Dnieper basin embraces the early IV c. and in general lines coincides with the period of military clashes between the Venedi and Hermanarich’s Goths reported by Iordannes. Later in the same period the Cherniakhov-Wielbark population practically drives the Kiev tribes away from the forest-steppe area. A part of the Slavic population is likely to have fallen into political and economic dependence on Hermanarich’s holdings, which seems to have led to cultural and ethnic assimilation of these Venedi groups. Besides, the period witnesses “Slavicisation” of the Cherniakhov population which happened to be on border of these two communities, as well as advancement of the Cherniakhov imports and, probably, also some small groups of the population into the Kiev area. This archaeological situation can be connected with the war of “Boz’s Ants” and Vinitharius’ Goths.The first half of V c. saw decay of the Cherniakhov culture, with the Visigoths, and later the Ostgoths and a number of other tribes leaving westwards inside the Empire. It also saw the end of the Kiev culture, which gave birth to the early medieval Kolochinskaya and Penkovskaya cultures. Other sites located in the basin of the Pripyat’ river and related to the Kiev ones served as a foundation for development of the Prague culture. Later the sites of the Penkovskaya and partly the Prague cultures reached as far as the inner parts of the forest-steppe and occupied most of the former Cherniakhov area, for the Byzantine writers to report appearance of the Sklavins and Ants on the left bank of the Danube already by the early VI c. The period saw expansion of the Prague and Penkovskaya cultures westwards and south-westwards into the Central Europe and Danube basin, and the Kolochinskaya northwards, into the Dnieper river head.By the early VII c. the names of the Venedi and the Ants given to these tribal unions by their neighbours were merged into their own ethnic name “Slavs”, which got spread over the whole Slavic world. A confluence of cultural and economic complexes, common language, development of identity enable the author to speak about the completed process of the Slavic ethnic genesis by the middle of I millennium A.D. From then on, one can deal with the ethnic history of the Slavs, concurrently with the ethnic genesis of the Eastern, Southern and Western Slavs, and later about the ethnic genesis of the Ukrainians, Russians, Byelorussians and other modern Slavic peoples.
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According to the last materials, the problems for discussion are examined for research of antiques of Volyntsevo type, the main part of which is situate in pointed region (fig.1). They examined the cultural components which were found in the pointed places, their origin, chronology, and as the result, the reconstruction of ethno-cultural processes in the left bank of Dneperis during the end of 7 – 9 cc. are proposed. According to the study of some such places we can consider that native culture of the third quarter of the first millennium A.D. (like Kolochin and Pen’kovka) took part in formation of Volyntsevo though the degree and the forms of influence of these cultures heritage in different territories were different. At the end of 7 c. or at the beginning of 8 c. at the Dneper’s left bank appeared the new cultural elements characterizing by ceramic like «Sakhnovka, dwellings with stone stoves, ornaments like treasures in Kharevka and Fativige, as well as by new types of agricultural tools. These elements became leading in the places of memory like Volintsevo and they are connected with migration of Slavonic tribe («Severny» by name) from Danube region after the year of 670.The third component of such places is stipulated by the presence of Saltovo cultural elements and special vessels, may be connected with Volga region and the South Ural, what is reflected the submission to the Khazar Kaganat and the migration policy of subdued people (which was common in ancient empires). At the beginning of 9 c. there was crisis in Khazar Kaganat, which was connected with passing of Judaism by its leaders, the inner destruction and the rebellion of subdued people. All this leads to the weakness of its influence also at the pointed territories, make it possible to develop more complete to the Slavonic culture of «Severny», connected with traditions like Sakhnovka, archeological equivalent of which is the formation of such kind as Romna culture 9 –11 cc.
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The article is devoted to the problems of agriculture of the Early Middle Ages, which are examined at the example of the archaeological complex in Verhniy Saltov villages. Archaeological and palaeobotanical materials which have been examined show us high level of agriculture in Khazar State. It is confirmed by dig range of qualitative tools and by the list of agricultural forms such as cereals, crops and so on. Palaeoethnobotanical composition in Verhniy Saltov gives us an opportunity to formulate the question about the role of agriculture, in particular cereals in different natural and climatic zones of the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture Analyzed materials confirm the opinion about outstripping development of ploughing of Saltov population by comparison with neighbouring tribes of the Slaves.
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The complete material publication of the author’s excavations in 1978 of the settlement Kamenevo-2 (the Tuskar river basin, the Zolotukhino district, the Kursk region) is offered. The area of the settlement equal to 200 by 70 – 80 meters was excavated (fig. 1). The dwelling and household constructions on the excavated plot were ring-shaped. Such a configuration is found in a number of Dnieper settlements dated by the late first millennium B.C. (the Pilipenkova hill) and the first millennium A.D. The studied constructions were partially deepened into the earth and had a squared shape and, in one case, a rounded one. Open hearths and, in the central part, post hole slumps were found in almost every construction. The greater part of the household pits is rounded or oval in plan, their average depth is 15 – 20 cm. All of these constructions have some correspondence to the Kolochin culture sites.The main part of the findings is hand-made pottery which is analogous to the Kolochin culture forms in the Sejm river basin (fig. 8), both with the settlement similar to the published material chronologically (the right column of the Table) and partly with the sites of the 7th century (fig. 8, column 2 and 3). Small amount of ceramics (about 2%) was made on the potter’s wheel, its forms are typical of the Cherniakhov culture. The oval frame of the buckle (fig. 6, 8) finds also parallels among the Cherniakhov culture materials. The fragment of a corrugated amphora and a glass vessel having analogs in the second half of the 3rd to the middle of the 4th centuries (Table) belong to the Black Sea imports. Two iron fibulae (fig. 6,6; 4,8) according to Lithuanian analogies are dated by the 5th – 6th centuries. The whole complex of finds suggests dating of the settlement by the end of the 4th to the 5th centuries, and perhaps, the beginning of the 6th century A.D. All the peculiarities of the given settlement continue the local traditions of the Roman period which were examinated, for example, on the Kiev culture settlement of Bukreevka (the 3rd – 4th centuries) with the distinct Cherniakhov influence. The materials of the settlement Kamenevo-2 allow to place it among the earliest sites of the forming Kolochin culture which are important for studies of its origin, ethnic and cultural attribution.
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The images on the coins of the Artukids can be conventionally split into two groups: the first one will include coins imitating mint type of other states; the second – coins with rather independent images created by seal carvers. In his paper, the author follows a system of classifications developed by St. Lane Poole. The author brings several examples of Artukids’ coinage and minutely studies the sixth type of the seven that were emitted. The type is related to the second group.
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The article is dedicated to a child’s burial found in 1997 during excavations on Giurgiulesti grave ground. The grave contained a bright and unusual for Moldova set of grave goods. The authors collected a vast number of analogues for the most significant find in this complex – globular embossed buttons decorated with granules. All analogues of the find from Giurgiulesti come from horde of silver decorations of the middle X-XI centuries, placed along a large arc embracing basins of Vistula, Danube, Dniester and Dnieper. The article makes a reconstruction of a silver jewellery head dress of the middle X – early XI cc., which was worn together with a dress decorated with silver buttons decorated with granules. This dress could consist of: «Wolyn’ ear rings»; necklaces made of silver beads decorated with granules, semi-globular and crescent-shaped pendants; wire bracelets with disjoint or knit ends; rings with semi-globular shield. Such vast geography of spread of these complexes with similar goods provides evidence of a common fashion existing in the middle X - early XI cc. for ceremonial jewellery dress, spread among the elite over a vast territory from Poland to Dnieper. Spread of these types of decorations is due to both migration of western Slavs to the east and movement of silver along the network of roads connecting basins of Dnieper, Dniester, Western Boug, Danube and Vistula. Decorations of this style on territory of the Eastern Europe seemed to be made by masters of Wolyn’-Kiev and Dniester workshop centres, while prototypes of decorations used in the dress of middle X – early XI cc. mainly come from Western Slavic antiquities of Danube lands of IX c.
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The article is a publication of 7 collective finds from early medieval Bulgarian fortresses placed south of Dorostol-Silistra (see fig. 1). Each treasure contains few items: Sredishte I (6 items), Sredishte II (18 items), Okorsh III (11 items), Tsar Asen (3 items), Rujno V (7 items), Rujno VI (29 items), Poprusanovo VII (16 items). Or, the seven collective finds comprise all in all 87 iron wares, basically agricultural tools, but also instruments, weapons and household utensils. Among these there are ploughshares, coulters, pickaxes, iron ends for shovels, sickles, grape cutters, scythes, drills, pincers, axes, spear ends, guards of sabre handles, etc. The fortresses, where the finds were discovered, evolved in the late IX – early X century and were apparently abandoned and destroyed in 1036. The sites (except Poprusanovo) have no cultural horizons and finds earlier than IX century and older than 1036. Therefore, all the finds should be attributed to the early Middle Ages. Apparently, collections of few items (Sredishte-1, Tsar Asen) used to be property of separate families, while richer treasures used to belong to several families, maybe to a whole kin. To my mind, all of them were hidden during a devastating invasion of the Petchenegers into the region in 1036. A study of the tools suggests conclusion about a highly developed agriculture in the region. Attention is to be specially focused on complexes comprising asymmetric welded ploughshares and coulters. They witness transition from ard to plough in Dobrudja and Bulgaria in X century. It was a big contribution to a sharp increase in the level of agricultural production and provided food to relatively numerous population of Dobrudja in X c., who inhabited over 350 settlements and about 40 fortresses.
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The article studies one of the aspects of archaeological culture of a nomadic people – the Petchenegers who lived on the territory of modern Bulgaria, south of Danube. It analyses a type of archaeological finds, and namely metal leaf-shaped open-work amulets belonging to the Petchenegers of XI century. The article contains data and gives a catalogue of 16 of such finds, defines chronology and area of their spread.
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The stratigraphy and chronology of cultural layer on Pskov settlement has not infrequently become subject of debates. In his paper of 1980, the author proposed a scheme for cultural stratigraphy of the bottom layer, identifying four disconnected periods in the life of the cemetery: Pskov-А (settlement of stone cemeteries culture bearers), Pskov-Б (settlement of long barrows culture bearers), Pskov-В (settlement of Rőuge culture) and Pskov-Г (early urban structure with apparent Varangian presence). This scheme was proved by further excavations, though till present the literature is dominated by the idea of successive connection between the settlements of periods Pskov Б and В. The article is a publication of excavations results obtained in 1983 and 1991-1992 and is dedicated to correlation of the earliest periods in existence of Pskov settlement. The results of these excavations introduced some corrections into the scheme of cultural stratigraphy of the site proposed in 1980. Meanwhile, the conclusion on absence of succession between the earliest periods in history of the site received additional evidence: it becomes obvious now, that there is no succession between the periods Pskov-A, Pskov-Б and Pskov-В, but, moreover, there were also chronological intervals, during which the area of the settlement was not inhabited.
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In 1990 five burial-mounds were investigated near the Chirileni village (Ungheni district). In the article is presented the material of the burial-mound 1 where 19 burial places of different times — from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages — were discovered.
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The article is dedicated to studying Russian-Byzantine treaties, the texts of which are placed into the most ancient Russian annals «Povesti vremennih let» under the years 907, 911, 944 and 971. These treaties represent the most ancient written records that reflected the reality of the early medieval state of the Kiev Russia. Despite the editorial proof-reading at the composition of the annals, the given treaties offer the information that is prior to the content of the annals into which they were included later. The author of the article analyses the structure of personal names that were included into the treaties from the Russian side. The majority of these names are of the Scandinavian origin. There are only three authentic Slavonic names. These are the people who can be considered the heirs of Rurik. All the people mentioned in the texts of the treaties are representatives of the nobility of Varangian origin. They have no relation to the chieftains of the Slavonic tribes subordinate to Kiev. Basing on the analysis of the text of the treaties the author follows the changes in the social structure of the upper layer of the Russian society in the X century.
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The article offers for scientific use the findings of a Middle Age burial site study. Irzekapinis is the ancient name (Prussian ‘graves of rowing men’) of the burial site close to Klintzovka village in Zelenograd Raion in the North East of Kaliningrad peninsula (ancient land of Sambia). It is a ground burial site, the burials being made through cremation rite. The excavation found 163 graves. The findings both inside the burials and on the surface show that chronologically the site belongs to a period from V to the beginning of XII century A. D. at least. Besides the graves, a shrine belonging to the second half of X century was discovered within the excavated part of the site. The shrine is believed to have been used for funeral ceremonies. Ceremony reconstruction: cremations were made outside, then the bones were brought to the site in a ceramic or bronze vesseland poured out into the grave, the lowest level of which had a horse skin buried earlier. The vessel then was dropped into the grave near the bones. There were fragments of other vessels (with funeral gifts?), weapons, household items and labour tools found in the graves. Quite many findings had fire traces on them. The fact that quite scarce objects of female decoration were found in the graves along with weapons and war horses suggests accompanying female burials present here. This ceremony emerges among the Prussians in VI century A. D. and persists till XIII century. The development of burial rite with the Prussians according to the Irzekapinis findings suggests creation of a military organization here, fully independent of tribal and early bodyguard structures. The Western (late IX – late X centuries) and Eastern (end of X – beginning of XI – late XI centuries) bodyguard groups of the site provide evidence for such organization. The article contains a catalogue of burials found in Irzekapinis, provides an integral typology of the burial artifacts and grounds for chronology of the site.
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Clothing and adornment both are an essential part of material culture, especially in traditional societies. For early medieval and barbarian societies, the lack of fine arts, human images or description of the cloths in literary sources force scholars to turn to the archaeological data, uncompleted and poor, but the only sources for reconstruction. The situation in early Slavonic archaeology is even more complicated, because of the specific burial customs – cremation with a poor grave goods, which were spread around the Slavonic lands in the second part of the I-st Millenium A. D. The only source to reconstruct the traditional adornment produce a number of hoards found in a Middle Dnieper basin, just in the neighbouring regions of the modern Ukraine, Russia and Buelorus’. Now it is known 24 hoards included sets of women’s decorations, belt fittings and some other things, all dated back to the 7-th and 8-th centuries A. D. The richest treasures (some of them contains more than 150 samples) are Martynovka, Kozievka, Novaya Odessa, Kharievka and three hoards, found at Pastyrskoye in Ukraine; Sudza, Gaponovo, Trubtchevsk in Russia). Set of female decorations usually included lamellate silver head-bands; bronze and silver torques; temple rings with slightly widened or spiral edges; bispiral, shield-boss shaped and trapeziform pendants; radiate-head, zoo-anthropomorthic and two-splint fibulae; small bells, beads and arm rings of different types. In the latest hoards temple rings were submitted by the earrings with the star-shaped or hollow pendants. It is necessary to estimate the possibilities of the material possessed as a source to reconstruction of the traditional set of ornaments. I am about to ground that the hoards of the “Antiquities of Antes” were not the treasures of the nobility or votive complexes, but accumulation of festive decoration, which were kept in each ordinary family and served for ritual purposes. That’s why it is possible to use these complexes for reconstruction of traditional costume, keeping in mind, that there could be more than one different sets of festive ornaments. The next step would be defining the limits for involving of the parallels, borrowed from ethnography and traditional cultures. As it is not proved yet that inhabitants of the Middle Dnieper basin in the third quarter of the I-st millenium A. D. were ethnically the ancestors of modern Slavs, so only general principles of ethnology could be extrapolated on these archaeological material without special preliminary studies. Nevertheless it seems to be possible to define special set of ornaments that belonged to maiden dress of bride and another one that belonged to dress of young married woman by comparing with traditional sets of ornaments inherent to these different age female groups in traditional societies. The first attempt to reconstruct the traditional set of female jewelry on the base of the data of hoards was made more than 40 years ago by B.A.Rybakov. He used traditional Russian peasant clothing as a comparable material, and created the example of reconstruction, which became classic. All of the modern reconstructions made on a base of newly founded treasures are very close to that model. Although the interest to the problems of the early Slavonic culture is evidently grow, ornaments are usually used for the needs of chronology establishing, or to characteristic of the trade or international connections. Conventionally it is no doubt, that the hoards which got a name “Antiquities of Antes” belong to one of the early medieval Slavonic tribes, mentioned in Byzantine Chronicles – the Antes. But now became evident, that the closest parallels and analogies to the sets of female ornaments from the hoards are spread from the territories, where were no Slavs that time. So, many scholars rejected the idea of the Slavonic origin of the adornments, although new hoards were found exactly in a contexts of the early Slavonic sites. A rare cases when a set of described female jewelry was reproduced in details in a burial complexes in Crimea (Lutchistoye) and in Steppe zone (Mokhnatch near Khar’kov and Dancheni in Moldavia), where were evidently no Slavs, is analyzed as like as a small number of inhumations with the same grave goods found in the Middle Dnieper region. Some observations on the peculiarities of construction of brooches reveals that one set usually included a pare of similar fibulae, one of which was dedicated for left shoulder, and the other – for the right. This feature is of grate importance, because after the works of J.Werner a common view existed, that the Dnieper Slavs wore only one fibula on the breast unlike all Germans who used a pare of fibulae in different compositions. Two fibulae on the shoulders were a characteristic feature of the dress of the Eastern German tribes: West- and Ost-goths and Gepids. So the fact that the inhabitants of the Middle Dnieper basin wore the dress familiar to traditional German needs the historical explanation. It is noticeable that only ornaments of head-dress survived in Slavonic culture of the Medieval Times and even up to the beginning of the XX century, transformed from metal into organic materials. The area of the distribution of the unified set of female adornments was not corresponded with any of the synchronous archaeological cultures, which traditionally are connected with the Slavs, but lay at their borders. One of the suggestions to prove is that the set of ornaments represented in hoards might reflect the market of the production of the flourished center of decorative metalworking, which determined the fashion even more, than the local traditions.
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The article deals with the earliest (Ancient Russian) stage in the process of urbanisation on the above-mentioned territory. On this stage (middle of X – beginning of XI centuries) socially and economically most developed settlements just reached the level of feudal centres – prince’ s fortresses surrounded by open and unfortified satellite settlements. They were on the stage of early urban settlements, proto-towns, when the process of their further development was interrupted, most likely by intrusion of nomad Turks.
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The article deals with a comparative analysis of jewelry: earrings and temple rings, which have a large number of analogies in the South-Eastern, Central and Eastern Europe. Due to their external similarities, the scientists sometimes take the earrings of so-called “Wolyn’ type”, spread from the Dnieper region to the Balkans and Middle Danube region, for “Kama” earrings, spread in the Kama and Volga region. The term “earrings of Wolyn’ type” is understood as a totality of morphologically similar ornaments found in the treasures of Dnieper and Wolyn’ regions. Yet each of these types differs by the manufacturing method, origin and area of prevalence. The author distinguished A, B, C and D types. Thus, the basis of A type are earrings with embossed pendants, represented in proto-Bulgarian (middle VII – early VIII century) and the Great Moravia Antiquities (VIII – IX centuries). In IX – XI centuries the earrings with pendants of a similar shape (but mainly cast ones) were spread on Bulgarian territory (version 3A). In Russia and Poland peculiar versions (1A and 2A) of earrings with larger embossed pendants decorated by granules were spread since the middle of X century. “Wolyn’ earrings” of B type are derived from the earrings characteristic for Middle Avar period. Analogous ornaments with glass beads replaced by metal ones evolve in IX century. The “Wolyn’ earrings” of B type were spread in the Carpathian and Dnieper region, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. “Wolyn’ earrings” of C type, which pendant consists of just small balls, also derived from Avar and Great Moravian prototypes, were spread on a vast territory embracing Carpathian-Dniester region, Wolyn’, Dnieper region, Transylvania, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia. Analogous are the earrings with rolled strings occupying major part of the pendant. They are distinguished as D type and represented, mainly, on the Serb and Yugoslavian territories. As individual findings they are also met in the treasures in the Dnieper region. Earrings and temple rings spread in Kama and in Volga Bulgaria regions are very similar to the mentioned “earrings of Wolyn’ type”. The author examines peculiarities of their morphological structure and manufacturing method in order to distinguish their similarities and differences. Thus, Kama earrings, very similar to the “Wolyn’ earrings” of A type but made using a different manufacturing method, evolved on this territory from VII to XI centuries. They emerged independently of the earrings of “Wolyn’ type” but were also influenced by the Danube models. Grape-like earrings emerge independent of “Wolyn’ earrings” of B and C types and earlier than the latter ones (late VIII-IX centuries) and exist till X century in the Kama region. Yet with all the external similarities, there is a number of differences in the arc of the ring and the grape-like pendant of the Kama earrings, analogous both with late Avar, Caucasus and Saltov jewelry. Thus, “Wolyn’” and “Kama” earrings demonstrate two different jewelry traditions having, however, common origins connected with the jewelry art of Danube and Balkan region based on a compound mixture of nomads’ and settled people’s tastes and Byzantine jewellers’ skills.
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The article considers the problems of classification of settlements of 10th and 14th centuries on the territorie sof Upper Siret and Middle Dnister. Based on topographical location of settlements of studied territories they are divided into those located on promontories, on a ridge, on the edge of a natural obstacle, on the plain. Based on interconnection of plan construction of defense structures and topographical environment of location all fortified settlements of Bukovyna are divided into simple and complex. It is investigated that structures of defensive lines can be dismembered or solid.
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This article is aimed to introduce into scientific discourse the results of the research of burial ground Berezovka/Gross Ottenhagen dated to the 2nd—12th cc. conducted in 2004. According to the results of work in the eastern and western parts of the Berezovka burial ground, we can make preliminary conclusion that originally this burial ground contained more than 500 burials. According to data of geophysical investigations in the neighborhood, we can conclude that there may be more than 100 undisturbed burial complexes. Burials dated to the Roman Time, that were investigated at Berezovka burial ground in season 2004, give us a wealth of material for study. Along with the burials that are traditional for certain stages of development of Sambian-Natangian Culture in the Roman Time, some new elements of the funeral rite occur on Berezovka burial ground, clearly indicating contacts with other synchronous cultures. These findings allow to clarify and to a certain degree to reconstruct the processes of social and cultural transformation that took place in the territories of the Pregolya River valley in the Roman Time.
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The first archaeological excavations of the medieval Christian cave complex over Yalta were conducted in 2011—2012. This site is unique for the Southern Coast of the Crimea. It is located in the upper part of the Iograf ridge at an altitude near 1250 m above sea level.The complex consists of two caves: Iograf I and Iograf II. In the first one, there was a temple known from drawings of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. Now it is completely destroyed.The excavations in the cave Iograf I allowed to localize remains of the southeast wall of the temple and fully explore the natural niche in the eastern wall of the cave.Here on the rocky surface were depicted some crosses and inscriptions. The cultural layer yielded numerous items of the personal piety, fragments of ethnographic costumes, fragments of church utensils, etc. These data allow interpreting the niche as a particularly revered place used for votive offerings.Analyses of the materials from excavation allowed distinguing five stages in the history of the Christian cave complex which started in late 9th —10th centuries and continues to the present day.
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