photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Hajar | all galleries >> Viking Age Art >> Viking Age Art Styles > Jellinge-style backward-looking animal billon pendant with barred body, 36 m, copper silver (billon) alloy. Gnyozdovo-Smolensk.
previous | next

Jellinge-style backward-looking animal billon pendant with barred body, 36 m, copper silver (billon) alloy. Gnyozdovo-Smolensk.

A near exact match for this motif is seen in a pendant from Sorunda, Sweden, published by Universitetets Oldsaksamling Oslo (3.19). Another was part of the Gnezdovo treasure (1883). Yet another, found near Lake Ilmen, is shown in Toropov (2014, pg 232, Figure 5, item 14). "Despite the absence of any reliable archaeological context, the materials under consideration widen our notions about the geography of distribution of Scandinavian products throughout the regions of the Novgorod state. Three territorial zones are identifiable: 1) Ryurik Gorodishche (Rurik Hillfort) and the immediate surroundings of the city of Novgorod; 2) Lake region, and 3) Southern Ilmen area."

"Gnyozdovo is situated downstream from the Dvina–Dnieper portages, at a point where the Svinets and several small waterways empty into the Dnieper. Like Smolensk at a later period, Gnyozdovo flourished through trade along the Dnieper going south to Constantinople and north over portages to the Dvina and the Lovat, two rivers flowing to the Baltic Sea. At the time of its establishment, the local citadel served a defensive function against possible attacks on the portages, where the Norse traders would be at their most vulnerable. After internal tensions within Kievan Rus settled down, the site of Gnyozdovo "formed the critical exchange centre and refitting base on the route from the Baltic to the Black Sea."" (Wikipedia article)

See also In Sedov, V.V. 1982. Eastern Slavs in the VI-XIII centuries. Archeology of the USSR. Moscow. pg 249.


other sizes: small medium original auto
share
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment