CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

THE VIKINGS AND THE

EASTERN BALTIC

Heiki Valk

VIKING TRADE AND VIKING SILVER

The waterways

I

n the Viking Age, the eastern Baltic was involved in the large waterways leading to
the east, as well as in the local Baltic Sea trade networks (Figure 36. 1 ). The two main
routes to Old Rus were the Gulf of Finland and the Daugava River in present-day
Latvia. The Viking way crossed the gulf between Finland and Estonia near present-
day Tallinn, passing on along the north Estonian coastline. The importance of the
Daugava, the main continental waterway, has changed in the course of time (Berga
1988 : 31 ). In Latvia the earliest, ninth-century, finds of Viking silver are from the
western part of the country and have come, evidently, via Gotland. In the early tenth
century the Daugava road emerged and became the main route of Viking trade, but
already in less than a century silver coins arrived in Latvia mainly from the north-east,
from the basin of the Velikaya River. The Gauja River area, especially the lands at its
lower course, was also influenced by Scandinavian culture (Tõnisson 1974 ; Apala and
Apals 1992 ).
An important water route from the Gulf of Finland to Old Rus, especially Pskov,
consisted of the Narva River and Lake Peipsi between present-day Estonia and Russia.
Another, smaller waterway in inland Estonia was formed by the Emajõgi River, Lake
Võrtsjärv and the Pärnu River with its tributaries. This communication channel joined
Lake Peipsi with the Baltic Sea and contributed to the formation of late Iron Age centres
in Tartu and Viljandi. In Tartu, which belonged in 1030 – 61 to Old Rus, a large
settlement existed in that period.

Viking silver

In the eastern Baltic, Viking trade is most clearly expressed in silver hoards (Figure
36. 2 ), which consist until the mid-tenth century mainly of Arabic coins. Probably, the
main goods exchanged for silver were furs, especially beaver, which were demanded at
the large markets (Leimus and Kiudsoo 2004 ). Hoards with Kufic coins appear in Latvia