1993 ). During the second part of the ninth century the population of Zemljanoe
gorodishche were still living in the same two types of house, as mentioned above. Some
artefacts interpreted by Russian scholars as Slavic have close parallels in the area of the
Upper Dnepr, populated by Krivichi tribes, according to the Russian Primary Chronicle.
One large house with a fireplace in the centre is known from this period. A rune stick
with a disputed inscription was found in this house (Melnikova 2001 : 202 ). A mould for
producing lunula-shaped pendants popular in many Slavic cultures has been found in
the earth hill fort and could be dated to the same period (Davidan 1993 : 32 nr 39 Abb.
11 : 39 ). Several gaming-pieces of Scandinavian type could be dated to this and later
periods (Davidan 1993 : 50 Abb. 22 , 146 – 8 , 151 – 4 ).
Scandinavian objects have also been found in the later horizons of Staraya Ladoga
dated to the tenth century. These artefacts consist of fragmentary bronze oval brooches,
equal-armed brooches, a small circular brooch, one animal-head brooch, pendants,
oval strike-a-light-shaped pendants, iron rings with Þórr’s hammer pendants, bronze
decorated mounts of bridles and a decorated ringed pin (Davidan 1993 : 28 Abb. 8 : 4 – 6 ,
8 – 12 , 9 : 13 – 14 , 21 – 2 ; Golubeva 2003 : 75 figs 128 – 34 , 79 figs 150 – 2 , 154 , 83 fig. 176 ;
Kirpichnikov 2004 : 189 figs 10 – 11 ). Around ad 894 a large house was constructed
at Zemljanoe gorodishche. Among the finds in the house were ceramic, spindle whorls,
beads, pieces of amber, weights, a gold finger-ring, fragments of glass cups, combs, a
gaming-piece, an axe-shaped pendant and a wooden cylinder with a bird motif
(Rjabinin 2002 : 15 ). This house was used until the 930 s and has been interpreted as a
building belonging to a group, most probably well-to-do Scandinavian traders (Duczko
2004 : 87 ). Recently a suggestion has been made that the house was the residence of a
deputy of the prince or a prince’s palace (Rjabinin 2002 : 23 ). In the ninth–eleventh
centuries the settlement covered an area of no less than 10 – 12 ha ( Jansson 1997 : 27 ).
To the south-east of the earth hill fort and to the west of the part of the settlement on
the northern side of the Ladozhka brook three cemeteries from the Viking Age were
situated. One of them, in a place now called Pobedishche, consisted of barrows with
cremation and inhumation graves. The cemetery was destroyed in the twentieth century
but a stray find of an oval brooch from the tenth century is known from there (Mikhailov
2003 : 154 fig. 312 ). Other grave finds discovered here have close parallels in Finnish
barrows south of Lake Ladoga and one of them contained a pendant with a Rurikids’
symbol – a trident symbol used today as a coat of arms of Ukraine, which is believed to
emanate from the first ruler of Rus’, Rurik (Golubeva 2003 : 104 fig. 315 ).
On the eastern side of the Volkhov River, near Chernavino village, in a place called
Plakun, a small cemetery consisting of eighteen barrows has been excavated (Nazarenko
1985 ; Mikhailov 2003 ; Duczko 2004 : 91 ). The barrows contained male and female
cremation graves, probably burnt in boats or with the use of parts of boats. In one of the
female graves a fragmentary so-called Tating-ware jug was found. It has been stated by
some scholars that they were made in the Rhineland for liturgical use. In one of the
barrows a coffin with the skeleton of a man in a chamber grave was discovered. The
chamber grave is dated to c. 895 and has close parallels in southern Scandinavia
(Mikhailov 1996 , 2003 : 155 ). Another chamber grave from the tenth century also with
southern Scandinavian burial traits was discovered on the top of a large barrow situated
about 250 m to the south of the small barrows (Nosov 1985 ; Mikhailov 1996 ). A male
individual with two horses, riding gear, a knife, arrowheads, a bucket, an animal-headed
bone point and Byzantine bronze buckle were found in the chamber.
–– chapter 38 : The Vikings in the east––