one find marks the movement of Scandinavians along the Don River, a richly decorated
silver equal-armed brooch in Borre style from Elets in the Voronezh region (Arbman
1960 : 120 Abb. 2 – 6 ).
The region of the Desna River (Shestovitsa and Chernigov)A considerable amount of Scandinavian objects were revealed in the area of the Desna
River, especially in such sites as Shestovitsa and Chernigov. The Shestovitsa archaeo-
logical complex is situated about 14 km south-east of Chernigov, on the right bank of
the Desna River (Blifeld 1977 ; Androshchuk 1999 , 2000 ; Kovalenko 2000 ). Two hill
forts, a large settlement and six groups of barrows are known in this area. The dating of
the hill fort in the centre of the modern village is uncertain; however, some barrows
excavated on village land definitely dated to the Viking Age (Blifeld 1977 : 187 – 8 ). The
current level of knowledge about Shestovitsa allows us to construct the following for the
development of the site. Before c. 900 a small fortified settlement existed at the south
end of the Korovel’ headland. Then in the course of the tenth century, westwards from
the headland, on the wet meadows and on the headland itself a large settlement was
established. Westwards and north-eastwards from the settlement numerous barrows
were raised. Because of intensive fortification works at the south end of the headland in
the twelfth century it is still unclear if any hill fort existed here in the tenth century
(Androshchuk 1999 : 29 , 75 ; Kovalenko et al. 2003 : 56 , 60 ). During excavations of
the headland area, several dozen buildings were revealed. Along the western edge of the
headland beside the wet meadows, a rectangular building with evidence for the pro-
duction of iron and pitch was discovered (Kovalenko et al. 2003 : 57 ). Evidence of pitch
production was also revealed on the wet meadow part of the settlement. Among the
finds were a fragmentary Scandinavian oval brooch, numerous rivets, beads and a bronze
button from the tenth century. A large number of Scandinavian artefacts came from
mounds with cremations and inhumations. Around thirty chamber graves with clear
Scandinavian identities (jewellery, weapons and ritual traits) could be distinguished
among the Shestovitsa graves (Androshchuk 1999 : 42 table 7 ). Most of the Scandinavian
objects from Shestovitsa dated to the tenth century; however, one south Scandinavian
beaked brooch from the seventh century was found recently on the settlement. The
Scandinavian cultural traditions of Shestovitsa point towards central Sweden (especially
Birka, but also Denmark and Åland).
North-eastward from Shestovitsa, on the right bank of the Desna River, was situated
Chernigov, the capital of the medieval principality (Rybakov 1949 ; Kovalenko
2000 ). The topography and character of the site in the tenth century are still disputed
(Androshchuk 1999 , 2000 ; Kovalenko 2000 ). All we know about Chernigov at this
time are the remains of numerous barrow groups, which occupy a wide area. Scandina-
vian objects were found in large and smaller barrows with cremation and chamber
graves. Two large barrows were situated on the high right bank of the Desna River. One
of them, called Gulbishche, contained a sword with a scabbard chape decorated in
Jellinge style (Duczko 2004 : 241 ). The third large barrow, called Chornaja Mogila,
was situated far from the bank of river close to the hill where the medieval Eletskij
monastery was built. Here a large number of various objects were found including two
swords, boat rivets and a little bronze figure of the Old Norse god Þórr (Duczko 2004 :
fig. 70 b–d). Close to the barrow a chamber grave with riding gear and weaponry was
–– chapter 38 : The Vikings in the east––