lancet-shaped arrowheads (Kolesnikova 1975 ). A scabbard chape decorated in Borre
style was also found in the town. Another chape with a bird motif came to light at Kerch
(Frenkel 2002 : 134 – 7 ). There are no finds of Scandinavian female character known from
this area. Such exceptional military character of the finds is also characteristic of objects
found in Bulgaria, where six bronze scabbard chapes decorated in Borre and Jellinge
style and also some swords of Scandinavian origin have been found. It has been
suggested that all these elements of weaponry came to Bulgaria probably via the Dnepr
way (Yotov 2002 ).
CURRENT DISCUSSIONS ON SCANDINAVIAN
ACTIVITIES IN THE EASTSince Hans Hildebrand’s article was published as an archaeological contribution to the
Swedish version of Vilhelm Thomsen’s book about the origin of the Russian state
(Hildebrand 1882 : 131 – 41 ), the archaeological sources have become an important
argument for both Normanists and Antinormanists in discussions on the role, of the
Scandinavians in the creation of the Russian state (Schmidt 1970 ; Sˇaskol’skij 1970 ).
Yet, in his article, Hildebrand raised the question of the criteria in searching for Scandi-
navians in Russia. According to him the percentage relationship between foreign and
local items is important in such studies (Hildebrand 1882 : 135 ). Firstly he came to the
conclusion that especially the finds of oval brooches, which are characteristic of the
costume of Scandinavian women, represent serious evidence for Scandinavian settlement
in Russia (Hildebrand 1882 : 139 ). However, he never wrote on the role of such finds
in his discussion of the foundation of the Russian state and underlined only their
importance for Swedish cultural history (Hildebrand 1882 : 141 ). The discussion was
continued by Ture J. Arne, who, on the basis of his personal studies of museum collec-
tions and excavations of graves and grave goods in both countries, suggested a wider list
of indicators for Scandinavians in the east, including even spikes, rivets, weapons, fire-
steels, combs and scissors. Graves with such finds he regarded as evidence of the
existence of Swedish colonies (Arne 1914 , 1940 ). Arne’s approach was developed by
Holger Arbman ( 1955 , 1960 ), who, while stating the existence of Scandinavian colonies
in the east, nevertheless came to the conclusion that there is no archaeological evidence
supporting the idea of the ‘foundation’ of a state by Scandinavians (Arbman 1955 : 78 – 9 ,
94 ). Many of Arne’s indicators were called into question by some researchers, who
suggested trade and exchange as possible ways for Scandinavian artefacts coming to
Russia. Moreover, neither Arne nor Arbman explained in detail their own concepts of
colonies and colonisation. That is why their conclusions very soon came to be challenged
by Soviet scholars.
One reason was that all conclusions about Scandinavian migration, expansion and
colonisation that mixed with the foundation of the Russian state became an extremely
touchy subject during and after the Second World War. Adolf Hitler’s statement:
‘Unless other people, beginning with the Vikings, had imported some rudiments
of organisation into Russian humanity, the Russians would still be living like
rabbits’ (Duczko 2004 : 4 ; Härke 1998 : 22 ) puts a shadow over the questions related to
Scandinavian activities in the east. The purpose of the 1930 s’ and post-war Soviet
research was to look for social processes and state formation in the archaeological data.
The theoretical foundation of the Soviet scholars was that the Marxist belief about the
–– chapter 38 : The Vikings in the east––