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The largest of the early Novgorod treasures was discovered in 2024 by researchers from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences during rescue excavations. According to preliminary estimates, the treasure, called Vozdvizhensky, was buried in the 70s of the 10th century. The discovered artifacts with a total weight of about 3 kg include more than 80 fine jewelry and about 1,800 whole and fragmented coins from different parts of Eurasia. All of them, except for one product and several glass beads, are made of high-grade silver. Archaeologists told more about the discovery at the presentation of the treasure, held at IA RAS on October 3. "Many people believe that the main task of archaeology is the search for treasures. But, unfortunately, in reality, archaeologists rarely deal with them. Archaeologists work with the cultural layer, the remains of buildings, ancient burials, <...> and treasures, intentionally hidden treasures, are usually discovered by people under random circumstances, random earthworks. They are rarely professionally scientifically documented at the time of their discovery and often end up in museums in an altered form, having lost the context and part of the objects. Therefore, any treasure found at the time of archaeological excavations is a great success for archaeology and a rich source of extremely important scientific information," said Academician Nikolai Andreevich Makarov, Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Scientists discovered the treasure at the end of rescue excavations of a five-meter cultural layer on the territory given over to the construction of a private cottage. The owners of the land helped the archaeologists — their son actively participated in the work. The main part of the coins of the treasure comes from the ancient states of the Middle East and Central Asia, among which the dirhams of the rulers from the Samanid dynasty represent the largest share. The treasures also included coins from Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire. "So far, only whole Arabic, Byzantine and Western European coins have been dated. At the moment, we can say that this treasure was buried in the second half of the 70s of the 10th century, that is, from about 975, which dates back to the “youngest” coin of the coins of the Samanid dynasty, minted in Samarkand under Amir (ruler) Mansour ibn Nuha. Here we also have the miliarisium, a silver coin of the Byzantine Empire of Emperor John Tzimisces, who died in 976. There is also a coin of the Holy Roman Empire of Emperor Otto I, who died in 973. These three reference dates give us a preliminary dating of the treasure," explained Pyotr Grigoryevich Gaidukov, head of the Novgorod expedition of IA RAS, Deputy Director of the Institute, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Vozdvizhensky hoard includes about 1,800 whole and fragmented coins from different parts of Eurasia. Photo: Anastasia Zhukova / Scientific Russia P.G. Gaidukov noted that if in the future the date of burial of the treasure shifted to a later time, it could be "tied" to the stormy and difficult baptism of Novgorod in 988. This could explain why the owner of the treasures did not return for them — he could have died in the civil strife that engulfed the city. The scientist recalled that the outstanding archaeologist and historian V.L. Yanin associated several other Novgorod treasures with the baptism of Russia. In addition to whole coins, there are a lot of fragments and scraps of dirhams in the treasure. But why did ancient people "spoil" coins? It's simple: they were used as weight silver. "Theoretically, dirhams should have weighed 2.5 g, and the ancient Russian monetary system was originally set up for exactly this weight of these coins. The first Old Russian hryvnia weighed about 50 g. 20 dirhams made up the hryvnia. But then, due to some economic and technical factors, the weight of dirhams — even minted under one ruler — began to fluctuate very much. <...> Therefore, already in the tenth century there was a transition from counting by the number of dirhams to counting by the weight of silver," P.G. Gaidukov said. The Deputy director of the Institute, Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyotr Grigoryevich Gaidukov, spoke about the origin of coins from the Vozdvizhensky treasure. 

For comparison: according to Russian Truth, for the most terrible crime in Ancient Russia — the murder of a princely vigilante — it was necessary to pay a fine of 40 hryvnia. In addition, it was possible to buy 100-120 cows for 60 hryvnia. Judging by the wealth and variety of artifacts, the treasure could belong to a representative of the elite — a vigilante or a wealthy Novgorod citizen. Irina Evgenievna Zaitseva, a specialist in metal, jewelry and jewelry of Ancient Russia, senior researcher at the Department of Medieval Archaeology of IA RAS, shared the history of jewelry as part of the treasure, calling the treasures "masterpieces of jewelry" of her time. The analysis showed that the products were melted down from silver coins. And this is not surprising — in that era, silver was mined in huge quantities on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, from where it "spread" across Europe. Some pendants are not even melted down, but are literally made of coins, to which ears are simply attached. The treasure discovered by archaeologists includes more than 80 fine jewelry pieces. All of them, with the exception of one product and several glass beads, are made of high-grade silver.

Photo: Anastasia Zhukova / Scientific Russia

Slavic and Scandinavian cultures are closely intertwined in the jewelry set.

So, from the north, a gilded copper pendant, several silver pendants and silver beads united by a characteristic ornament of curls arrived in ancient Novgorod. Bright representatives of Slavic culture are moonlighters, crescent—shaped jewelry that could be part of necklaces. "Such large moonstones are very rare, and they are found mainly in treasures <...>. Such moonstones and pendants with grains are storerooms, they are almost impossible to find anywhere else," said I.E. Zaitseva. Some findings raise new questions for researchers. "An interesting thing is the single—bused temporal ring. Such rings are currently considered characteristic of a later time — the XI century. Thus, this ring is one of the oldest finds. Probably, the time of occurrence of such temporal rings will be reviewed or new analogies of this find will be sought," I.E. Zaitseva shared.

Moonstones (Slavic crescent-shaped jewelry) and glass beads. Photo: Anastasia Zhukova / Scientific Russia "Costume jewelry" is of no less interest.

"These glass beads are called ocular and are made in the millefiori technique, which means "a thousand flowers" in Italian," said I.E. Zaitseva. "This is a rather complicated technique for making products, in which craftsmen took thin multicolored twigs, put them together in a kind of bundles and then cut into separate pieces, from which such colorful and very beautiful products were later made." "These things lead us to very important subjects of early Russian history. Behind the combination of typically Slavic and typically Scandinavian items in one treasure as part of one headdress is a very complex and intriguing topic of Slavic-Scandinavian relations. <...> We see Arab, Byzantine and Western European coins lying together, <...> which speaks about the diversity of cultural and trade relations of Novgorod," concluded N.A. Makarov. An important source of information about the ancient Novgorod culture is a cross of the "Scandinavian type" and several pendants of Byzantine coins with crosses. Taking into account the current dating of the burial of the treasure, this suggests that even before the Baptism of Russia, people familiar with Christianity lived in Novgorod. In addition to the treasure, during the excavations, the researchers found finds from other eras. Among them are two human skulls from the XI century layers, which will be studied separately.

Irina Evgenievna Zaitseva, Senior Researcher at the Department of Medieval Archaeology of the IA RAS, and academician N.A. Makarov. Photo: Anastasia Zhukova / Scientific Russia

"About 1,500 individual finds were found at the excavation site. <...> What is typical for urban strata, many thousands of such mass finds have been discovered, such as fragments of ceramics, bones of animals and birds, various leather scraps and scraps. Among the most outstanding items is a birch bark letter <...> — a short IOU, as well as a silver money bar of the XIV century, shaped like a wand," P.G. Gaidukov said. — Novgorod both in its heyday (in the XIV–XV centuries) and, apparently, in the XIII century. It served as a kind of “gateway” for transporting a lot of goods to Russia. In the XIV century . This activity was monopolized by the Hanseatic League, and from that time on, the Novgorodians traded only with the Hanseatic League. Before Peter the Great, the whole of Eastern Europe, including Russia, was in serious need of non-ferrous metals. In addition to marsh ore, Russia did not have its own metal — only under Peter I, thanks to his energy, the development of mines in the Urals began, and the young empire stood firmly on its feet with its own non-ferrous metals. Thus, the reason for the active influx of Arab and later Western European silver to Russia is that the state did not have its own metal, which served as a raw material for monetary circulation and jewelry production. Therefore, when in the XIV century. Novgorod actively traded with the Hanseatic League, the Hanseatic League brought silver scrap to Russia, it was melted down in Novgorod, two hundred gram money bars were made, <...> and this silver was already distributed throughout Russia in this form. They also served as a material for jewelry." In the future, the treasure is planned to be transferred to the Novgorod State Museum-Reserve. However, before that, the researchers will have to study the findings in detail. For example, archaeologists are going to cooperate with the Kurchatov Institute Research Center in the field of analyzing the technology of making jewelry and other ancient artifacts.

Other details about the treasure, its composition and the place of discovery can be found from the material previously published on the portal "Scientific Russia". Photo on the preview and on the main page: Anastasia Zhukova / "Scientific Russia" Photo on the page: Anastasia Zhukova / "Scientific Russia" The information is taken from the portal "Scientific Russia" (https://scientificrussia.ru /)