ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, the search for archaeological evidence of a Scandinavian presence in Rus’ has become a major field of Russian medieval archaeological research. Intensive investigations at high-status urban/trading centres such as Riurikovo Gorodishche (near Novgorod), Gnezdovo and Staraya Ladoga have produced most of the material evidence for this interaction, and consequently dominate our understanding of the scale and character of Scandinavian activity in the East. This chapter summarises the results of an extensive survey of Viking-Age settlements in the Suzdal’ region of the Upper Volga Basin – a core area of the North-Eastern Rus’. Most of these settlements can be dated to the tenth and early eleventh centuries ad. The chapter focuses, in particular, on finds of ‘Scandinavian-style’ metalwork recovered from both towns and rural settlements. Though small in number, these artefacts define the eastern boundaries of ‘Viking’ cultural influence, and mapping these finds has enabled us to build a more precise understanding of the scale and character of cultural interaction with the Scandinavian world. Of course, our once-optimistic outlook on the identification of Scandinavian households and graves at sites within Rus’ has been tempered by experience into a more cautious attitude to the complex problem of archaeological ethnicity. Nevertheless, by shifting our material base we can still ask new questions about the organisation of society and the construction of social identity. Questions that future research will be able to test.
