ABSTRACT
Scandinavians were certainly active in the ninth and tenth centuries in the lands east of the Baltic. Unfortunately, the evidence leaves much room for doubt about their role there. Archaeological finds demonstrate contact between the two areas at that time, but the import of jewellery, weapons or even coins from one area to the other does not prove that the contacts were direct. Such objects could have been the personal possessions of a traveller or migrant, but they might equally have been stolen, received as gifts, or traded. The import of very large numbers of coins to Scandinavia from north Russia in the ninth and tenth centuries is often assumed to demonstrate trade, but they could as well have been plunder, tribute extorted by force, or the pay of mercenaries, as some other coin imports certainly were. The best archaeological indication that Scandinavians lived—or rather died—in Russia is provided by graves of a distinctively Scandinavian type, in particular boat-burials (Stalsberg, 1979). This custom of burial was at that time only practised in Scandinavia, including the Åland islands, and in areas of Scandinavian settlement overseas (Müller-Wille, 1970). The ten burials of this kind found at Plakun, near Ladoga (Korkukhina, 1971) are good evidence for the presence there of Scandinavians, probably of fairly high social standing. Some of the boat-burials found at Gnezdovo, near Smolensk, however, appear to be more recent and are a local adaptation of the Scandinavian custom (Bulkin, 1975). Such finds do not, of course, show whether the people buried were members of a ruling, perhaps conquering, group, or were warriors recruited by native rulers or merchants. The large group of burials at Plakun suggests that the Scandinavians were a settled group there, and this is confirmed by the fact that one of the burials was that of a woman.
