Archaeological Department

One of finds of a field season of 2009 – a fritware bowl with the Arab inscription at its bottom is
considered in the article. On a series of characteristics and analogies the most probable place of its
production is pre-mongol Iran, however, the inscription at the bottom of the bowl had already made in the
course of its use by the owner that gives the chance to receive information about elements of an everyday
life of inhabitants of the city in the XII century.

The article studies the group of glazed jars that were found in 2010 at Samosdelka site. The author uses a wide range of analogies from medieval sites in modern Bulgaria, Crimea, the Azov region, and from Constantinople. The origin and dates of the ware are analyzed on the basis of both the archaeological material and the context of the picture by Duccio di Buoninsegna, which dates to a narrow chronological interval. The article identifies the possible source of import of the jars and the time when they were used.

The article studies the luster pottery found during surveys on the Samosdelka site at the Volga Delta. The author identifies groups and types of the pottery, offers interpretation of the presented groups. Archaeological interpretation and dating are supplemented by reference to the typology and chronology, developed by arts historians for the ceramics of pre-Mongolian time. The conclusion considers the most likely sources of imports of the studied pottery and period of its coming to the site.

The author of the article made an overview and general description of archaeological fi nds from
the collection of Gorodtsov V.A., which entered the museum after the research in 1907 on the territory
of the Golden Horde settlement Madzhar. The materials from the fi rst archeological excavations,
carried out on this monument, were introduced into scientifi c discourse.

The dates of the “druzhina” necropolises which go back to the time of emergence of the Old Russian state have long been the focus of attention for scholars in this country and abroad. The cemetery at Timeryovo has also been an object of interest. One of the most vivid burials at the site is chamber grave 348, which yielded rich grave goods, clearly Scandinavian in appearance. The article attempts to date the burial on the basis of analyzing the archive materials, the grave goods and the funeral rite, and suggests a new date: 990–1010 AD. Even though many assertions in the article may appear disputable, we are of the opinion that the most probable date of the burial is the turn of the 10 th and 11 th cc. Thus, chamber burial 348 may be one of the most recent “classical” chamber burials.

In the paper introduce into scientific use
the new, previously undefined details of sword
hilts, which were found in mounds of the Gnezdovo
(the Smolensk region) and the Petrovsky
(the Yaroslavl region) cemeteries of the Old Rus’
state formation period. These details present
the iron hilt plates of triangular form, encrusted
by non-ferrous metal. The paper defines a
range of analogies (both direct and remote) to
the Old Rus’ hilt plates, originated from Latvia,
Denmark, Sweden and Finland. They enable to
determine the application of these hilt plates,
installed in couples on both sides of a sword
wooden hilt and performing solely decorative
functions. There is an interesting connection
between the hilt plates and the swords of type V
(according to the typology of J. Petersen), date
from the second half of the X century.

In chamber burial № 100 at the cemetery of Timerevo, was found a quirt remade from a spear-head of type I which is very rare in Eastern Europe. A second cleaning enabled to discern and reconstruct a complicated pattern of continuous inlay on its surface. X-Ray fluorescent analysis established that wires of silver and a copper-based alloy were used for inlaying (the number of wires used for inlaying was 3 pieces per 1 mm). The association tied with the find under consideration suggests that the spear-head of type I, which must have been a precious and distinctive piece of weaponry, was brought to Old Rus either by its Scandinavian owner or during some trade/exchange. It seems that the tip was broken and the remaining sleeve and the lower part of the blade were remade into a quirt. In this latter form the object was put into the grave of its last owner in the fourth quarter of the 10 th century.