The question of the thresholds on the way from the Varangians to the Greeks is not an easy one, the whole modern history and even some alternative views on the history of the emergence and development of Petersburg Russia hang on it!
When I wrote about the Mariinsky water system, it turned out that this much more extensive system includes the Vyshnevolotsky and Tikhvin ones! Read here: "Neva - canal. Mariinsky water system". It was made for use … but that's not the task - it turned out that in its key places there were impassable rapids … that is, from the Greeks to the Varangians it was still possible for money and with the help of special pilots, but there was nothing to do against the current on the rapids! Not for what money! On this route, the first to exist are the Nevsky rapids, or they are also called Ivanovsky, according to the official history of shipping, the river was one-way navigation until the 1930s and this navigation was very dangerous! The problem was finally won after work in the 1970s, when the fairway was widened and made, and then a special dispatcher conducts the vessel up the river,since now the current is 4-5 meters per second! Whoever went on boats and kayaks on the rivers knows that this is a very decent current, you can't rake it out with your hands!
Well, it turned out that the Volkhov River also had rapids before the construction of the Volkhov Hydroelectric Power Station in 1923! This is how Olearius "saw" the passage through the rapids but Volkhov.
Ancient Russian sorcerous "historians" see the rapids as follows …
And I am a small kayaker I see the passage of rapids against the current so….
Promotional video:
And downstream, especially when the water is still more, so …
What are the Volkhov rapids? I came across one little book where a man is described who was catching whitefish on the rapids - he was special there, Volkhov's ….
--- Whitefish were caught in the rapids in a very original way, which has no analogues in Russia. It was based on a simple principle - catching fish fighting against the current in shallow parts of the river, using a net adapted for this.
Before the construction of the Volkhovskaya HPP dam, the depth in the rapids in the spring reached 1.8 m, and in the fall it ranged from one meter to 30 cm. During the flood, whitefish were caught right from the shore, where nature itself made ledges to the water. The rest of the time the fishermen went into the water up to their waist. In addition to the net, the necessary equipment for each fisherman was a special leather suit, which consisted of a jacket ("hoodie") and long trousers that reached the armpits, sewn together with boots ("leather"). For waterproofness, the entire suit was thoroughly soaked in liquid tar, sometimes with an admixture of wax or fat. Bast shoes were put on their feet, to which iron quadrangular horseshoes with pointed spikes were attached with ropes. Such horseshoes, each weighing up to 2.5 kilograms, provided the fisherman with resistance against strong currents in the rapids and movement on a slippery bottom. Going into the waterAs far as the depth allowed, the fishermen, showered with splashing waves, scooped whitefish from the flowing stream of the river with nets. The fish hit the net - the angler's hand feels the swing - and the whitefish is caught ….
This is how the official history of the development of this zone and life around it describes, I could not resist and give a long excerpt, it is very interesting there is written about archaeological research in the flooded zone of the Volkhov hydroelectric power station … and about Adam Olearius, too, a great rafter on rapids from 4 to 6 levels of difficulty !:-)))
…. “Rapids are a natural obstacle on the waterway. In the lower reaches of the Volkhov, they begin about 9 km from the Ladoga settlement. Here the river, having broken through the limestone strata, has steep, in places sheer banks, reaching a height of 16-21 m. The floodplain is virtually absent. The fast and strong current makes it difficult to move up the river. But the main danger is represented by the rapids now hidden by the waters of the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station. The statistics of shipwrecks of the last century indicate the death of dozens of ships per year.
The system of passing the rapids and the corresponding organization have been known since the 13th century. according to the trade agreement of Novgorod with German cities and is vividly described by Adam Olearius, who passed the rapids in 1634. To what time the addition of this system belongs can only be judged by archeological data, having determined the moment of the formation of the settlement agglomeration in the area of the rapids.
A number of monuments around the rapids have been well known since the last century. In 1884 NE Brandenburg undertook in the village. Archangel Michael is excavating a grandiose embankment, suggesting to find the grave of Oleg the Prophet. Special attention was paid to the study of the settlement near the village of Novye Duboviki. In 1952, its excavations were carried out by the Nevskaya Expedition under the leadership of N. N. Gurina, and in 1972, the research was continued by E. N. In 1990, in connection with the construction of a new road bridge, an expedition led by the author excavated a 9 meter high 1 hill.
However, no systematic study of the monuments in the region of the rapids and the identification of the ancient settlement system was carried out. In 1997, within the framework of the Settlements on the Thresholds program, funded by the Volkhov City Hall, such an attempt was made. Preliminary results are given below. At the very beginning of the rapids, if you go upstream, on the right bank of the Volkhov at the confluence of the Melnik brook, there was a settlement, now destroyed by a quarry. Unfortunately, the exact size and nature of the fortifications are unknown. An unfortified settlement adjoined it from the south and east. Repeated measurements showed that its area exceeded 6 hectares, and, possibly, given the destruction of the adjacent territory by quarries and the railway, it is quite significant. Excavations by N. N. Gurina (approx. 100 sq. M.), E. N. Nosov (170 sq. M.) And S. L. Kuzmina (100 sq. M.) were laid along the edge of the quarry, south of the left bank of the dried up Melnik stream.
Excavation in 1997 confirmed EN Nosov's assumption that this area is associated with an economic and industrial zone. Distinct traces of dwellings, as in the 1972 excavation, were not found here, but metal slags, krytsy were found in abundance, a crucible and a bobber were found. Individual finds include a bronze bottle-shaped pendant and a brass buckle with a sub-rectangular frame with concave sides. Bottle-shaped pendants are characteristic of the Finno-Ugric population of the Volga-Oka interfluve in the 2nd half. 1 millennium AD, but geographically the closest finds are pendants from the settlement Kholopiy gorodok in the upper Volkhov. Here they were found in a layer certainly belonging to the 9th century. The dating of buckles similar to our find also does not go beyond the 9th century. Thus, the excavations of this season confirmed the lower date of the settlement - the 9th century,perhaps its first half. However, the opinion presented by some researchers about the termination of life on it until mid. X century. without foundation. Fragments of pottery ceramics from the 10th-11th centuries were found in the lifting material.
Of particular importance for understanding the role of the New Duboviks, their place among the monuments of the Volkhov region are associated with groups of hills. There were 7 hills to the north of the settlement. Until now, one embankment has been well preserved (17-IV according to the numbering of V. P. Petrenko, which we use below). A molded urn with calcified bones, among which there was a Saltov ring, an ornamented bracelet, a chain and a fragment of a bracelet, comes from the plundering pit at its top. To the north of it were the remains of embankment 17-III, investigated in 1997.
The embankment was badly damaged. On the western side, the bulk of it collapsed into a limestone quarry, while the remaining floors were damaged by the buildings of the village. However, its internal structure has been established, its dimensions have been reconstructed. But one of the most interesting observations was made under the original embankment. On the mainland, traces of plowing were discovered in an ancient field, and at the level of the border of the buried soil and the embankment, traces of ritual plowing. Preserved prints of herbaceous plants. Considering that plowing was not found under hill 17 - II, it is possible to determine the border of arable fields to the north of the settlement. Remains of a pillar were found in the center of the original embankment.
Hill 17 - II was built in three stages. On the first, a continental outlier up to 1 m high was cut out. The diameter of the formed area was approx. 17 m. In the center of it was a pile of stones. Then the annular roller was poured and the inner space, limited by it, was filled. At the first stage, the hill looked like a mound with a flat top, with a diameter of about 18 m, a height of 2.5-2.7 m. Stonework was built along the base in one row of boulders. At the second stage, the height of the embankment was raised to 6.5 m. A ring of boulders was arranged at its top. It contained the remains of cremations performed on the side. At least 5 burials have been identified. Three were in stucco urns, their inventory scanty: iron knives and a sub-rectangular iron buckle. These are probably male burials. The inventory of two female burials opposite is rich. Two sets of various beads,various types of bronze bracelets, a trapezoidal pendant, bracelets, a temporal ring with a curl outward, fragments of a chain, spiral beads. Based on the inventory, first of all, sets of beads, the burials can be attributed to the 2nd floor. IX-1st floor. X centuries, possibly already - at the turn of the IX - X centuries. Radiocarbon analysis confirms this date (determined by S. G. Popov). The final form of the hill takes on as a result of the third filling, reaching a diameter of 28-30 m and a height of 8.7-9.1 m. In the center of the hill, the remains of a pillar were found, traced almost to the entire height of the last filling. The surface of the hill was badly damaged, but in those places where the sod was preserved, placers of calcified bones and fragments of molded and pottery ceramics were found in it. Three more hills were located south of the settlement. Two large embankments were completely destroyed, one, discovered only in 1997, has survived. Thus, the settlement was surrounded by at least a dozen hills, most of them reaching a height of 7-9 m.
The similarity of the inventory, details of the construction technology and the internal structure of the hills speaks, most likely, of the relative brevity of the chronological inventory of their construction. On the basis of the data set, it can be pre-defined as the 2nd floor. IX-1st 1/3 X c. This is probably the time of the highest prosperity of the settlement associated with them. The southern end of the complex of monuments near the village of Novye Duboviki is located at the eastern edge of the Volkhovskaya HPP dam. On the opposite bank of the Volkhov, at the other western edge of the dam, is the Church of the Archangel Michael To the south of it, in 1884, NE Brandenburg dug up a huge hill, reaching 10.5 m in height, and an ancient Russian soil burial ground of the XI-XII centuries. with her. Analysis of photographs of the construction of the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station showed that the remnant of the hill No. 145 (21-1), investigated by N. E.adjoins from the south to the Graftio house (museum of the history of Volkhov). Further south there were two small hills and the group was closed by a large embankment 22-1, traditionally associated with the village of Shkurina Gorka.
A large settlement has been identified to the north of this group of hills. Stucco and pottery ceramics are collected on an area of up to 5-6 hectares. Exploration excavations have shown the presence of a cultural layer up to 0.5 m thick. However, it was not possible to identify undisturbed strata in the exposed areas. Among the finds belonging to the early period, it is worth highlighting the blade of a battle ax and an object such as a Diak's weight. There is no doubt about the identification of the open settlement with the Mikhailovsky graveyard of scribes, the center of the Porozhskaya volost. It is possible that in the X century. In the process of the formation of the system of graveyards, the key role of the point at the beginning of the rapids passed from the settlement near the village of Novye Duboviki to Mikhailo-Arkhangelskoye. Still further south, on the left bank of the Volkhov, at the confluence of a stream, on the spit in the village of Shkurina Gorka, there is a small settlement. Fragments of stucco and pottery from the 14th-16th centuries come from the upper layers of the pit. ceramics. This is, perhaps, the only place from which almost the entire area of the rapids is visible.
Slightly upstream, opposite the Shkurina Gorka, also at the confluence of the stream, at one of the most dangerous sections of the rapids there is a settlement known from the scribes as the village of Petropavloskoe. It was from here that the Holstein traveler Adam Olearius, who traveled to Moscow in 1634, depicted the passage of the rapids. In the area of the now defunct Church of Peter and Paul, depicted in the above-mentioned engraving, a descent to the water was found pierced in the limestone strata of the Volkhov's bedrock bank. There is no doubt about its ancient origin. Here, before the rise of water as a result of the construction of the hydroelectric power station, there was a ford passed in the summer. Life in the settlement began at least in the early Iron Age. In addition to ceramics, a knife with a humped back was found among the lifting material.
Finds of molded ceramics from the end of the 1st millennium AD allow us to say that this settlement was included in a single system of settlement around the rapids no later than the 10th century. Its area is tentatively estimated at 3-4 hectares.
In all likelihood, these are far from all the settlements that made up an agglomeration that tightly "surrounded" the rapids. At least from the middle of the XIII century. well-known is a strictly regulated system of ensuring the passage of thresholds, undoubtedly dating back to an earlier time. The rapids served as a reliable barrier for uninvited guests from the north. The steep twenty-meter limestone shores, a swift countercurrent, the impossibility of a bypass maneuver, and finally, the large, undoubtedly armed population of the described agglomeration in the best way replaced a powerful fortress.
Apparently, Jarl Eirik, who captured Ladoga in 997, either could not, or did not dare to pass the Volkhov rapids."
This is how our history does something, they dug something, they unearthed it, but nothing special, some sort of Rurik settlement, somewhere Sineus wandered around there … but in general, the places are wild and before the arrival of Olearius Adam there were no normal people there and there weren't any spawn … wild people lived in one word!
But I was very hooked by this Volkhov hydroelectric power station! You see what's the matter - the rapids on the river are quite clear when the river has a good slope to one side and then rapids appear on the rocky ledges on a strong slope … but the Volkhov and Neva rivers are PLAIN, on the Volkhov even situations are described when the waters of Ladoga propped up the Volkhov so that the current was the opposite! True, it was a long time ago … even before the hydroelectric power station! (?) This means that the fallows on such a river can be in places of narrowing and where the bottom rises sharply due to stones appearing at the bottom! This is exactly how the Ivanovsky threshold is explained - the ridge goes along the bottom, across the current! However … the trend confuses … the key places are the rapids! Neva, Volkhov, Dnieper, Nile with the Aswan rapids before the construction of the Aswan hydroelectric power station. I did not find a photo of the Volkhov rapids, but I did find the Dnieper rapids - very interesting!
It's a pity for some small reason, but all the same, blocks and all sorts of megaliths are clearly visible! I think that if we now jump along the Dnieper dam with a kiloton charge of 200, then in a hundred years the picture will be the same!
Here's what I found about the construction of the Volkhov hydroelectric power station.
Since this is now a convenient place for a dam, it could have been convenient before … we saw on the Mariinsky water system old granite locks with huge metal structures and all the efforts of Peter the Great and A. Menshikov and company.
The places around there are very interesting, on Ladoga, for example, there is a dam, very similar to the one that one of the researchers of America showed in his post! I think that those who built such a dam could easily make dams and sluices from large stones that were cut for example on Votovar, the same is nearby …
These are such modest polygonal megalithics!
Many remnants of "old dams" are even used as small local power plants!
And not far from these places there is the amazing island of Saaremaa - where there is a star fort on top of which there is a "medieval" tower and on the island there are funnels that are officially recognized as meteorite funnels, very ancient but well preserved … they are thrifty to nature! Do not trample funnels!
