Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture
In the VIII century. in the south of Russia and the southeast of Ukraine, the Saltovo-Mayak culture appears. It exists during the reign of the Khazar Kaganate in this region. In a broad sense, the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture is usually defined as "the state culture of the Khazar Kaganate" and includes the steppe Don region, Azov region, Taman, Eastern Crimea, the Lower Volga region and the Caspian Dagestan in its area.
In a narrow sense - the culture of the Alanian population of the forest-steppe part of the Don region, which developed as a result of the resettlement of Alanian tribes to this region. Genetically related to the culture of the Alans of the North Caucasus. In a broad sense, the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture is usually defined as "the state culture of the Khazar Kaganate" and includes the steppe Don region, Azov region, Taman, Eastern Crimea, the Lower Volga region and the Caspian Dagestan in its area. In this case, the culture is subdivided into two local variants: the forest-steppe Alanian, which in the anthropological sense is represented by a dolichocephalic population, and the steppe, conventionally called "Bulgarian" with a brachycephalic population. The latter, in turn, is also divided into several territorial variants. This point of view was first expressed (in the form of a hypothesis) by M. I. Artamonov in the 50s.which united the Saltov monuments with a typologically and historically similar area of the Lower Don region. The concept was finalized in the works of S. A. Pletneva, becoming generally accepted. At present, the direct identity of the QMS with Khazaria remains widely used in the scientific literature, although it is criticized by some researchers.
The population of the Saltovo-Mayatsk archaeological culture is compared with the population of the Khazar Kaganate: Alans, Bulgars, Khazars.
The site of the Sarkel fortress. Photos of excavations led by M. I. Artamonov in 1951.
The ceramics of the forest-steppe variant of the Saltov-Mayatsk culture shows the presence of five ethnic groups, of which two are represented by Alan tribal groups, three by Bulgar.
The multiethnic population of Khazaria had differences in funeral rituals. The catacomb rite is more characteristic of the Alanian population, the skulls in these burials belong to the Caucasian dolichocran-Alans. Pit burials belong to the Caucasian brachycrans with a slight admixture of Mongoloid. They are considered Pro-Bulgarian (Bulgar) or, possibly, Khazar. Similar skulls have been found in archaeological excavations on the territories of Volga Bulgaria and Danube Bulgaria, as well as in the steppes of Crimea. In all territories of the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture, mesocranial skulls are also found, which indicates the mutual assimilation of cultures.
A typical model of a residential building in the Mayatsky complex. This is a rectangular semi-dugout, deepened to 0.95 m, with an area of 11.7 to 18.3 square meters. The building structure is support-pillar or plank-block. There is no corridor. There is a hearth in the center of the building. An example of this model are buildings No. 3 and No. 30 of the Mayatsky settlement.
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A typical construction model at the Dmitrievsky complex looks like this. This is a rectangular, corridor-free dwelling, deepened into the continental base by 0.8 m, with an area of about 9 square meters, with an open hearth in the center of the dwelling, with a treated floor.
The Verkhnesaltovsky complex is characterized by a square semi-dugout, 1.4 m deep into the continental base, with an area of about 16 sq. m. The structure of the building is pillar-support, the hearth is located in the center or near the wall of the dwelling.
In the Steppe Podontsovye, square dwellings prevail (about 40%), in the forest-steppe variant - rectangular (about 63%). In the steppe variant, dwellings deepened to 1.5 m prevail, for the forest-steppe variant, buildings with a depth of more than 1 m are not typical. The average area of dwellings in the Steppe Podontsovye is about 22 sq. m, in the forest-steppe variant - about 14 sq. m. Hearths and stoves were found in buildings of both variants, but their ratio differs: in the forest-steppe variant - 7: 1, in the steppe variant - 4: 1. Tandoors (bread ovens) are typical for steppe dwellings. In the Steppe Podontsovye, according to L. I. Krasilnikova, 21 tandoors were found, practically in every third building. At the analyzed settlements of the forest-steppe variant, only one tandoor was presumably recorded (construction of the 14th Dmitrievsky complex).
Thus, it can be concluded that there are not only common features, but also visible differences in the house-building tradition of the population of the steppe and forest-steppe variants of the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture.
Comparative analysis of residential buildings of the two closest in terms of space and time monuments: the Mayatskiy complex (Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture, Alans) and the ancient settlement of Titchikha (Romensko-Borshchevskaya culture, north). The Titchikha settlement is characterized by a greater depth of dwelling pits (about 1 m) in comparison with the Mayatsky complex. In terms of the construction of residential buildings in the Mayaky complex and the Titchikha settlement, there are no fundamental differences. At both sites, there are pillar-support and plank-block structures. Household pits and niches are not typical for the buildings of the Titchikha settlement. The most important difference between the semi-earthen buildings of the Titchikha settlement and the Mayatsky complex are heating devices. At the Titchikha settlement there are four types of stoves: from stones, from clay and stones, from clay, stoves with partial use of the mainland. Furnaces of the first two types are absolutely dominant (86%). The focus was found in only one case. A. Z. Vinnikov distinguishes only two types of stoves: stove-stoves and stoves made of stones and clay. The researcher estimates that the percentage of these two types of ovens is 25% and 75%.
Saltovskaya ceramics, VIII-XIX centuries
Details of a men's belt set, VIII - IX centuries.
Khazar women's jewelry, VIII-XIX centuries
The inhabitants of the Khazar Kaganate were not only nomads, more than a hundred settlements were found with extensive traces of agriculture. Archaeological finds include structures such as sturdy houses, livestock pens, barn structures, and other outbuildings. Fortified fortresses were built, such as Sarkel, built of bricks. In addition to agriculture, the population of Khazaria was engaged in fishing, cattle breeding and metallurgy. Pottery was also developed in the kaganate. It had its own alphabet, which is confirmed by the finds of runic graffiti. These short records have not yet been decrypted.
The Khazar culture lasted much longer than the state itself: this can be seen from the layers of the 11th century. from excavations in Volga Bulgaria, as well as from finds in Danube Bulgaria, Hungary and Byzantium.
It had its own alphabet, which is confirmed by the finds of runic graffiti. These short records have not yet been decrypted.
The rare symbols and amulets found in archaeological excavations make it possible to roughly determine the mythology and beliefs of the population of the Saltovo-Mayatsk archaeological layer. Such steps were taken by S. A. Pletneva. She conducted research with metal amulets, graffiti, and tamga-like symbolic signs. In the same direction V. E. Flerov: also ceramic stamps, amulets and talismans. S. A. Pletneva expressed the opinion that in connection with the study of sources related to the beliefs of the population of this culture, such as short written and archaeological ones, they show a reflection of the main religious views of the inhabitants of the forest-steppe and steppe regions of the Don region and, consequently, the peoples of the entire Khazar Kaganate.
Syncretism inherent in nomads is noted, in which the oldest forms of religions (Totemism, ancestor cult, nagualism, trade and agricultural cults, shamanism) are intertwined with later ones. Despite the lack of direct confirmation in written sources, by indirect indications, experts suggest that there could be a cult of the supreme deity, Tengri Khan, as well as a cult of leaders, which is in opposition to the above-mentioned more ancient cults.
A letter from the king of Khazaria Joseph was found to the Spanish Jew Hasdai ibn Shafrut, in which it was stated that Judaism was the state religion in Khazaria. Tsar Joseph, naming the limits of his kingdom, says that from Itil (Volga) Khazaria extends to 40 Farsakhs, that is, less than 300 km, and among the border points in the west is called the city of Sh-r-kil, that is, Sarkel, located on the eastern bank of the Don. Thus, the western border of the Khazar Kaganate passed along the Don River and did not include the "Saltovites" in its territorial orbit.
In the 30s. the Leningrad archaeologist Artamonov noticed that many settlements of the "Saltovites" coincide with the settlements of the Slavic tribes of the Penkovo culture, known to the Byzantines of the 6th-7th centuries. under the name "antov". In the 60s. Ukrainian archaeologist Berezovets proved that not only the Penkovo Slavs, but also the Slavs-bearers of the Volyntsev culture, are directly related to the "Saltovites".
Thus, we can say with confidence that the "Saltovites" for the most part are Slavs, from the 7th century. began to actively mix with the Iranian-speaking and Turkic-speaking tribes, as a result of which they borrowed their self-name from the former with the root "rus", and from the latter - the form of government - the kaganate.
Perhaps the spread of the self-designation of the Saltovites as “Rus”, “Rus”, “Russians” is associated with the name of the present Seversky Donets, which, according to the anonymous Arabic source “Khudua-al-Alam”, was called the Rus River. That is, a bright or clear river. Perhaps, from the name of the river, they began to call themselves that way and "Saltovites".
Now about the word kaganate. Many associate it exclusively with Khazaria, although the Turkic word kagan (or, more correctly, khakan) itself is close in meaning to the word emperor - the personal leader of a large state. History knows not so many kaganates: Avar, Khazar, Türkic and Russian. It was the Kagan dignity of their ruler that the Russian ambassadors emphasized at a reception with the West Frankish king Karl the Bald. This fact is attested in the historical source known as the Bertin annals.
Characterizing the Dnieper-Don region of archaic Slavic hydronyms, O. N. Trubachev expressed the idea that "it was here that the ethnonym Rus, Rus began to spread."
The Russian kaganate was a rather militant state. Surrounded from the north by nomadic Hungarians, from the east by the Khazars, from the south by the Bulgarians, the kaganate constantly defended itself from them, then attacked. For their protection, the "Saltovites" built 25 fortress cities (and these are only those that archaeologists have excavated), but even this figure allows us to call the Russian Kaganate one of the most urbanized states of the early Middle Ages. These cities were centers of trade and crafts. Metallurgy, pottery and jewelry were especially developed. The Arabs noted that Russian swords did not differ in quality from Damascus steel.
Fur and the slave trade were important branches of commodity exchange. Enemies taken prisoner during sea campaigns to the Crimea and Byzantium became slaves. This fact confirms the existence of a fleet at the Russian Kaganate.
Russian jewelers also became famous throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and not so much for their sophisticated women's jewelry, faceted mirrors, but also for skillful counterfeiting of coins. Moreover, the amount of precious metals in the fakes was exactly the same as in the original, and sometimes even more. It was just in this way that Saltov's jewelers made up for the shortage of cash that periodically appeared in the kaganate. By the way, "counterfeiting" was in the order of things at that time. You do not have enough Arab derhems to pay off the same Arabs for silk, but there are precious metals. You take them, go to the jeweler, and he will mark you as much as you need.
The Russian Kaganate had its own original writing system. It was based on Alan runes, which were used to write Slavic, Iranian and Turkic words. It was with these runic "lines and cuts" that the New Testament was written, which Saint Cyril, one of the founders of Slavic writing, saw in the Crimea. Apparently, from this runic letter the letters w, sch, c, h arose, which had no analogues either in the Latin or in the Greek alphabets.
Among the semi-earthen buildings of the Saltov-Mayatsk settlements, there were many recorded that had a typical Slavic internal structure - heating structures were located in the corners or near one of the walls. Found in these settlements and adobe furnaces on frames, unknown to the Alans, but completely identical to the heating devices of the dwellings of the Volyntsev and Romny cultures. The presence of the Slavic population in the northwestern regions of Khazaria is also evidenced by the finds of Volyntsev ceramics in the settlements and burial grounds of the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture, including in Sarkel. Near the Saltovsky Sukhogomolshansky settlement, a burial ground with a burial ritual alien to the Saltov population - pit and urn cremations was investigated. Vessels of the Saltov type served as urns.
Thus, neither culturally, nor industrially, nor politically, the ancient Donbass state was inferior to either the Khazar Kaganate or the Volga Bulgaria.
© Alexey IVANOV
Russian kaganate
In the 60s. XX century Ukrainian archaeologist D. T. Berezovets, based on scientific evidence of archeology, proposed to identify the Alanian population of the Don region with the Rus. At present, this hypothesis is being developed by E. S. Galkina, who identifies the Don Alan version of the Saltov-Mayak culture with the central part of the hypothetical Russian Kaganate, mentioned in Byzantine, Western and Muslim sources in the 9th century. She believes that the name Rus from the Iranian-speaking Rus-Alans (Roksolans) of the Saltov-Mayak culture passed to the Slavic population of the Middle Dnieper after the defeat of the Russian Kaganate by the Hungarians.
The Russian kaganat, which preceded the Old Russian state, existed until the 1st half. IX century.
In a number of sources of the IX century. the ruler of the Rus was called kagan (khakan). The earliest message about this refers to 839 (Bertinsky annals), when, according to Russian chronicles, the Novgorod and Kiev principalities of Rurikovich did not yet exist. Kagan is a Turkic title held by the supreme rulers of nomadic empires. Most likely, the Rus could have borrowed it from the Khazars. In the sources of the 10th century, the title is not used in relation to the rulers of Russia, which may indicate that it has fallen out of use. However, it appears in a number of Old Russian texts of the 11th-12th centuries. applied to the Kiev princes. It is believed that at this time it was used informally, as a panegyric, since it was not Christian.
There is no generally accepted view of the history of the Russian Kaganate due to a lack of sources. The time of its emergence and identification with any of the "superunions" of the East Slavic tribes can only be determined hypothetically. Researchers agree that in its original form, it could have existed until the 2nd floor. or con. IX century, then giving way to associations described in Russian chronicles.
Mentions about the Russian kagan:
Annals of Bertin, 839 - Khakan of the Ros people.
The official Frankish chronicle contains a story about the Byzantine embassy that arrived in Ingelheim to the court of Emperor Louis I the Pious on May 18, 839. People sent by the emperor Theophilus II arrived with the Byzantines, about whom the chronicler reports the following: “He [Theophilus] also sent those most who themselves, that is, their people, called Ros [Rhos], whom their king [rex], by the nickname Khakan [chacanus], had sent earlier so that they would declare friendship to him, asking through the said letter, as they could [it is] to gain the favor of the emperor, the opportunity to return [home], and help through all his power. He did not want them to return by those [paths] and would be in great danger, because the paths along which they went to him to Constantinople,they performed very cruel and terrible peoples among the barbarians.
After very carefully investigating the reason for their arrival, the emperor learned that they are from the Sveon people [esse Sueonum], it is believed that they are more scouts than petitioners for the friendship of that kingdom and ours, he ordered to keep them with him until he could truly discover it …"
The chronicler, in fact, retells a fragment of the diplomatic correspondence of the two emperors. The ethnonym Ros (Rhos) and the designation of the ruler Khakan (chacanus) are the result of the standard book re-entry (transliteration) by means of medieval Latin of the Greek words' Ρώς and χακανος from the cover letter of the emperor Theophilus (imperatori dignis epistola), which was brought by the Byzantine-Russian delegation from Constantinople.
Letter to Louis II, 871 - Khan of the Normans.
In a response letter to the message of the Byzantine emperor Basil I (not preserved), Louis II argues about the titles of foreign rulers and states that the Franks (unlike the Byzantines) called only the Avar sovereign (chaganum), and not the Khazars or Normans:
Hagan we call the sovereign Avars, not the Khazars or Normans, and the Bulgarians are called not the sovereign, but the king or lord.
Original text (lat.)
What was said in the lost message of Vasily I is unknown. The Normans ("northern people") in this case are reliably identified with the Rus on the basis of a number of analogies in other Latin sources of that time ("The Venetian Chronicle" by John the Deacon (turn of the 10th-11th centuries), as well as from the famous writer and diplomat Liutprand Cremona, who visited Constantinople as an ambassador in 949 and 968.
Arab-Persian geographers - Khakan Rus.
Works dating back to the so-called "Anonymous Geographical Note" of the 9th century (no later than the 870s), which contains the oldest layer of information about Eastern Europe. Sources: Ibn Rust, Gardizi, Ibn Qutaiba, Khudud al-alam and others report that the Rus are different from the Slavs and live on the island, and their ruler is called Khakan. This is the only description of the Russian Kaganate as a political and territorial structure.
“As for ar-Rusiyya, it is located on an island surrounded by a lake. The island on which they (Rus) live is three days' journey, covered with forests and swamps, unhealthy and cheese to the point that as soon as a person steps on the ground, the latter shakes due to the abundance of moisture in it. They have a king called the Khakan of the Rus. They attack the Slavs, drive up to them on ships, disembark, take them prisoner, take them to Khazaran and Bulgar and sell them there. They do not have arable land, and eat only what they bring from the land of the Slavs."
Metropolitan Hilarion in his treatises "The Word of Law and Grace" and "The Confession of Faith" (1040s) calls Vladimir Kagan (“the great kagan of our land”) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (“the faithful kagan Yaroslav”).
A short inscription on the wall of the Cathedral of St. Sophia of Kiev: "Save, Lord, our kagan." It is believed that we are talking about the son of Yaroslav the Wise - Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, who reigned in Kiev in 1073-1076.
The author of "The Lay of Igor's Regiment" (late 12th century) calls the Kagan of the Tmutorokan prince Oleg Svyatoslavich.
Among the options for the location of the "Russian Kaganate" are:
Middle Dnieper - (B. A. Rybakov; L. N. Gumilyov, A. P. Novoseltsev, A. V. Nazarenko, A. A. Gorsky);
The Slavic north, where the Scandinavian presence is recorded first of all (Ladoga - Rurik's settlement in Novgorod - Rostov - Staraya Russa) (V. V. Bartold, O. Pritsak, K. Tsukerman, D. A. Machinsky, J. Shepard, A. A.. Shakhmatov, S. F. Platonov);
Azov region (G. V. Vernadsky);
The area from the middle Dnieper to the upper Oka, the territory of the Volyntsev archaeological culture (V. V. Sedov);
The territory of the "forest-steppe", Alanian variant of the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture of the Don basin (E. S. Galkina).
There is no unity in the question of what the title "kagan" meant. It is usually believed that he reflected the great-power claims of the Rus, firstly, for equality with the Khazars, and secondly, for rivalry with them in control of the Slavic tribes. According to a less common point of view (P. Golden, O. Pritsak, G. V. Vernadsky), on the contrary, it testifies to the vassal dependence of the Rus on the Khazars, since there were several “younger” kagans in the political system of Khazaria.
In Russian historiography of the 1990s - 2000s. the author's concepts of the Russian Kaganate V. V. Sedov, who identified its territory with the Volyntsevo archaeological culture, E. S. Galkina - considers the Rus as an Alanian tribe, the bearer of the Don version of the Saltovo-Mayak culture, and A. A. Gorsky, who joined the idea previously expressed by O. Pritsak that the Russian Kaganate owes its origin to a relative of the Khazar Kagan who fled from Khazaria during the political turmoil that broke out there.
Volyntsevo archaeological culture
Volyntsevskaya culture (VIII-IX centuries) was located between the Dnieper and Don rivers.
South-Eastern Europe on the eve of the formation of the Volyntsev culture.
a - areas of archaeological cultures:
1 - tushemlinskaya;
2 - late Dyakovskaya;
3 - Moschinskaya;
4 - Kolochinskaya;
5 - Prague-Korchak;
6 - Penkovskaya;
b - the spread of the Volyntsev antiquities;
c - the territory of the Imen-kovsk culture;
d - the area of the Bulgarian tribes and the direction of their migration to the middle Volga.
Until the last decades of the VII century. the forest-steppe lands of the Dnieper Left Bank were inhabited by the Antes - carriers of the Penkovo culture (Sakhnov stage), and the more northern territory - by the tribes of the Kolochin culture. At the end of this century, the development of these cultures on the Left Bank was interrupted by the invasion of a large mass of the new population. The latter turned out to be more vital and more active in economic terms, and a new culture - Volyntsevskaya - is being formed in the Dnieper Left Bank.
The proto-northerners are considered to be the carriers of the culture.
It is genetically related to the Imenkovo culture, replacing the Kolochin culture.
Local residents for the most part did not leave their habitats. The early materials of the Volyntsevo culture are characterized by the presence of Penkovo and Kolochin components.
Thus, in the settlements of Besedovka, Vovka, Obukhov-2, Roishche and Khitsy, along with typical Volyntsev vessels, rounded and biconical pots were found, direct analogs of which are materials from the late stage of the Penkovo culture. In the early layers of the Volyntsevo settlement, along with the Volyntsevo ones, there were vessels of cylindrical-conical and tulip-like forms, characteristic of the Kolochin culture. It is obvious that in the conditions of the formation of the Volyntsev culture, the newcomer population mixed with Penkovsky and partly with Kolochinsky. Gradually, local elements are erased and Volyntsevo elements become dominant. The rapid acculturation of the local Antic population is due to its ethno-linguistic affinity with the newcomer.
The main monuments of the Volyntsevsk culture are settlements, which are similar in topographic features and general appearance to the settlements of the previous period. They settled on low areas of terraces above the floodplain and on hillocks among river valleys. At a later stage, some settlements began to be located in relatively high places. Settlements of relatively small sizes prevailed, but many large settlements, with an area of 6–7.5 hectares, were studied. Volyntsevsk settlements did not have fortifications, only a few of them were located on the settlements founded in the Scythian time. There is still little data to study the layout of settlements. At the Volyntsevsky settlement on an excavated site with an area of 4800 sq. m 51 residential and utility buildings were opened. Although these buildings date back to several construction periods, it can be argued thatthat they formed four compact groups, inside which the dwellings were located heap and haphazardly.
The dwellings were semi-dugouts, sub-square or rectangular in plan, ranging from 12 to 25 sq. m. Usually they sank into the ground to a depth of 0.4 to 1.2 m. Houses with frame-and-pillar walls dominated, but there are log buildings as well. The ceilings were gable; a thin layer of earth with clay was poured onto the wooden roof. For the entrance, corridor-shaped stepped cutouts were arranged. Often, dwellings had storage pits cut into the floor or lining into the wall. In addition, outside dwellings in settlements, ground and pit household structures are common.
Dwellings were heated mainly with clay ovens. They were often carved into the continental outliers during the construction of the house, and if the soil was unsuitable for this, the stoves were laid out from the brought and knocked down spondyloid clay. In the early Volyntsev settlements, there were open hearths in a number of dwellings.
The burial grounds of the Volyntsevskaya culture are ground, without any ground signs. The dead were burned on the side and the remains of the cremation were poured into shallow pits or placed in clay vessels in the same pits.
For the culture under consideration, especially for its middle stage, glazed pottery vessels with a straight top, convex shoulders and a truncated-conical bottom are very characteristic. These are typical "Volyntsev pots". Their black or dark brown surface was often ornamented with polished and carved vertical and intersecting lines. The center for making these dishes was located somewhere within the area of the Volyntsevsk culture, but archaeologists have not yet identified it. It was suggested that it needs to be localized in the Poltava region, where N. E. Makarenko recorded traces of pottery production of that time.
Researchers also note the presence of a significant number of things from the Saltov-Mayatsk culture.
Among the molded utensils, which make up 80–90% of all ceramics, pots of the same shapes as those described for pottery dominate. They have a smoothed or underdeveloped surface and were made of well elutriated clay with an admixture of fine sand. Open round-bottomed bowls, including stucco and pottery, as well as frying pans, are not uncommon on the monuments of Volyntsevo culture.
Amphorae, two-handed vessels of the so-called Saltov type, with a characteristic grooved body, a red-orange surface, sometimes with a light engobe, have also been repeatedly found. This tableware in the VIII-IX centuries. was widespread in the area of the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture in the Don region and in the Crimea and came to the population of the Volyntsevo culture as a result of trade operations. The percentage of such dishes in different places of the territory of this culture is different. In the southern areas bordering on the Saltovo-Mayak region, it is significant (for example, in the settlement of Vovka, such dishes account for 21% of the ceramic collection). Along with the Slavs, people from the Saltovo-Mayatsk environment may have lived here.
Iron products on the monuments of the Volyntsevo culture are represented by handles, sickles, scythes, axes, knives, awls, buckles, weapons and armor. The collection of non-ferrous metals consists mainly of ornaments - temple rings, earrings, bracelets, rings, brooches, plaques, bells. The most striking sets of jewelry are contained in the hoards. Thus, the Kharyevsky hoard, found in a Volyntsev-type pot, included gold and silver earrings, neck torcs, anthropomorphic brooches, flat pendants, a silver chain and details of a belt set. Bone products in the Volyntsev settlements are represented by piercings, kochedyks and amulets. Also found are glass beads and a large number of clay spindle whorls.
The topography of settlements and the entire appearance of material culture leave no doubt about the agricultural nature of the economy of the Volyntsev population. They cultivated, judging by the materials of the excavations, millet, spring and winter wheat, rye, peas, spelled and hemp. Domestic animals account for over 80% of the osteological material. Among the latter, the bones of a camel were found, indicating caravan connections with eastern countries.
The main territory of the Volyntsevo culture is the Podesye with the Seim basin and the upper reaches of the Sula, Pela and Vorskla. The largest number of its monuments is concentrated here. The extreme western Volyntsev settlements are known on the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kiev and Kanev district. In the southeast, the Volyntsevsky area extended to the upper reaches of the Seversky Donets, where it came into close contact with the territory of the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture.
Archaeological materials testify to the resettlement of the carriers of the Volyntsev culture also in the basin of the Voronezh course of the Don. Two groups of ceramics are associated with the Volyntsev population here, found in settlements (Belogorskoe settlement) and burial grounds (First and Second Belogorsky, Lysogorsky) of the Borshevsk culture. These are characteristic Volyntsevo pottery pots with polished ornaments and pot-shaped vessels, identical in shape or very similar to those typical of Volyntsevo, but with low-quality polishing. According to A.3. Vinnikov, the last dishes were made on site as an imitation of Volyntsev ceramics.
In the burials of the Second Belogorsk burial ground, in addition, molded rounded pots with an admixture of chamotte in the dough were found, comparable to the Late Penkovo ceramics, which suggests the migration of the Volyntsevian population to the Middle Don at an early stage of the formation of the culture under consideration.
Apparently, in the VIII century. the carriers of the Volyntsevian antiquities settled on the upper Oka. Monuments with pure deposits of the Volyntsevsk culture have not yet been identified here, but pottery, characteristic of it, was found on many sites. When systematizing the Upper Oka ceramics of the 8th – 10th centuries. T. N. Nikolskaya singled out a large group of molded pots with a straight vertical neck and convex shoulders, which in all respects are identical to the characteristic vessels of the Volyntsev culture. Such ceramics were found in the settlements of Vorotyntsevo on Zusha, Zaitsevo, Sinyukovo, Fedyashevo and others. Volyntsevo pots with a smoothed surface were also found in burial mounds in Lebedka and Vorotyntsevo.
The penetration of the Volyntsev population into the Upper Poochye also refers to the first stage of the development of the culture under consideration. In all likelihood, this was a gradual infiltration of the population from the south into the environment of the tribes of the Moschino culture, who belonged to the Balts, who lived here. In the work of Jordan, they are recorded under the name Coldas, in which the Golyad tribe is seen, localized by the Russian chronicle under 1147 on the river. Protva. At the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries, small settlers from the Chernyakhovsky area settled in this region, most likely the Slavs-Antes. Their fate remains unclear. They may have disappeared into the local environment, but it is possible that they lived in small islands among the Baltic-speaking population. At first, carriers of the Volyntsev antiquities probably settled in with them.
Three main stages are outlined in the evolution of the Volyntsevo culture. The early period, in which there are ceramic forms of the Penkovsky and Kolochinsky appearance. On the basis of ear bracelets with widened or zoomorphically shaped ends, B-shaped buckles, crutch-like fasteners and other finds, it dates back to the last decades of the 7th - beginning of the 20th century. VIII century The middle stage is characterized by the disappearance of the forms of vessels of the Penkovo and Kolochin traditions and the widespread use of typical Volyntsevo pottery with a polished, polished and smoothed surface. It is defined by the VIII century. At a later stage (the second half of the 8th and first half of the 9th century) in the Dnieper Left Bank, the Volyntsev culture is gradually transformed into the Romny culture, on the Don - into the Borshevsk culture, on the upper Oka - into the Oka culture.
At the same time, pottery ceramics goes out of use, apparently due to the termination of the functioning of the centers for its production due to circumstances unknown to us. A set of vessels characteristic of the Romny-Borshevsk-Oka antiquities is being formed. The shape of the characteristic Volyntsev pot (with a cylindrical neck and high shoulders) becomes the most common on the monuments of these cultures and persists up to the 11th century, when the modeled utensils were finally replaced by ancient Russian pottery. The continuity in the manufacture of dishes from the Romny and Volyntsev cultures has been traced by a number of researchers. Dwellings-semi-dugouts, characteristic of the Volyntsevo culture, did not undergo any changes and became an ethnographic feature of the Romny-Borshevsk-Oka population. At first, the funeral rituals also remained unchanged.
Romenskaya, Borshevskaya and Oka cultures, dating mainly from the 9th-10th centuries, are very close to each other in all their parameters. The differences between them are of a tertiary nature.
The bearers of the Volyntsev antiquities began to penetrate into the Ryazan Pooch'e.
V. V. Sedov speculates about the connection between the Volyntsev culture and the Russian Kaganate. It is assumed that the Volyntsev culture arose as a result of the mass migration of representatives of the Imenkov culture (IV-VII centuries. Middle Volga region - Samara region, Tatarstan, Ulyanovsk region.) And their cross-breeding with the population of Kolochinsk (V-VII centuries, the territory of Gomel, Bryansk and Kursk regions) and Penkovo (IV - early VIII centuries, Anta) cultures, starting from the last Thursday. VII century, caused by the migration of the Bulgars-Kutrigurs to the north-east of the Don, to the Volga steppes.
Characterizing the Dnieper-Don region of archaic Slavic hydronyms, O. N. Trubachev expressed the idea that "it was here that the ethnonym Rus, Rus began to spread."
One of the first mentions of this ethnonym (Ruzzi) is contained in an early non-medieval document called the "Bavarian Geographer" - a monument written authentically in the 9th century. Consequently, his information captures an ethno-historical picture, which is synchronous with the Volyntsevo archaeological cultures considered here and the Romny, Borshevsk and Oka archaeological cultures that evolved from it.
The main part of the "Bavarian Geographer" describes the tribes and peoples living north of the Danube in Central Europe, the second part mentions the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe from east to west - from Khazaria to Silesia: "… Caziri … Ruzzi. Forsderen liudi. Fresiti. Seravici. Lucolane. Ungare. Vuislane … Zuireani. Busane. Unlizi. Lendizi …"
The Rus of the “Bavarian Geographer” are left with the territory of the Volyntsevskaya and the Romny, Borshevsk and Oka cultures of the 8th – 9th centuries that replaced it, the areas of which are just between Khazaria and the regions of the glades and Drevlyans.
A. V. Nazarenko claims that the spelling of the ethnonym Rus in the "Bavarian Geographer" testifies to its penetration into the Old High German dialects no later than the 9th century. Consequently, already at this time the people of Russia, who lived in the south of Eastern Europe, were known in Bavaria. Eastern Bavaria was connected with the Rus region by a trade route that ran along the right bank of the Danube, crossed the Carpathians (through the Veretsky Pass) and then followed through the East Slavic lands.
The fact that the Russians of the IX century. belonged to the Slavic ethnos, contemporaries - oriental authors testify. So, in the geographical work of Abdallah Ibn Khordadbeh "The Book of Ways and Countries", written about 847, it is reported: "As for the Russian merchants - and they are a kind of Slavs - they export beaver fur and black fox fur and swords from the most remote (parts) the countries of the Slavs to the Rum (Black) Sea, and from them (merchants) tithing is collected by the king of Rum (Byzantium) and, if they want, they go along the river of the Slavs, and pass through the strait of the capital of the Khazars, and tithes are collected from them (Khazars) ruler". Presenting identical information, dating back, according to orientalists, to a single source of the 30-40s. IX century., Ibn al-Fakih in the book "The Book of Countries", written about 903, where Ibn Khordadbeh speaks about the Rus,directly writes about the merchants of the Slavs (“As for the Slavic merchants, they bring the skins of foxes and beavers from the Slavic countries and come to the Rumiy Sea …”).
From these messages it follows quite definitely that the eastern authors of the IX century. saw in the Rus a kind of tribal formation of the Slavs who lived on the East European Plain. This corresponds with the data of Old High German sources, from which it is obvious that “the carriers of the self-designation“Rus”, with whom from the 9th century. dealt in the Bavarian Eastern Mark, spoke Slavic "and" no later than the middle of the 9th century. the Slavonic form rus was borrowed into the Old Bavarian.
Starting from the end. VIII century replaced by the Romny culture.