Pages: 147-167 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp216147167
In the fall of 2019, the archaeological expedition of the Institute of History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences carried out excavations in the Lomonosov district of the Leningrad region, in the village of Kovashi. During the course of the excavations, a previously unknown burial ground of the 15th—16th centuries was investigated, including at least 97 burials. Among the burial items, the most significant ones are 33 coins of Novgorod and Pskov Republics’ emission, of Principality of All Rus during the reigns of Ivan III, Vasily III and Ivan IV.
The composition of the numismatic collection from the burials of the Kovashi burial ground reflected the most important changes that took place in the financial sphere of the Novgorod Republic during the period of its independence ceding to Moscow. Coins found in the tombs have become the leading chronological indicator, allowing us to refine both the dating of individual graves containing money and the functioning of all of the burial ground by following the process of its development. Fixation of the “obol of the dead” among the population of the Vodskaya Pyatina supplements the available data on the burial rites of the local population and their idea of the afterlife.
Keywords: Novgorod Republic, Leningrad Oblast, Kovashi, Middle Ages, burials, coins, archaeological dating, rites
Information about authors:
Konstantin Gorlov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Institute for History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Andrey Gorodilov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Institute for History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]