Pages: 191-219 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/SL22191219
The influence of the great civilizations in antiquity reached far outskirts. The direct or indirect impact of the center of civilization on its periphery led to cascades of changes through chain reactions, migrations, changes in culture and language, and the emergence of new centers of power. Often such influences were exercised through trade along interregional routes. The emergence of the system of European fur trade, perhaps, refers to the heyday of Scythia and Celtica. According to Herodotus, the Boudini are engaged in the hunting of beavers. In the LT-B period, bracelets from the Danube region were imported into the forest zone, correlated with the common Slavic *grivьna (V. Kuleshov). The main role in their distribution in the forest zone is played by the Milograd culture, while they almost do not fall into the culture of hatched ceramics. In the III century after the end of Great Scythia, a decline in the fur trade is expected, reviving after the appearance of the Bastarns and the formation of the Zarubintsy culture in the south, and in the west due to the expansion of the Gallic Veneti on the Amber Coast. This will lead to migrations in the forest zone (hatched pottery, Milograd, brooches, enamels). The pressure of the Sarmatians and Goths on the forest zone will lead to an even deeper penetration of the fur trade into the very depth of the forest. The arrival of the Huns and the new fashion for furs catalyse this process, which will be expressed in the penetration of armed detachments from the Danube and Lithuania up to the zone of the Pskov long mounds.
Keywords: Eastern Europe, fur, trade, La Tène, Celts, Gallic Veneti, Baltic Venedae, grivna, bracelets, Early Slavs
Information about author:
Petr Shuvalov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Saint Petersburg State University. Universitetskaya Emb., 7-9, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-6361-4531