Pages: 15-30 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp2651530
A new assemblage belonging to Group I (Martynovka type) of the Dnieper early medieval hoard horizon was discovered in 2013 or 2014 near the Knyazhiy 1st farmstead in the Sudzha District of Kursk Region, Russia. It comprises 35 objects, including elements of “heraldic”-style belt sets, radiate-headed fibulae and fibulae with bird-head borders, fragments of torques, a shield-shaped pendant, tubular beads, and other items. Some of the objects fit within the broader Eastern European context, while others display distinctive local features. This indicates that the Knyazhiy assemblage belongs to the eastern part of the Dnieper forest-steppe left-bank region, particularly to the group of hoards concentrated in the lower reaches of the Sudzha River and adjacent sections of the Psel River. These hoards were deposited between the third quarter and the second half of the seventh century, although many of the object types represented in them had appeared earlier.
In 2019, the Sudzha expedition team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted field investigations at the hoard’s discovery site. The hoard was recovered from the outskirts of a settlement whose cultural layer contained handmade pottery of an early Slavic type. The site may therefore contain a layer associated with the Kolochin culture. Further fieldwork is required to characterize the archaeological context of the find in greater detail.
Keywords: Early Middle Ages, Dnieper Region, Sudzha Region, hoard, settlement, the Kolochin culture, early Slavs
Information about authors:
Vlasta Rodinkova (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117292, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0009-0003-1177-9507
Olga Beliavskaia (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117292, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]