[ANSTHRLD] RE: Question on my King's College class for the heralds...

[C. L. Ward]

Borek asked:
>On a somewhat related note, have you
>given any thought to a class on the
>influence of Norse culture and trade
>on Russian/Slavic development (or
>something similar)?
>Just curious ;)

That's a good topic, and I'm slowly amassing source materials on it.  One of
the problems is that the archaeology has been mostly done by Russians, and
there has been a funny kind of nationalist pride thing going on in which
they've denied that the "Rus" were in fact Scandinavians, and thus
Scandinavian finds have been minimized.  When I get enough together to
understand the picture a little better, I will work it up into at least an
article and probably a class.

Now in the last few years, articles in English have started appearing
analyzing the Russian-language archaeology reports.  I just read a very cool
article recently that's a good example:

Stalsberg, Anne. "Visible Women Made Invisible - Varangian Women in Old
Russia: An Example of the Influence of Women's Finds on Historical
Interpretation." in Gender and the Archaeology of Death. eds. Bettina Arnold
and Nancy L. Wicker. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. California. 2001. pp.
65-79.

Stalsberg is saying that despite a number of historians/authors stating
baldly that the Varangian movement into Russia was a completely masculine
activity, with trade, raiding, and state-founding being performed by
Scandinavian men, surprisingly when one examines the archaeological finds
that can be fairly confidently assessed as being Varangian, the great
majority are *women's* graves.

The numbers she cites for Scandinavian objects in inland Old Rus' graves:

107 female graves
84 male graves
36 graves with 2 or more individuals regardless of ethnicity of the
individuals

Some of these items could be trade goods or gifts, so going on to analyze
the total grave goods and the specific funerary ritual reflected in the
graves, the numbers that definitely appear to be Varangian graves are:

41 female graves
18 male graves
21 graves with 2 or more individuals regardless of ethnicity of the
individuals

Stalsberg points out that Scandinavian women are very identifiable because
of the large metal brooches, whereas men's ethnic origins were probably more
indicated by the textiles, colors, cut of clothes etc. that don't survive as
well.  She says that there were undoubtedly more male Varangians than
females, they just aren't as identifable in the archaeological context.

Stalsberg argues that this gives a very clear indication that Varangians
were bringing their women and families into Russia rather than moving into a
district, conquering the Slavic or Finnic inhabitants and thenceforth taking
local wives, which is what the general understanding has been in the past.

Another fascinating bit of evidence is that about a quarter of all traders'
scales found in Old Rus' and Birka are in women's graves, strongly
suggesting that women were acting as traders and that the scales were part
of their tools.  Stalsberg points out that functioning as a trader is
consistent with the role of Scandinavian women as having the legal right to
all the keys and therefore real control over all the valuables of a
farmstead or housegold.

Meanwhile, Borek, some other articles you might find interesting (and that I
haven't been able to lay hands on yet):

Cross, Samuel H. "Scandinavian Polish Relations in the Late Tenth Century."
in Studies in Honor of Hermann Collitz Presented by a Group of his Pupils
and Friends on the Occasion of his Seventhy-Fifth Birthday, February 4,
1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 1930. pp. 114-140.

Lindquist, Sven-Olaf, ed. Society and Trade in the Baltic During the Viking
Age. Acta Visbyensia 7. Visby: Gotlands fornsal. 1985.

Noonan, Thomas S. "The Vikings and Russia: Some New Directions and
Approaches to an Old Problem." in Social Approaches to Viking Studies. ed.
Ross Samson. Glasgow: Cruithne Press, 1991. pp. 201-206.

Rjabinin, E.A. "Finno-Ugric Paganism and Old Russia." in Fenno Ugri et Slavi
1978: Papers Presented at the Soviet-Finnish Symposium in Helsinki 1978.
Helsinki: The University of Helsinki Department of Archaeology. 1980. pp.
207-219.

Rjabinin, E.A. "The Character and Direction of Cultural Links in the Zone of
Slav-Fino-Ugrian Contacts." in Fenno Ugri et Slavi 1983: Papers Presented By
the Participants in the Soviet-Finnish Symposium 'Trade, Exchange & Culture
Relations of the Peoples of Fennoscandia and Eastern Europe' 9-3 May 1983.
Edgren Torsten, ed. Helsinki: Suomen muinaismuistoyhdistys-Finska fornminnes
foreningen. 1984 (Iskas 4) pp. 139-144.

Sawyer, Peter, Omelian Pritsak, Bengt E. Hoven, Thomas S. Noonan, Talvio
Tuukka, Jutta Waller and Anne Stalsburg. "Relations Between Scandinavia and
the Southeastern Baltic / Northeastern Russia in the Viking Age." Journal of
Baltic Studies 13:3 (1982) pp. 175-295.

Sedov, V.V. "Old Russia and Southern Finland" in Fenno Ugri et Slavi 1983:
Papers Presented By the Participants in the Soviet-Finnish Symposium 'Trade,
Exchange & Culture Relations of the Peoples of Fennoscandia and Eastern
Europe' 9-3 May 1983. Edgren Torsten, ed. Helsinki: Suomen
muinaismuistoyhdistys-Finska fornminnes foreningen. 1984 (Iskas 4) pp.
16-25.

::GUNNVOR::