MOSCOW, 17 Apr. The first settlement of the Slavs in Staraya Ladoga could have arisen 100 years earlier than the generally accepted date of its foundation, scientists of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after M.V. A.I. Herzen (RSPU named after A.I. Herzen). According to them, not later than the middle of the 7th century, part of the Old Ladoga territories had already been inhabited. The results of the study were published in the scientific collection New in the Archeology of Staraya Ladoga.
Ladoga is one of the oldest cities in Russia, the first capital of Prince Rurik. It was from her that the formation of Northern Rus' began in the 9th century, but the question of dating the Old Ladoga settlements is still debatable, they said at the Russian State Pedagogical University. A.I. Herzen.
February 6, 09:00
To date, the official founding date of Ladoga is considered to be 753, and in 2023 it will be 1270 years old. Russian scientists determined this date from a saw cut from a wooden structure of Zemlyanoy Gorodishche using the dendrochronology method. However, experts drew attention to new studies of archaeological finds in the radiocarbon laboratory of the Russian State Pedagogical University: they showed that the formation of the settlement began earlier.
“The settlement of the southern part of the Zemlyanoy settlement began no later than the middle of the 7th century. Wooden structures were not preserved there, unlike the western part, so it is not possible to conduct dendrochronological studies and establish the exact date,” explained Associate Professor of the Department of Geology and Geoecology of the Russian State Pedagogical University. A.I. Herzen Marianna Kulkova.
In the early Middle Ages, several neighboring residential areas were formed on the territory of Staraya Ladoga. Over time, in the 9th-10th centuries, one of the districts (Earth settlement) became the central one. However, until the second half of the 9th century, there was another zone that claimed the role of the center — the settlement of Lyubsha. And according to the RGPU, it was formed in the 7th century or by the beginning of the 8th century, Kulkova clarified.
It is difficult to establish a more accurate dating today for a number of reasons, the expert drew attention. One of them is that due to landscape and climatic conditions in some areas, wooden buildings erected before the 9th century have not been preserved. Therefore, dendrological analysis of the early period of the settlement is impossible, and radiocarbon analysis does not allow determining the age of finds with an accuracy of years.
«The occurrence of layers of Ladoga antiquities has a complex stratigraphy associated with the relief features of the Ladoga Cape. This is However, the obtained data can become the basis for collecting further evidence of an earlier settlement of the Earthen settlement of Staraya Ladoga compared to the official date the foundation of the capital of Rurik, the expert suggested. A.I. Herzen in the framework of cooperation between the university and the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 20230306/nauka-1855678126.html» data->