1. Costumes of the Viking Age at the archaeological site in the city of Birka
Birka (Björkö, Swedish Björkö, "Birch Island"). Old Scandinavian city 780 - 980 The very first well-studied Viking city. Located on Björkö Island on Lake Mälaren, 30 km from Stockholm. The entire vast area of the lake is very ancient. Many rich burials were found here. The Wendel era, which predates the Viking era, is named after finds at Wendel, which is located just 88 kilometers north of Birka. Old Uppsala, the pagan center of the Swedish Vikings, is located even closer - 60 km to the north.
There are many elaborate clothes in Birka's graves. Largely thanks to the work of archaeologists on this island, we now know what the people of the Viking Age looked like.
The tag is a valuable archaeological discovery. Thanks to the finds obtained during the excavations, now we know well what the Viking Age Scandinavians looked like, what they used in everyday life, how they ate. There are so many items found that they are still being studied. The emergence of new discoveries is also possible. Fortunately, there is plenty of material provided by Birka Island.
2. Costumes of the Curonian people
The Curonian is a West Baltic nation that lived in the 5th-16th centuries on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea , on the territory of Kurzeme in today's western Latvia , western Lithuania, as well as in the far north of the Kaliningrad region (in ancient Skalovia ), and gave the name Courland .
The Curonian lands, with the exception of the lands of Meguva ( Palanga , Sventoji and the surrounding area) and Tseklis ( Apuole , Zemaitskaya Kalwaria , Skuodas , Retavas and the surrounding area), were conquered by the Livonian Order in 1267, and the Curonians themselves gradually mixed with other Baltic peoples, participating in ethnogenesis Latvians and Lithuanians . Some of the direct descendants of the Curonians are the endangered people of the Curonian Spit : the Kursenieks , as well as the Curonian kings of Courland.
One of the most common adornments was neck torcs, twisted from three massive bronze wires.
Both women and men wore necklaces made of beads, both glass and bronze and amber.
The Curonians also made bracelets, decorative pins, various rings and brooches.
Bracelets are the most beautiful and most frequently found Curonian jewelry. They were both ribbon-shaped and spiral, and decorated with animal-headed ends. Women even wore 6-10 ribbon-like bracelets on one arm.
On the territory where the Curonians lived, there are about 100 settlements, which are usually located in the immediate vicinity of the water. Most often, capes of river bends or between two ditches were chosen. The site is separated from the surroundings by one or more ramparts and a ditch. Rarely, fortified settlements were built in isolated hills. The sites of the Curonian castle mounds reach 10,000 m2, but most often their area is from 500 to 3000 m2. For many settlements, a constituent part was at the foot of the settlement. Some of them occupied 50,000 m².
3. Costumes of the Prussians
The Prussians (Greek Βορουσκοί, lat. Borusci) are a group of tribes that inhabited the southern coast of the Baltic Sea between the lower reaches of the river in the 9th / 10th-18th centuries. Vistula and Neman (the territory of the Kaliningrad region of Russia, the southern part of the Klaipeda district of Lithuania, as well as the Warmia-Mazury voivodeship of Poland). It is generally accepted to consider the Prussians belonging to the group of Baltic tribes , or specifically to the Western Baltic peoples.
4. Costumes of the Viking age on archaeological excavations in the city of Novgorod
In the 7th century, a Slavic settlement arose on the Prost River. The incipient settlement of the Slavs at the Zemlyanoy settlement ( Staraya Ladoga ) could have arisen around 700 or even earlier. In the first half of the 750s, Scandinavian settlements appeared in the lower reaches of the Volkhov, but at the turn of 760-770, the Vikings were supplanted by the Slavs. In the 9th century, at the source of the Volkhov River on the outskirts of the Slavensky Hill, there was already a settlement of Rurikovo Gorodishche . Novgorod appeared around the turn of the 9th- 10th centuries or at the beginning of the 10th century. The second most important center of Kievan Rus after Kiev , the capital of the Novgorod Republic before its subordination to the Moscow principality in 1478.
Veliky Novgorod First mentioned in Russian chronicles under 859. In those days, the city was just a fortified settlement, which was named New City, which was quite widespread in world toponymy. A special feature of Novgorod is that it has always been and remains divided into two parts - the Trade and Sofia sides, the border between which is the Volkhov River. In the past, this division was not only geographic, but also reflected in the inner history of the city. The rivalry between the inhabitants of the Trade and Sofia sides often led to open clashes on the Great Bridge over the river.
5. Costumes of the Viking Age at the archaeological site in the city of Gotland
The island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea was in the Viking Age (793-1066) one of the places from where the Scandinavians actively sailed to Russia as traders, robbers and mercenaries. Moreover, the campaigns and resettlement of the inhabitants of the island to the eastern lands began several centuries earlier than the "official" era of the Vikings.
During the Viking Age, the inhabitants of Gotland were active in trade, as evidenced by 650 treasures found on the island, consisting of 140 thousand Arab and Western European coins and jewelry. Since the XI century. The Gotland took leading positions in the intermediary trade in the Baltic between Eastern and Western Europe. On the coast of the island there was a system of harbors, which in Russian chronicles is called the Gothic coast. On the site of one of these harbors, the city of Visby subsequently emerged. Picture stones are very numerous on the island. The Gotlandians spoke the ancient Gutinian language.
In the 9th-11th centuries (the Viking Age), an active trading life raged on the island. Ties were maintained with the lands of Western and Eastern Europe. In Novgorod, the Goths had their own residence (Gutagard) and even over time, the church of St. Olaf was built. The wealth of the island can be judged by the numerous treasures found (over 700). An interesting fact is that the number of Arab coins from the Gotland caches exceeds the number of similar finds in the territories of all Muslim states combined. The Silver Fur Trade Route passed through Gotland. The system of convenient harbors made it possible to receive a large number of ships. In one of these areas, the city of Visby, the main city of the island, arose. The end of the Viking Age was marked by the adoption of Christianity.
Archaeologists claim that Gotland has been inhabited since the Stone Age. The artifacts found indicate that the main occupation of the inhabitants was fishing and hunting for seals. During the period of the Iron and Bronze Ages (I-V centuries), the pagan Goths had a very developed funerary cult, which is reminiscent of the arks made of huge boulders (for resettlement to another world), stone labyrinths (as a place to say goodbye to the dead), as well as huge steles with drawings and inscriptions.
