Vadas Ferenc (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 15. (Szekszárd, 1990)

Handelsbeziehungen - Johann Callmer: The beginning of the Easteuropean trade connections of Scandinavia and the Baltic Region in the eighth and ninth centuries A. D.

later Oriental beads could be noted. It is consequently probable that this connection between Finland and the East petered out at the same time as an efficient and regular inflow of trade material like dirhams an beads to the Baltic begins. The second aspect was that of developing links between Aland and the Volga-Oka area. As already stated the development there continued and in the middle of the ninth century there was an exodus of groups featuring Âlandic burial customs to the neighbourhood of JaroslavP on the Volga (Callmer 1988 165f). Probably the Volga-Oka area became an important basis for trade in Eastern Europe and a complement to Staraja Ladoga on the lower Volchov river. The third aspect concerned the more general spread to the East of the trade systems of the Baltic. This aspect cannot now be easily kept apart from the second aspect. During the ninth century indications of more developed contacts with the Upper Dniepr basin could be noted and this ultimately leads to the opening of the Dniepr- route and the emergence of the centre at Gnezdovo (Bulkin 1977). The routes via which these objects reached the Baltic are widely unknown to us and it is not likely that we shall ever have a very detailed knowledge of them. It is however in the light of the hoard finds reasonable to suggest that the Oriental goods arrived via several different routes through Eastern Europe. Two or three routes reached the basin of lake Ilmen' and passed Staraja Ladoga on the way to the Baltic (Nosov 1980, Leont'ev 1986). Whether the Dvina played an important role remains doubtful (cf Bulkin 1977). I shall not discuss here in detail the routes in Eastern Europe but I will point at one important area at the beginning of connections with the Baltic. For many categories of finds especially the beads we can see a far-reaching parallellity in the Saltovo-Majaki material on the upper Donee, especially Verchnij Saltov, and the Mordovian cemeteries (Deopik 1961, Materiainaja Kuftura Sredne-Cninskoj Mordvy 1969, Jastrebov 1893). This connection with the Donee settlements and regions much further north than Mordovia is corroborated by a number of finds. A lunulashaped pendant of blue or green glass frequently occurs in graves at Verchnij Saltov and they are represented by several specimens at Staraja Ladoga (Rjabinin 1985 69). Also the Oriental beads discussed above have a close connection with the Donee settlements. Of the millefiori beads there are specimens from Staraja Ladoga which are tooth-like deformed. The only parallells to this probably secondary treatment of the beads we have from the Saltovo-Majaki culture (Lvova 1968 68, Deopik 1961 231, Andrae 1975 113). In our opinion the beginning of the stable connections between the Baltic and the East begins ca. A. D. 775. It is probable that both the link between the VolgaKama area and Finland and the trade interests of Scandinavians in the Volga-Oka area were important. The prime initiative however may have come from the East. This is suggested by the chorology of the earliest Oriental bead import to the Baltic. Later on traders based in the Baltic become more active while still visits to the Baltic from Eastern traders is not to be excluded. After A. D. 800 it may be supposed that the interaction between traders from the East and the West becomes more complex. At that stage dirhams are used in large numbers in the trade. The further development shall not be commented on here for lack of space. We must now turn to the more general question concerning the archaeological phenomena we have been able to define above. Are they to be interpreted as evidence of trade or not. I have used the term trade and traders above allthough it would have been more correct to use some other more neutral term. The inflow of 34