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.

Taf. 52: 456, 461). From mainland Sweden there are only some finds with a connection to the east and they point to Bait territories. There are e. g. some Bait trapezoid pendants and some typical pins (Nerman 1958 192 o

and unpublished finds from Eastern Middle Sweden). This connection between Aland and the Volga-Oka area is so much more plausible and there are eighth century Scandinavian finds also in one of the most important settlements of this area, the gorodisce on the Sara (Leonte'v 1981). A further circumstance is a well documented ninth century exodus of groups with Alandic grave customs to the Volga-Oka area in the ninth century. The third aspect of the connections the east is in fact related to the trade with the West. As already pointed out this trade as indicated by a rising number of trading places not only on the Scandinavian but also along the southern coast of the Baltic and perhaps also on the eastern side expands very considerable (Callmer 1986 360-1). Already in the second half of the eighth century people involved in this trade may have reached Staraja Ladoga on the lower Volchov River and the Ilmen' Basin has to a certain extent been linked to the western trade system. This is probably also true of the Peipus basin. Finds of beads from Jes'ki and Kurovo show this connection (Leont'ev 1984 7). I shall not consider here the development of the Scandinavian settlements of the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries on the Curonian coast (Nerman 1958). It remains uncertain whether they were closely connected with trade. This presentation of the three on the eighth century development of contacts with the East shows us that it was a very considerable development. These contacts indicate three distinct areas of importance for the development of trade. First we have the connections of Finland with the Volga-Kama area, a line of connection which may be followed with the help of finds from the neighbourhood of Staraja Ladoga, a grave on the Teza (a tributary of the Kljaz'ma River) and another grave near Murom (Sedov 1970 27, Grakov 1927 34f, Gorjunova 1953). The second area is the Volga-Oka mesopotamia and the third is the basins of lakes Ilmen' and Pejpus connected with the Baltic. For our understanding of the further development of the trade connections of Northern Europe with the East it is now necessary to consider the trade connections of Eastern Europe in the seventh and eighth centuries. In the Kama basin we have strong evidence especially in the bead material but also in finds of silver vessels, weapons and jewellery for stable contacts with the Caucasian area, Byzantium and the Near East of trade character (Lescenko 1971 18-21). Also further west in Mordovia, in the Oka and Middle Volga region there is evidence for developped contacts with the south (Krasnov 1980 132). They are however considerably less well documented for the seventh century. Only in the eighth century with the development of the Saltovo-Majaki culture in the steppe and forest-steppe zone can we see indications of stronger ties with the south in Mordovia. On the Oka and further north evidence for a similar development are weak or lacking. When we turn to the Dniepr Basin most contacts point to the south, especially Crimea and the Balkans (Archeolohija Ukraïnskoï RSR 1975 153f). Especially some hoard finds point to contacts with the steppe zone and the east (Sedov 1982 25). Only in small numbers do these indicators reach the upper Dniepr basin. A point in case are however the cowries in Latvia already mentioned. These strong connections of the Kama basin and Mordovia with the south in the eighth century and for the first mentioned region also earlier is difficult to inter23