What do we know about the land of the Vyatichi? Map of the settlement of the Slavic tribes.

Vyatichi “... and Vyatko sat down with his family on the Oka, from him they called themselves Vyatichi” (“The Tale of Bygone Years”). One of the large Slavic tribes or tribal associations that lived in the Oka River basin and its tributaries. Over time, the Vyatichi moved southeast to the upper

Then the Vyatichi border runs along the Ugra and Oka valleys up to the confluence of Moscow with the Oka, bypassing the Protva and Nara basins. Further, the boundary of the settlement of the Vyatichi follows northwest along the right tributaries to the upper reaches of the Moskva River (where Krivichi monuments are also found), and then turns east towards the upper reaches of the Klyazma. At the confluence of the Ucha with the Klyazma, the border turns southeast and goes first along the left bank of the Moscow, and then the Oka. The extreme eastern border of the distribution of seven-lobed temporal rings is Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky.

Further, the border of the distribution of the Vyatichi goes to the upper reaches of the Oka, including the Proni basin. The upper reaches of the Oka are entirely occupied by the Vyatichi. Separate archaeological sites of the Vyatichi were also found on the upper Don, in the territory of the modern Lipetsk region.

Chronicle references

In addition to The Tale of Bygone Years, the Vyatichi are mentioned (as V-n-n-tit) and in an earlier source - a letter from the Khazar Khagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Caliph of Cordoba Hasdai ibn Shaprut (960s), which reflects the ethno-political situation of the late VIII - mid-IX centuries.

In one of the Arabic sources, the ancient author Gardizi wrote about those places: And on the extreme limits of the Slavic there is a madina called Vantit (Vait, Vabnit)". Arabic word " madina"could mean the city, and the territory subject to him, and the entire district. The ancient source "Hudud al-Alam" says that some of the inhabitants of the first city in the east (the country of the Slavs) are similar to the Rus. The story goes about those times when there were no Russ here yet, and this land was ruled by its princes, who called themselves " sweet-malik". From here there was a road to Khazaria, to the Volga Bulgaria, and only later, in the XI century, the campaigns of Vladimir Monomakh took place.

The Vanthit theme also found its place in the texts of the Scandinavian chronicler and saga collector Snorri Sturluson.

Origin

According to archaeological observations, the settlement of the Vyatichi took place from the territory of the Dnieper left bank or even from the upper reaches of the Dniester (where the dulebs lived).

Most researchers believe that the substratum of the Vyatichi was the local Baltic population. The predecessors of the Slavic population in the basin of the upper Oka were representatives of the Moshchin culture that had developed by the 3rd-4th centuries. Such features of culture as house-building, rituals, ceramic material and decorations, in particular things inlaid with colored enamels, make it possible to attribute its bearers to the Baltic-speaking population. Archaeologist Nikolskaya T. N., who devoted most of her life to archaeological research on the territory of the Upper Oka basin, in her monograph “The culture of the tribes of the Upper Oka basin in the 1st millennium AD” also concluded that the Upper Oka culture is close to the culture of the ancient Balts, and non-Ugric-Finnish population. .

Story

Vyatichi settled in the Oka basin in the period -VIII centuries. According to the Tale of Bygone Years, in the middle of the 10th century, the Vyatichi paid tribute to Khazaria in a shelyag (presumably a silver coin) from a plow. Like other Slavs, the administration was carried out by the veche and the princes. Finds of numerous coin hoards testify to the participation of communities in international trade.

The lands of the Vyatichi became part of the Chernigov, Rostov-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities. The last time the Vyatichi are mentioned in chronicles under their tribal name was in 1197. Archaeologically, the legacy of the Vyatichi in the culture of the Russian population can be traced back to the 17th century.

Archeology

In the upper reaches of the Oka, before the Ugra flows into it, the process of assimilation proceeded most intensively and ended by the -12th centuries.

The advance of the Vyatichi to the northeast along the valleys of the Oka, and then Moscow, occurs from the -X centuries. This is evidenced by the discoveries of several villages with stucco ceramics in the Serpukhov, Kashirsky and Odintsovo districts of the Moscow region. It should be noted that at the same time, Slavic colonization does not occur in the Nara and Protva basins. This period is characterized by a high density of Slavic mounds with seven-lobed temporal rings typical of the Vyatichi. The largest number of such burials was found in the Moscow basin.

Settlements

The dwellings of the Vyatichi were dugouts (4 meters by 4 meters), lined with wood from the inside; log walls with a gable roof rose above the ground. The settlements were located at great distances from each other and, as a rule, along the banks of rivers. Many villages were surrounded by deep moats. The earth dug out of the ditch was dumped by the Vyatichi into a rampart, reinforced with boards and piles, and then rammed until the wall reached the desired height. An entrance with a strong gate was made in the wall. A wooden bridge was thrown across the moat in front of the entrance. Archaeologists call the remains of fortified settlements settlements, and unfortified ones - settlements.

Vyatichi settlements are known in the Glazunov district of the Oryol region (Taginskoye settlement), Maloyaroslavets district of the Kaluga region, on the territory of the Kremlin in Moscow, in Ryazan (Old Ryazan).

Later, the Vyatichi began to build log houses, which were both housing and a protective structure. A log house was taller than a semi-dugout, often built on two floors. Its walls and windows were decorated with carvings, which made a strong aesthetic impression.

economy

Vyatichi were engaged in hunting (they paid tribute to the Khazars with furs), collecting honey, mushrooms and wild berries. They were also engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture, later plowed (millet, barley, wheat, rye), cattle breeding (pigs, cows, goats, sheep). At all times, the Vyatichi were excellent tillers and skilled warriors. In the economy, the Vyatichi used iron axes, plows, and sickles, which indicates a developed blacksmithing.

Beliefs

The Vyatichi remained pagans for a long time. In the XII century, they killed the Christian missionary Kuksha Pechersky (presumably on August 27, 1115). A late legend reports the adoption of Christianity in some places only at the beginning of the 15th century:

in 1415, during the reign of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, the son of Donskoy, the Mtsenyans did not yet recognize the true God, which is why they were sent that year from him and Metropolitan Photius, priests, with many troops, to bring the inhabitants to the true faith. The Mtsenyans were horrified and began to fight, but were soon stricken with blindness. The messengers began to persuade them to accept baptism; convinced by this, some of the mtsenyans: Khodan, Yushinka and Zakey were baptized and, having regained their sight, found the Cross of the Lord, carved from stone, and a carved image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, in the form of a warrior holding an ark in his hand; then, amazed by the miracle, all the inhabitants of the city hurried to receive holy baptism.

Burials (mounds)

The Vyatichi performed a feast over the dead, and then cremated, erecting small mounds over the burial place. This is confirmed by archaeological excavations in the Moscow basin. hallmark Vyatichi female burials are considered seven-lobed temporal rings. The Baltic influence on the Vyatichi (through the local tribes of the Moshchin culture) is also indicated by characteristic decorations - neck hryvnias, which are not among the common decorations in the East Slavic world of the 10th-12th centuries. Only among two tribes - the Radimichi and the Vyatichi - did they become relatively widespread.

Among the Vyatichi jewelry there are neck torcs, unknown in other ancient Russian lands, but having complete analogies in the Letto-Lithuanian materials. In the 12th century, the mounds of this region already had a characteristic Vyatichi appearance, the burials were oriented with their heads to the west, in contrast to the Baltic ones, for which the orientation to the east is typical. Also, Slavic burials differ from the Baltic ones in the group arrangement of mounds (up to several dozen).

Anthropological appearance

Anthropologically, the Vyatichi from the Moscow region were close to the northerners: they had a long skull, a narrow, orthognathic, well-profile in the horizontal plane face and a rather wide, medium-protruding nose with a high nose bridge. V. V. Bunak (1932) noted the elements of similarity between the Vyatichi and Severyans and the Sardinians as representatives of the Mediterranean type, and attributed them to the Pontic anthropological type. T. A. Trofimova (1942) singled out among the Vyatichi Caucasoid dolichocephalic and Subural types, which has analogies in the Finno-Ugric population of the Volga and Ural regions. G. F. Debets believed that it would be more correct to speak only of a small Subural admixture.

A third of the Vyatichi died in childhood. Life expectancy for men rarely exceeded 40 years, for women it is much lower.

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Notes

2. (Russian). NTV. Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
6. Gagin I. A.(Russian). Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
7. Sedov V.V. Volintsevo culture. Slavs in the South-East of the Russian Plain // . - M .: Scientific and productive charitable society "Archeology Fund", 1995. - 416 p. - ISBN 5-87059-021-3.
8. Wed other Russian more"more". Words ascend to the same root Vyacheslav"great fame" Vyatka"big [river]."
9. Khaburgaev G. A. The ethnonymy of The Tale of Bygone Years in connection with the tasks of reconstructing the East Slavic glottogenesis. M .: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1979. S. 197.
10. Nikolaev S. L.
11. (Russian). Retrieved July 3, 2008. .
12. Cm.: Kokovtsov P.K. E. S. Galkina identifies V-n-n-tit not with the Vyatichi, but with the Turkic tribal union of the Unnogundurs (Onogurs): Galkina E. S.
15. Sedov V.V.
17. Krasnoshchekova S. D., Krasnitsky L. N. Local history notes. Archeology of the Oryol region. Eagle. Spring Waters. 2006
18. "Kozar for a schlyag from the ral we give"
20. B. A. Rybakov noted the similarity of the name Kordno with someone Khordab- the city of the Slavs, mentioned by Arab and Persian authors
26. Nikolskaya T. N. Land of the Vyatichi. On the history of the population of the basin of the upper and middle Oka in the 9th-13th centuries. Moscow. The science. 1981.)
27. Artsikhovsky A. V. Vyatichi barrows. 1930.
28. tulaeparhia.ru/home/istoriya-tulskoj-eparxii.html
29. Sedov V.V. Slavs of the Upper Dnieper and Dvina. M., 1970. S. 138, 140.
30. In more early lists annals instead steal"funeral pyre" is the word clade"deck, coffin".
31. Cit. By: Mansikka V.J. Religion of the Eastern Slavs. Moscow: IMLI im. A. M. Gorky RAN, 2005. P. 94.
32. Alekseeva T. I. Ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs according to anthropology data. M., 1973.

Literature

• Nikolskaya T. N. The culture of the tribes of the Upper Oka basin in the 1st millennium AD. / Rev. ed. M. A. Tikhanova; . - M .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1959. - 152 p. - (Materials and research on the archeology of the USSR. No. 72). - 1500 copies.(in trans.)
• Nikolskaya T. N. Land of the Vyatichi: On the history of the population of the basin of the upper and middle Oka in the 9th-13th centuries. / Rev. ed. d.h.s. V. V. Sedov; . - M .: Nauka, 1981. - 296 p. - 3000 copies.(in trans.)
• Grigoriev A.V. Slavic population of the watershed of the Oka and Don at the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. / Editorial board: V. P. Gritsenko, A. M. Vorontsov, A. N. Naumov (responsible editors); Reviewers: A. V. Kashkin, T. A. Pushkina; State. military-historical and natural museum-reserve "Kulikovo field". - Tula: Reproniks, 2005. - 208 p. - 500 copies. - ISBN 5-85377-073-X.(reg.)

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Who were our ancestors before they became Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.

Vyatichi

The name Vyatichi, in all likelihood, comes from the Proto-Slavic vęt- “big”, like the names “Venedi” and “Vandals”. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, the Vyatichi descended "from the kind of Poles", that is, from the Western Slavs. The resettlement of the Vyatichi went from the territory of the Dnieper left bank and even from the upper reaches of the Dniester. In the basin of the Oka River, they founded their own state - Vantit, which is mentioned in the works of the Arab historian Gardizi.

The Vyatichi were an extremely freedom-loving people: the Kyiv princes had to capture them at least four times.

The last time the Vyatichi as a separate tribe was mentioned in the annals was in 1197, but the legacy of the Vyatichi can be traced back to the 17th century. Many historians consider the Vyatichi the ancestors of modern Muscovites.

It is known that the Vyatichi tribes adhered to the pagan faith for a very long time. The chronicler Nestor mentions that this union of tribes had polygamy in the order of things. In the 12th century, the Vyatichi Christian missionary Kuksha Pechersky was killed, and only by the 15th century did the Vyatichi tribes finally accept Orthodoxy.

Krivichi

The Krivichi were first mentioned in the annals in 856, although archaeological finds indicate the emergence of the Krivichi as a separate tribe as early as the 6th century. The Krivichi were one of the largest East Slavic tribes and lived on the territory of modern Belarus, as well as in the regions of the Dvina and Dnieper regions. The main cities of the Krivichi were Smolensk, Polotsk and Izborsk.

The name of the tribal union comes from the name of the pagan high priest krive-krivaytis. Kriwe meant "curved", which could equally well indicate old age priest, and on his ritual staff.

According to the legends, when the high priest could no longer perform his duties, he committed self-immolation. The main task of krive-krivaitis were sacrifices. Usually goats were sacrificed, but sometimes the animal could be replaced by a man.

The last tribal prince of the Krivichi Rogvolod was killed in 980 by the Novgorod prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who married his daughter. In the annals, the Krivichi are mentioned until 1162. Subsequently, they mixed with other tribes and became the ancestors of modern Lithuanians, Russians and Belarusians.

Glade

The meadows have nothing to do with Poland. It is believed that these tribes came from the Danube and settled on the territory of modern Ukraine. It is the meadows that are the founders of Kyiv and the main ancestors of modern Ukrainians.

According to legend, three brothers Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv with their sister Lybid lived in the Polyan tribe. The brothers built a city on the banks of the Dnieper and named it Kiev, in honor of their elder brother. These brothers laid the foundation for the first princely family. When the Khazars imposed tribute on the fields, they paid them the first with double-edged swords.

Initially, the meadows were in a losing position, from all sides they were squeezed by more numerous and powerful neighbors, and the Khazars forced the glades to pay tribute to them. But by the middle of the 8th century, thanks to the economic and cultural upsurge, the meadows moved from waiting to offensive tactics.

Having seized many of the lands of their neighbors, in 882 the meadows themselves were under attack. Prince Oleg of Novgorod seized their lands, and declared Kyiv the capital of his new state.

The glade was last mentioned in chronicles in 944 in connection with Prince Igor's campaign against Byzantium.

White Croats

Little is known about white Croats. They came from the upper reaches of the Vistula River and settled on the Danube and along the Morava River. It is believed that Great (White) Croatia, which was located on the spurs of the Carpathian Mountains, was their homeland. But in the 7th century, under pressure from the Germans and Poles, the Croats began to leave their state and go east.

According to The Tale of Bygone Years, White Croats participated in Oleg's campaign against Constantinople in 907. But the chronicles also testify that Prince Vladimir in 992 "went against the Croats." So the free tribe became part of Kievan Rus.

It is believed that the White Croats are the ancestors of the Carpathian Rusyns.

Drevlyans

The Drevlyans have a bad reputation. The princes of Kyiv twice imposed tribute on the Drevlyans for raising an uprising. The Drevlyans did not abuse mercy. Prince Igor, who decided to collect a second tribute from the tribe, was tied up and torn in two.

Prince Mal of the Drevlyans immediately wooed Princess Olga, who had just become a widow. She brutally dealt with his two embassies, and during the feast for her husband, she massacred the Drevlyans.

The princess finally subjugated the tribe in 946, when she burned their capital Iskorosten with the help of birds that lived in the city. These events went down in history as "Olga's four revenges on the Drevlyans." Interestingly, along with the glades, the Drevlyans are the distant ancestors of modern Ukrainians.

Dregovichi

The name Dregovichi comes from the Baltic root "dreguva" - a swamp. Dregovichi - one of the most mysterious alliances of Slavic tribes. Almost nothing is known about them. At a time when the princes of Kyiv were burning neighboring tribes, the Dregovichi "entered" into Rus' without resistance.

It is not known where the Dregovichi came from, but there is a version that their homeland was in the south, on the Peloponnese peninsula. Dregovichi settled in the 9th-12th centuries on the territory of modern Belarus, it is believed that they are the ancestors of Ukrainians and Poleshchuks.

Before becoming part of Rus', they had their own reign. The capital of the Dregovichi was the city of Turov. Not far from there was the city of Khil, which was an important ritual center where sacrifices were made to pagan gods.

Radimichi

Radimichi were not Slavs, their tribes came from the west, forced out by the Goths back in the 3rd century, and settled in the interfluve of the upper Dnieper and Desna along the Sozh and its tributaries. Until the 10th century, the Radimichi retained their independence, were ruled by tribal leaders and had their own army. Unlike most of their neighbors, the Radimichi never lived in dugouts - they built huts with chicken stoves.

In 885, Prince Oleg of Kiev asserted his power over them and obliged the Radimichi to pay tribute to him, which they had previously paid to the Khazars. In 907, the Radimichi army participated in Oleg's campaign against Tsargrad. Soon after this, the union of tribes was freed from the power of the Kyiv princes, but already in 984 a new campaign against the Radimichi took place. Their army was defeated, and the lands were finally annexed to Kievan Rus. The last time radimichi are mentioned in the annals in 1164, but their blood still flows in modern Belarusians

Slovenia

Slovenes (or Ilmen Slovenes) are the northernmost East Slavic tribe. Slovenes lived in the basin of Lake Ilmen and the upper reaches of the Mologa. The first mention of Slovenes can be attributed to the VIII century.

Slovene can be called an example of vigorous economic and state development.

In the 8th century, they seized settlements in Ladoga, then established trade relations with Prussia, Pomerania, the islands of Rügen and Gotland, as well as with Arab merchants. After a series of civil strife, in the 9th century, the Slovenes called on the Varangians to reign. The capital becomes Velikiy Novgorod. After that, Slovenes begin to be called Novgorodians, their descendants still live in the Novgorod region.

northerners

Despite the name, the northerners lived much further south than the Slovenes. The northerners inhabited the basins of the Desna, Seim, Seversky Donets and Sula rivers. The origin of the self-name is still unknown, some historians suggest Scythian-Sarmatian roots for the word, which can be translated as "black".

The northerners were different from other Slavs, they had thin bones and a narrow skull. Many anthropologists believe that the northerners belong to a branch of the Mediterranean race - the Pontic.

The tribal union of the northerners existed until the visit of Prince Oleg. Previously, the northerners paid tribute to the Khazars, but now they began to pay to Kyiv. In just one century, the northerners mixed with other tribes and ceased to exist.

Uchi

The streets were unlucky. Initially, they lived in the region of the lower Dnieper, but the nomads forced them out, and the tribes had to move westward to the Dniester. Gradually, the streets founded their own state, the capital of which was the city of Peresechen, located on the territory of modern Dnepropetrovsk.

With the coming to power of Oleg, the streets began the struggle for independence. Svenelda, governor Kyiv prince, had to win back the lands of the convicted piece by piece - the tribes fought for every village and settlement. Sveneld besieged the capital for three years, until the city finally surrendered.

Even taxed, the streets tried to restore their own lands after the war, but soon a new misfortune came - the Pechenegs. The streets were forced to flee to the north, where they mingled with the Volhynians. In the 970s, the streets are mentioned in chronicles for the last time.

The territory of the Kaluga region has been inhabited since the Neolithic era from the 3rd millennium BC. e. various tribes and peoples. At the end of the III millennium BC. e. - I millennium BC. e. our area was inhabited by the Fatyanovtsy tribe, who were familiar with bronze tools. The Fatyanovites were predominantly cattle breeders who came to our area from the southeastern steppes in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e.

At the end of II - beginning of I millennium BC. e. people knew iron. The development of iron made it possible for people to cut down forests and shrubs, freeing up ever larger areas for meadows and pastures, and also to build dwellings from logs instead of primitive huts. In that era, people lived in small tribal communities, and for the settlement they chose the most favorable places where it would be easier to protect themselves from wild animals and rival neighbors. The settlement from the side of the open field, as a rule, was protected by deep ditches and bulk earthen ramparts, and a palisade of large logs was built along the top. The dwellings of people were small wooden houses with cone-shaped thatched roofs and a hearth located inside. At the same time, many settlements existed continuously for hundreds and even more than a thousand years, as evidenced by the cultural layer accumulated on the site.

In the Kaluga region, many hills with the remains of earthen ramparts and ditches, covered with coal-black earth - a cultural layer, have been preserved. Archaeologists call the remains of these ancient settlements with fortifications settlements. The first treasures of the "Early Iron Age" were found in the settlement near the village of Dyakovo on the southern outskirts of Moscow. This ancient monument, which has the shape of a pyramidal rising hill with the remains of a rampart and an ancient moat, received the popular name "Devil's Settlement". Picking up a stone in the scree of the hill, local residents often met here "devil's fingers" - fossilized belemnite mollusks, and often came across "thunder arrows" - stone tips of ancient arrows. In the 1960s, the Russian archaeologist D. Ya. n. e .: a massive neck torc with wire winding and loose hollow beads, a twisted torc, a horseshoe-shaped buckle, bracelets, bells.

About a dozen ancient settlements were located on the Kaluga land- Three settlements are known within the boundaries of Kaluga itself. And nearby towered burial grounds and mounds of ancient Slavic settlements passing nearby. Archaeological research of the Kaluga settlements shed light on the life and way of life of the ancient inhabitants of our area, made it possible to study their customs and culture. The settlements were inhabited by a patriarchal clan, but over time their population increased, and entire settlements appeared in the neighborhood of the settlements. Traces of them - the settlement near the village. Kaluga, der. Gorodni, der. Sekiotovo, Klimov plant. Unusual architecture of ancient settlements.

The hills adjacent to the settlement were carefully fortified, and the fortification defense system was continuously developed over the centuries. Large ramparts were erected on the vulnerable sides of the field, in front of which deep ditches filled with water were pulled out. A wooden palisade was laid along the crest of the ramparts, encircling the platforms of terraces on the steep slopes of the settlements, built for entering and exiting the territory, while the entrance paved with wooden logs or cobblestones led to the flat top of the fortress. On the territory of the settlement there were public buildings, residential houses, agricultural buildings, storage facilities, cellars. In each dwelling, one part probably belonged to men, and the other to women and children.

In the center of the house was a hearth lined with homemade bricks made of baked clay. Living in houses separate families constituted one community, a single large patriarchal family, inseparably leading a common economy. What treasures were hidden behind its ramparts? First of all, it is cattle, since cattle breeding was the main occupation of the inhabitants of the settlements, the basis of their primitive economy. The development of cattle breeding and the development of metal largely contributed to the development of agriculture in the Kaluga region, as evidenced by iron products found in the settlements. Among the archaeological finds are iron items: sickles, scythes, knives, arrowheads. Hunting and fishing also played an important role in the economy. Among the animal bones found in the settlement were the bones of wild and domestic animals of a bear, a wild boar, an elk, a fox - the fauna of the territory of the future Kaluga was so diverse.

Ancient metallurgy firmly entered the life of the inhabitants of Kaluga settlements: archaeologists discovered clay molds for melting metal - lyachki, forgings, metal slags - production waste, cast bronze and iron products. Women's jewelry was skillfully made by an ancient master: temporal rings, bronze pendants, metal rings, brooches, miniature bells. They decorated the festive costumes of women. Whole tassels of such bronze pendants hung from a woman's headdress. Beads and a hryvnia were worn around the neck. All sorts of plaques were sewn on the chest and on the belt, even on the hem of the dress. A characteristic male adornment was a belt plaque. In that era, weaving and pottery were already developed on the Kaluga land. Ancient rough molded utensils were found on the settlements. Excavations of the settlement of the alleged ancient Kaluga at the mouth of the Kaluzhka River and the neighboring settlement near the village of Gorodnya, where ancient Gorodensk stood, carried out in 1892 by the Kaluga archaeologist I. D. Chetyrkin, confirmed that the inhabitants of the settlements made not only pottery, but were also skilled bone cutters - the bone handles of knives and amulets found here are distinguished by their excellent finish. Bone carvings were also found in the Mozhaika tract near the ravine near the village. Sekiotovo.

Who were the inhabitants of the Kaluga settlements? Archaeological research has shed light on the ethnographic identity of the inhabitants of the Kaluga settlements in the earliest period of their history; elements of ancient Baltic and Finno-Ugric cultures are found in them. The later layers (X-XII centuries) belong to the annalistic Slavic tribes - the Vyatichi. According to linguists, the name “Vyatichi” comes from the ancient name of the Slavs known to the Romans “Venta”, from which “Ventichi” (Vyatichi) was obtained. This period includes characteristic clay pottery made on a potter's wheel and Vyatichi seven-lobed temporal rings. Among the Slavic finds of the Kaluga region there are dozens of various items and iron products: coulters, plowshares, sickles and scythes, knives and axes. This could be observed during the excavations of ancient Russian Serensk. Among the many metal objects found in the Serensky citadel, household items were in the first place. Tools of labor and agriculture took the second place (5.7%), while the tools of craftsmen, used for working metal, wood, leather, etc., took the third place (4.1%). In addition, in the excavated ancient Serensk, among the dozens of found items of everyday life and economic activity, written culture and cult, a hollow encolpion cross was found for storing relics. He is a witness of the ancient Christian culture of the pre-Mongolian period, which came to our region from ancient Kyiv. These cultural ties between the city of artisans of Serensk and Kiev, Chernigov and other cities of Ancient Rus' are evidenced by archaeological finds.

The history of the Vyatichi has preserved the names of the Slavic tribes known from the Old Russian Tale of Bygone Years. This is the first Russian chronicle of the XII century. he also names the legendary ancestor of Vyatko: "... And Vyatko is gray with his family along the Oka, from him she was nicknamed Vyatichi." Archaeological materials confirm that the tribe of Slavs-Vyatichi occupied the basins of the Oka and the Moscow River, including the immediate territory of the future Moscow. Their communities, united in a large tribal union headed by elders (princes) from the tribal nobility, did not quarrel with each other, so the settlements were usually surrounded only by a wooden fence to protect them from wild animals. The remains of such settlements, which do not have traces of earthen fortifications, are more difficult to detect on the ground. More often they are discovered by chance, thanks to the intensely black cultural layer preserved in their place and the finds in it of pottery made on potter's wheel, elegant in shape and decorated with a wavy or jagged ornament. Thus, Slavic settlements were discovered on the Kaluzhka River (XII centuries), near the village of Zhdamirovo (XII-XV centuries), in the Kaluga forest (XI-XIII centuries), a settlement near Simeon's settlement (XIV-XVI centuries). On the banks of the Ugra River there were also the remains of settlements, where life continued for several centuries, until the beginning of the 17th century.

Arab geographer of the early tenth century. Ibn-Rusta reported that "the land of the Vyatichi is a wooded plain, they live in the forests ... The bread most cultivated by them is millet." A significant role in the Vyatichi economy has long been played by the collection of wild fruits and berries, mushrooms and honey from wild bees. Written sources and archaeological sites testify that at the end of the 1st millennium AD. e. the Vyatichi still retained a patriarchal tribal system. They lived in fortified settlements - settlements and were engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture. But then, later, with the development of arable farming, the Vyatichi settled widely in unfortified settlements. Archeology makes it possible to clarify not only the territories of the Vyatichi settlement, but also their main occupations. The main economic occupation of our ancestors was agriculture, so they often settled near rivers, among their field lands. During archaeological excavations in many places seeds of cereals - rye, wheat, barley, millet were found. Since ancient times, man has identified life with arable land and bread, and therefore called grain crops "zhit". This name is still preserved in the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages.

Archaeological finds indicate that the southern lands of the Eastern Slavs were ahead of the northern ones in their development. This is due not so much to the proximity of the south of Ancient Rus' to the then centers of the Black Sea civilization, but also to more fertile lands. At the same time, natural and climatic conditions had a significant impact on the main systems of agriculture of the Eastern Slavs. If in the north, in the areas of taiga forests, the so-called slash-and-burn system of agriculture dominated (forest was cut down in the first year, in the second year dried trees were burned and sown grain, using ash instead of fertilizer), then in the southern regions fallow prevailed (with an excess of fertile land for two or three or more years, the same plots were sown, and then they moved - “shifted” to new ones). The main tools of labor of the Eastern Slavs were an ax, a hoe, a knotted harrow and a spade, which loosened the soil. The harvest was collected with a sickle, threshed with flails, and the grain was ground with stone grain grinders and hand millstones. In close connection with agriculture was cattle breeding. Eastern Slavs bred pigs, cows, small cattle. Oxen was used as working livestock in the southern regions, and horses were used in the forest belt. To get a more complete picture of the life of the Slavs in antiquity, fishing, hunting and beekeeping (collecting honey from wild bees) should be added to the main economic activities.

Among the exhibits of the Kaluga Regional Museum of Local Lore are widely represented jewelry made of bronze, copper, billon (an alloy of copper and silver), silver, which served as decorations for our distant ancestors who lived in the upper reaches of the Oka. They were found during the excavations of the archaeological Verkhneokskaya expedition, which attributed these finds to the XII-XIII centuries. The results of the excavations amazed the specialists with a large number of Slavic and Old Russian ceramics and metal ornaments found here. Of particular value are the individual finds collected during the excavations: temporal rings, bracelets, crosses, necklaces, pendants, rings, amulets, crescents and beads, which gives grounds to date these finds to the 12th–13th centuries. The excavations of the mounds have yielded a lot of interesting materials to characterize not only the burial rites of the Slavs-Vyatichi, but also their way of life, way of life and culture. In addition to rings, bracelets, carnelian and glass beads, almost every female burial contained characteristic temporal rings with elegant seven-lobed plates. On the basis of these materials and their comparison with finds from other places, the outstanding archaeologist-specialist V. I. Sizov, in the century before last, determined the purpose of the temporal rings, which, in all likelihood, served to tie hair with a ribbon. Later, the seven-lobed temporal rings became the most important hallmark Vyatich burials, unlike other Slavic tribes that lived north to Moscow and beyond the Klyazma River. Thanks to this, it was possible to quite accurately determine the boundary of the settlement of the Slavs-Vyatichi, who inhabited the territory of modern Kaluga and Moscow. And when the archaeologist A. A. Spitsyn at the end of the 19th century noted the finds of rings on the map, the truth of the messages of the Tale of Bygone Years was confirmed. In the burial mounds on the Sozha River, women were buried dressed with seven-beam rings, and in the basin of the upper Oka and on the Moscow River there were seven-blade rings of the Vyatichi. Other ancient Slavic necklaces found in the Vyatich burial mounds consist of scarlet faceted carnelian and round crystal beads. The age of the necklaces is probably as old as the age of Kaluga itself, and the woman who wore the beads could be a contemporary of the legendary hero Ilya Muromets. Breast pendants were also found that characterize the cosmogonic representations of the Vyatichi: some of them - "lunar", in the form of a crescent - symbolize the moon, others - round in the form of a disk with rays - the sun. The elegance of form and the subtlety of the processing of pendants from the Kaluga mounds attracted the attention of artists; According to experts, modern women of fashion will not refuse such jewelry.

Much longer than other Slavs, even centuries after the adoption of Christianity, the Vyatichi kept the pagan custom of burial in barrows. High earthen mounds, usually located in prominent places, have long attracted the attention of residents. Their true origin has long been forgotten, and people's rumors connected the mounds with the events of a later time: they were called "Lithuanian graves" in memory of the intervention of the early 17th century, and "French graves", "graves that hid the victims of the epidemic" and simply "tufts" ( bulging earth). From generation to generation, legends about countless treasures supposedly hidden in barrows by the conquerors were passed on. The Vyatichi believed in an afterlife, they were convinced that the things and tools that they used during their lifetime would also be needed in the next world. During the excavations of the Kaluga burial mounds, chest pendants are found that characterize the cosmogonic ideas of the Vyatichi and their pagan cult: some of them are “lunar”, in the form of a crescent - symbolize the moon, others are round, in the form of a disk with rays - the sun. There were many tools of labor in the male burial mounds. These finds tell about the occupation of agriculture, testify to the significant development of the craft. In addition to other items, many bones of wild and domestic animals were found in the Kaluga barrows - a bear, a fox, a hare, a wild boar and a horse. Moreover, almost all the bones have undergone heat treatment. Apparently, the use of horses for food was common for the Vyatichi people of the 12th century. Perhaps it was this fact that the Kievan chronicler had in mind when he said that the Vyatichi “eat everything unclean,” since horse meat was not eaten in Ancient Rus'.

Old Russian chronicles of the 11th century. they draw the Vyatichi as a separate tribe, separated from other East Slavic tribes by dense forests (and the forests were so dense that in 1175, during the princely feud, two troops marching against each other - one from Moscow, the other from Vladimir, got lost in the thickets and “minus in the forests", i.e. passed each other). Known for his military prowess, Prince Vladimir Monomakh tells in his Teaching to Children about a successful campaign through the land of the Vyatichi at the end of the 11th century. as a special feat. Equally important is another place in the same "Instruction", where Monomakh reports two winter campaigns "to Vyatichi" against the elder Khodota and his son in Kordna. Princes from the Rurik dynasty Vyatichi in the XI century. did not obey, and Monomakh does not report either their subjugation or the taxation of tribute. But where could the annalistic city of Kordna stand, which means road in ancient Finnish? Academician B. A. Rybakov, on the map of the ancient cities of the Vyatichi he compiled, indicated the proposed location of the present village of Karnady, northeast of Novosil, Oryol region. According to the assumption of the famous researcher of our region V. M. Kashkarov (1868-1915), this city of the Vyatichi was located near the village of Korna at the mouth of the Korinka stream, which flows into the Ressa. That this was the land of the Vyatichi people is also evidenced by the village of Vyatchino, adjacent to Mosalsk. The waterway from Kyiv and Chernigov to the Rostov-Murom Territory passed by this village and through the famous Bryn forests. When the legendary Ilya Muromets asked about the direct road to the city of Kyiv, the king told him: "We have a direct road to the city of Kiev to the forests on Brynsky." In the late 1980s - early 1990s, reclamation work was carried out in the area of ​​the village of Korna, Mosalsky district. And suddenly the workers stumbled upon something incomprehensible, digging out the remains of a wooden structure from a charred log house in the ground. But the construction plan did not allow them to go deeper and, having laid a trench, laying pipes in it, they completed the object. Perhaps this was part of the fortress wall made of charred bog oak in the city of Kordno.

By the time the state was formed among the Eastern Slavs, the tribal community was replaced by a territorial (neighboring) community. Each community owned a certain territory on which several families lived. All possessions of such a community were divided into public and private. Personal property consisted of a house, household land, meadow, livestock, and household equipment. Land, meadows, meadows, reservoirs, forests and fishing grounds were in common use. Mowing and arable land was divided among families. When the princes began to transfer the rights to own land to the feudal lords, part of the communities fell under their authority. Those communities that did not fall under the rule of the feudal lord were obliged to pay state taxes. Peasant and feudal farms were subsistence. Each of them sought to provide for itself at the expense of internal resources, not working for the market. But with the appearance of surpluses, the exchange of agricultural products for handicraft goods became possible. So cities gradually began to take shape - centers of crafts, trade and at the same time - strongholds of feudal power and defensive fortresses from the encroachments of external enemies. Sites for the construction of cities were chosen with great care. Old Russian cities, as a rule, arose at the confluence of two rivers, on the hills. The location of the city provided a natural defense against enemy attacks. The central part of the city was surrounded by an earthen rampart. A fortress wall (Kremlin) was erected on it, behind which the courts of princes and nobility were located, later churches and monasteries.

According to experts, about a dozen ancient Slavic cities of the Upper Poochie, on the territory of the current Kaluga region or near its borders, are located on Kaluga land. According to the "Chronology of Russian Chronicle" by N. G. Berezhkov, from December 1146 to the first half of 1147, in the feud between the Chernigov princes Izyaslav and Vladimir Davydovich and Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, the cities of Kerensk (Serensk), Kozelesk (Kozelsk) are mentioned in the Land of Vyatichi, Dedoslavl, Devyagorsk, Lyubinets, Omosov, Lobynsk at the mouth of the Protva, Oblov and others. According to the annals, Svyatoslav Olgovich, having become the prince of Chernigov, buys villages, including in 1155 the city of Vorotynisk (Vorotynsk-fortress at the mouth of the Ugra), Gorodensk, Bryn , Lubutsk, Mezetsk (Meshchevsk), Mosalsk, Obolensk, Yaroslavl (Maloyaroslavets). There is no exact data by whom and when these cities were built. But the fact that in the first half of the 20th century they belonged to the Slavic tribe of the Vyatichi cannot be in doubt.

And this indicates that the Vyatichi in the 20th century owned crafts, built settlements and cities, knew how to build fortifications, defending themselves from enemies. This was confirmed by the excavations of ancient Serensk, burned in 1231 by Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod and the "sons of Konstantinov." The handicraft and cultural flourishing of this city is evidenced by several dozen casting molds found during excavations conducted in the early 1980s, book clasps, writing, copper matrices and a spiral drill, an iron mask (mask) to protect the face of a warrior in battle, etc. In XII century, another ancient city of Lyudimesk was also founded, which was located on the Berezui River, 4 km from the village of Kurakino (now Grishovo). And nearby, on the banks of the Berezuy, there is a burial mound and an ancient settlement of the 12th-13th centuries. In 1246, Tarusa was also mentioned for the first time as a fortress city on the Oka, at the confluence of the river. Tarusy, the center of the specific possession of the Tarusian prince Yuri, the son of the Chernigov prince. Mikhail Vsevolodovich. D. I. Malinin calls Tarusa one of the most ancient cities of the Kaluga region, built by the Vyatichi people in the 10th century. Existence here in the XI-XII centuries. The settlements of the Slavs-Vyatichi are also proved by archaeological data.

It arose on the site of the Slavic pre-Mongolian settlement and Przemysl (Polish Przemysl, Premysl). During the examination by archaeologist M. V. Fekhner in 1953 of the Przemysl settlement near the Assumption Cathedral, fragments of vessels of the 9th-10th centuries were found, pottery with wavy and linear ornaments of the 20th-13th centuries was found. Przemysl has been known since 1328 as a small fortress, protected by sheer cliffs above the floodplain terraces of the Oka and Zhizdra rivers and a deep ravine. Later, the fortress occupied the opposite side of the ravine. A powerful earthen rampart simultaneously served as a dam for a defensive reservoir and a platform for deploying reserves inside the fortification. Equally ancient is Vorotynsk, located on the Vyssa, a tributary of the Oka. The first chronicle mention of him refers to 1155, when one of the Chernigov princes Svyatoslav Olgovich “swapped cities” with his nephew, the son of the Grand Duke of Kiev (from 1139 to 1146) Vsevolod Olgovich (“taking Snov, Vorotynsk, Karachev and giving him others for them). According to the hypothesis of A. I. Batalin, based on toponymic and archaeological materials, the emergence of Vorotynsk with the preaching of Christianity in the land of the Vyatichi. It was at that time that the legendary hermits Boris and Protas settled on the site of the future city. At the same time, according to researchers, a small worldly settlement Voskresensk arose - the core of the future city of Vorotynsk. The ancient settlement on the southern outskirts of the city with the remains of a moat and ramparts date back to this time. Not far from this place, where r. Vyssa makes a bizarre bend. There was an ancient Slavic settlement, the cultural layer on which reaches 3 meters. Here, along with signs of culture of the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. many items of early Slavic culture and the Middle Ages, tools, jewelry, Tatar and Lithuanian copper coins, etc. were found.

Foundry crucibles and furnaces, many items of household utensils, including metal hooks for fishing, a sickle-shaped knife, beads and earrings of rare beauty were also found during excavations of the ancient settlement of Benitsa of the present-day Borovsky district on the banks of the Protva River. In our history, this settlement has been known since 1150, together with the neighboring village of Bobrovnitsa, from the charter of the Grand Duke of Smolensk Rostislav Mstislavovich, to which he transferred the newly colonized villages of the Vyatichi: Drosenskoye and Yasenskoye, Benitsy and Bobrovnitsy to the jurisdiction of his bishopric. The villages of Benitsa and Bobrovniki in the Borovsky District have retained their names to this day. PV Golubovsky, the author of the "History of the Smolensk Land" published in 1893, puts the villages of Benitsa and Bobrovnitsa on the map of the Smolensk Principality as trading volost centers. It is known that Novgorod-Seversky prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, together with his ally Yuri Dolgoruky, went to Smolensk, in the upper reaches of the Protva, took "people golyad", enriching his squad with captivity. The modern scholar N. I. Smirnov in his article "On the issue of outcasts" notes that the charter of the Smolensk episcopate of 1150 is "the fact of the transformation into land holdings of the Smolensk episcopate of communal lands that were not previously part of feudal land ownership" ... So inside free tribe Vyatichi, the first signs of tribal differentiation appear. As noted by the Kaluga art researcher V. G. Putsko in his "Essay on the History of Orthodoxy in the Kaluga Land", "their Christianization is associated with the colonization movement that came from the Smolensk region of the Krivichi, and then from the southern Dnieper region."

However, not only the Vyatichi, but also their neighbors in the Upper Poochya, the Krivichi and, obviously, the native population of the Golyad tribe had their own cities. Neither chronicles nor historical researchers substantiate that the chronicle "golyads" migrated to the upper reaches of the Oka, Desna or Moscow River. V. M. Kashkarov in the article "On the question of the ancient population of the Kaluga province" writes: "In the Meshchovsky district, in the place formed by the confluence of the Ugra River into the Oka, the memory of the golyad lives to this day. According to legend ... on one of the mountains the robber Golyaga lived, according to others - Golyada. Z. Khodakovsky, a remarkable researcher of the 19th century, did not share the "Western" theory of resettlement, arguing that "People or the people" Golyad "are the 14th of the Slavic regions, which are named after the rivers and rivers that irrigate the villages of the same names with them .. This tract is the Golyadyanka, which flows into the Moskva River. In the cadastral books of 1623, it is called Golyadya. They say that our history is captured in the names of cities and villages, rivers and tracts, the language of the earth is recorded in them. So in the name of the villages of the Kaluga region the land tells its historical language. The villages of Vyatchino or Vyatskoye say that the Vyatichi lived here; Kritskoye - Krivichi, and Glyadovo (the old name of Golyadovo, Borovsky district) - golyads. The echo of the old inhabitants of these places is heard in the names of the villages of Goltyaevo, Golenki, Golichevka, Golukhino , Golotskoye, Golchan. In the neighboring Moscow region, the Nachinskiy Golets tract existed until the beginning of the 20th century. A number of names of historical villages in Kaluga and Tula provinces are also known, relating xia to another neighboring Vyatichi and golyads of the Merya tribe. It is possible that both "golyad" and "merya", having merged with the Vyatichi, also had their own cities. No wonder the ancient Scandinavians, the northern neighbors of the Eastern Slavs, called the multi-tribal Rus' "Gardarik" - a country of cities. According to scientists, before the invasion of the Horde in Rus' there were at least 24 large cities with fortifications.

The exact dates of the founding of many cities are unknown, and the first annalistic mention is considered to be the year of foundation. Obviously, they did not exist for a single decade before the first Russian chronicler mentioned them. But can we trust the chronicles? For example, it is not known what authentic sources were used by the famous scientist, discoverer ancient list"Words about Igor's Campaign" by A. I. Musin-Pushkin, placing on the map of the "European part of Russia before the invasion of the Tatars" along with the annalistic cities of our region Kozelsky, Przemysl, Lyubeysky (annalistic Lobynsk) and Koluga? Also doubtful is map No. 24 of the historical atlas of Poland, compiled on German and reflecting the geographical borders of Poland in 1370. Atlas in our time published in Minsk. However, it is not known from which original map No. 24 was published. If according to an ancient original, then the map is trustworthy. Among the cities bordering Lithuania, Mozhaisk, Koluga, Przemysl and others are listed on the map. It turns out that the message of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd, referring to 1371, in which he mentions Koluga as a city taken from him, had no legal basis. And according to the Resurrection list of chronicles, Koluga was not listed among the "Lithuanian cities".

But the authentic ancient city of Lubutsk is known on the right bank of the Oka River, 4 km below the confluence of the river. Dugna, which belonged to the Principality of Lithuania since the 4th century, being its advanced fortress. This is evidenced by an ancient settlement dating back to the 9th century. Before the Great Patriotic War, there was a church on it, in ancient times, obviously, converted from a Lithuanian watchtower. The settlement is bounded from the south by the steep bank of the Oka River, and from the east and north by the Lyubuchey stream, which flows. along a spacious and deep beam. On the western side of the settlement, a rampart up to 30 m high and more than 100 m long has been preserved. In 1372, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich (Donskoy) (gg.) stopped the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, who was marching with an army to Moscow. The Nikon chronicle tells about it this way: “And rushing near the city of Lubugsk, and above all, the Muscovites drove them to guard the Lithuanian regiment and their bish, and Prince himself. Olgird escaped in a stash against both armies, arming himself, and between them the enemy is steep and deep. And standing for many days, and dying, and going apart from the world. Some historians believe that Rodion Oslyabya and Alexander Peresvet, participants in the Battle of Kulikovo, were Lubut boyars before they were tonsured monks. Lubutsk remained a Lithuanian fortress until 1396. Then, according to the peace of 1406, he passed to Moscow and became the lot of Vladimir Andreevich the Brave. However, in 1473 it was again under the rule of Lithuania. In 1460, Lubutsk is mentioned as a point that Khan Akhmat reached while moving through the Lithuanian lands to Moscow. The city finally came under the rule of Moscow only in 1503. Ivan III bequeathed it to his son Andrey. In the 15th century, Lubutsk ceased to be a fortress on the Oka River and became a settlement.

As for other Slavic cities of the Upper Poochie, in the 20th-13th centuries their growth was caused by an increased outflow of the population, as the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, "from the central Dnieper Rus ... and this ebb marked the beginning of the second period of our history, just as the previous period began with the influx of the Slavs in the Dnieper region." Indeed, with the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky, not only Moscow became known, but also Kostroma, Gorodets on the Volga, Starodub on the Klyazma, Galich and Zvenigorod, Vyshgorod on the nobility, etc. Serpeisk, Meshchovsk, Mosalsk, Obolensk, Yaroslavl (Maloyaroslavets), Puddle, Borovsk, Medyn, Sukhodrovl, Kaluga are added to Vorotynsk (1155), Gorodensk (1158), Brynia and Lubutsk.

Of course, Kaluga as a city developed much later than other Slavic cities. For the first time in the sources, Kaluga was mentioned in 1371 in a letter from the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerdt to the Patriarch of Constantinople Philotheus, Metropolitan of Kiev and Rus' Alexy and the governor of the Grand Duke of Vladimir-Suzdal, the future Donskoy. The nature of Kaluga in the first three centuries of its existence was explained by the strategic defensive significance of the frontier fortress. But ancient settlements in its vicinity existed here long before its foundation. In 1892, the chairman of the Kaluga Scientific Archaeological Commission, archaeologist D. I. Chetyrkin, examined 12 burial mounds near Kaluga and along the banks of the Kaluzhka River, attributing them to the 1st millennium AD. e. Excavations of the settlement on the right bank of the Kaluzhka River near the former village of Kaluzhki (now the village of Zhdamirovo), presumably the original location of Kaluga, revealed fragments of clay pottery, arrowheads, a slate spindle whorl, a bone ring, and iron keys, which date back to the 20th-15th centuries. Probably, the settlement originally belonged to the patriarchal community of the Eastern Baltic tribes, attributed by archaeologists to the so-called Moshchin culture (according to the first such settlement discovered near the village of Moshchiny, Mosalsky district). The area of ​​the settlement with the remains of earthen ramparts and ditches: southern, facing the river. Oka and western - to the river. Kaluga is about 3 thousand square meters. m. The ditches on the other two sides are badly damaged. The height of the artificial shaft reaches 6 m, and its depth is 3 m. From this place, for unknown reasons, our city was later moved 6 versts lower, to the mouth of the Kaluzhka River, at its confluence with the Oka, where there is another settlement with traces earthen rampart and moat. Even at the beginning of the 17th century, in old cadastral books, the mouth of Kaluzhka is called the "old settlement" belonging to the "Kaluga coachmen". According to the description of Academician V. Zuev in the 18th century, the place was surrounded by a deep moat, from which a high rampart rose almost like a straight wall, encircling the settlement from three sides, while from the side of the Oka River the settlement opened into a ravine. At the corners of the main shaft, there were hills with peals, on which, apparently, there were wooden towers. In addition, from these artificial hills, there were also slopes in the moat, and, finally, just above the moat, there were still the same mounds, possibly for secondary towers. The length of the shaft from the side of Kaluzhka was 100 steps, from the side of the field 230 steps. The settlement at the mouth of the Kaluzhka attracted the attention of researchers. At the end of the 19th century, I.D. Chetyrkin made excavations on it, finding traces of a fire, numerous animal bones and fragments of pottery. Supporting the assumption of V. Zuev that the first Kaluga stood here, having collected new historical and ethnographic evidence, he put forward new version about the reason for its transition from the banks of the Kaluga to the Yachenka. In his opinion, the ancient outpost of Kaluga, as well as the neighboring fortress of Gorodensk, mentioned in the Diploma of Yuri Dolgoruky in 1158, stood on the fiery frontier, covering the road to Aleksin and Tula. In 1911, students of the Kaluga branch of the Archaeological Institute conducted new excavations, the result of which disappointed the researchers: the age of the objects found here dates back to the 16th century. Local historian D. I. Malinin suggested that for some reason the pestilence of 1386 and 1419 or the location near high road and the raids of the enemies, forced the inhabitants under Vasily I or Vasily II to move again to a new place - half a mile further - to the bank of the Yachenka River, near the Mironositskaya Church. Namely, under the Kaluga appanage prince Simeon Ivanovich (1487-1518), the son of Grand Duke Ivan III, at the beginning of the 16th century, Kaluga was located on the site of the former Simeon's settlement, on which, according to legend, the palace of this prince stood. Later, the fortress from the bank of the river. Yachenki (moved) was moved to the banks of the Oka River in the territory of the city park. Before his death, Ivan III (1505) divided the volosts between his five sons: Vasily, Dmitry, Simeon and Andrey. He bequeathed to Simeon the Bezhetsky top, Kaluga, Kozelsk and Kozelsk volosts. From 1505-1518 Kaluga becomes the center of a specific principality headed by Prince Simeon Ivanovich. In 1512 Kaluga was attacked Crimean Tatars(agarians). Simeon fought the Tatars on the Oka and defeated them, according to legend, thanks to the help of the holy fool Lavrenty of Kaluga. For this feat, Prince Simeon and righteous Lawrence became locally venerated saints. However, local historians M. V. Fekhner and N. M. Maslov believe that the Kaluga fortress was founded on the Yachenka River by the Grand Duke of Moscow Simeon Ivanovich Proud (d. 1353).

The ancient Pyatnitskoye cemetery adjacent to Simeon's settlement reminded of the ancient times of the settlement itself. According to the plans and maps of the general land surveying of Kaluga for 1776, Academician Zuev found out that the second ancient cemetery in Kaluga was only the necropolis of the Lavrentiev Monastery, where priests and especially revered citizens of Kaluga were buried. The area of ​​Simeon's Settlement, adjoining the old cemetery, was called the "Stary Settlement" according to the boundary books and, according to the scribe books of the 17th century, was four acres. Around it were vegetable gardens of coachmen. The first studies of Simeon's settlement were made in 1781 by academician V. Zuev. The settlement was once surrounded by a high earthen rampart with a gate and a deep moat on the east side: from the south the settlement was protected by a deep Serebryakovsky ravine, from the north by Semyonovsky, from the west by a steep slope to the river Yachenka. The length and width of the settlement were 310 and 150 meters. The location itself between two deep ravines and a still noticeable bulk rampart suggested that a small fortress with corner watchtowers and an entrance gate could have stood here. Only from the eastern side did a road lead to the settlement along a ditch filled up near the outskirts. A bridge could have been thrown across this moat earlier, which, if necessary, was raised or dismantled. In addition, in some places the remains of utility pits and cellars have been preserved. Having explored the entire area and its environs, V. Zuev came to the conclusion that it was here that Kaluga crossed from the bank of the Kaluzhka River, and the founder of the fortress could be the Kaluga appanage prince Simeon Ivanovich. Archaeological excavations in 1956 discovered an insignificant cultural layer. An archaeological expedition of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1956 made a deep cut into the rampart, which was least affected by the destruction, and established that there was an old fortification (outpost) here at the end of the 15th century.

Various data about the ancient inhabitants of our places have been collected by archaeologists. But the real historical appearance of that distant era is given by genuine portraits of the Vyatichi people, recreated by the remarkable anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov on the basis of skulls from the Vyatichi burial mounds of the Moscow region. The sculptural reconstructions of Professor Gerasimov and his students have received worldwide recognition. He was the first to establish a direct relationship between the shape of the bones of the skull and the soft facial cover, found standards for marking the thickness of the cover in various parts of the head, with the help of which the individual facial features of a person are recreated from the preserved skull. The method of plastic reconstruction is documented, and its accuracy has been repeatedly tested by practice, including forensic.

Today at the State Historical Museum in Moscow you can see a reconstructed documentary accurate sculptural portrait of a young girl from the Vyatichi tribe. She, according to Academician A. G. Veksler, resembles women in the frescoes of Andrei Rublev, paintings by V. M. Vasnetsov and M. V. Nesterov: ... can't describe with a pen. A youthful face with delicate delicate features. The head is decorated with a tribal dress - a bandage with silvery openwork rings with seven diverging lobes attached to the temples and at the same time woven into the hair ... ". According to the tradition of the Vyatichi, every woman wore such rings. A twisted wire hoop - a hryvnia and a necklace adorned the chest and neck. Metal jewelry in combination with stone beads and a shirt embroidered in different colors gave the girl an elegant look.

Another restored sculpture is a forty-year-old peasant man. “According to the chronicles and epic, archaeological and ethnographic data, one can imagine the harsh life of this man,” writes A.G. Veksler, “... with an ax and a plow, he worked on a small plot that fed him. More than once he, the militia - "howl", with the same ax in his hands had to defend from enemies native land... He lived in a tiny log house, which was heated in a black way, as it is said about such a hut in the ancient Russian manuscript “The Word of Daniil the Sharpener”: he could not endure smoky sorrows, you could not see the heat. During one of the cruel pestilences, the disease brought down this mighty and tall (and his height exceeded 190 cm) man. One involuntarily recalls the old Russian epic hero the plowman Mikula Selyaninovich, who surpassed in strength and dexterity the entire princely retinue of 30 dashing fellows, and even Prince Volga himself ”... The sculpture depicts the face of a courageous, handsome man. He has a straight set head, a finely defined nose, an energetic, strongly protruding chin. A wide sloping forehead is cut with wrinkles - traces of deep thoughts, painful experiences. The man is depicted in a "ruba" - a simple peasant shirt, embroidered and fastened with small bells. Such a bell clasp and the remains of clothing with embroidery elements were discovered during excavations of barrows near Moscow. Hairstyle - hair "under the pot", mustache, flexible beard - all this was restored according to miniatures of ancient Russian chronicles. Something like this looked like a peasant-smerd of the 12th century, a contemporary of Yuri Dolgoruky. Thanks to the reconstruction method, the appearance of the Fatyanovite, who lived about 3.5 thousand years ago, was also restored. Scientists agree that all portraits are as close to reality as possible, documentary and at the same time artistically expressive.

So gradually, step by step, the most ancient horizons of the history of the Vyatichi tribe are opened, and our territory is especially rich in these finds, which has become a treasury of the most diverse historical and archaeological monuments. The study of local attractions indicates that the territory of Kaluga and the surrounding areas have been inhabited since the Neolithic period, periodically preserving and renewing human settlements over the next several millennia in various historical eras. The dated objects of antiquity and art obtained during excavations of local monuments are of great importance for studying the history of the most ancient settlements on the territory of Kaluga. The uniqueness of the historical and archaeological monuments of the territory of our region requires the most decisive measures to be taken to preserve them for posterity.

Literature: Karamzin N. M. History of the Russian state. Reprint. ed. (1842-1844) in 3 books. - M, 1988; Zelnitskaya E. G. Research of ancient historical places, or tracts, which should be located in the Kaluga province // Otechestvennye zapiski, 1826. Part 27; Nikolskaya T.N. Vorotynsk // Ancient Rus' and the Slavs. - M., 1978; Malinin D. I. Kaluga. The experience of a historical guide to Kaluga and the main centers of the province. - Kaluga, 1992. S.227 -229; Sizov V. I. Dyakovo settlement near Moscow // Proceedings of the Archaeological Society. - St. Petersburg, 1897, S. 164; Zabelin I.E. Research on the most ancient original settlement of Moscow // Proceedings of the 8th archaeological congress. - M.: T. 1, 1897, S. 234; V. E. PRODUVNOV This is my Kaluga. - Kaluga. Golden alley. 2002; V. Pukhov. History of the city of Kaluga. Kaluga. Golden alley. 1998. .

Oleg MOSIN,

Svetlana MOSINA

Life and customs

The Vyatichi-Slavs received an unflattering description of the Kyiv chronicler as a rude tribe, "like animals, eating everything unclean." Vyatichi, like all Slavic tribes, lived in a tribal system. They knew only the genus, which meant the totality of relatives and each of them; clans constituted a "tribe". The people's assembly of the tribe elected a leader for himself, who commanded the army during campaigns and wars. It was called old Slavic name"prince". Gradually, the power of the prince increased and became hereditary. Vyatichi, who lived among the boundless forests, built log huts similar to modern ones, small windows were cut through in them, which were tightly closed with valves during cold weather.

The land of the Vyatichi was vast and famous for its wealth, abundance of animals, birds and fish. They led a closed semi-hunting, semi-agricultural life. Small villages of 5-10 households, as the arable land was depleted, were transferred to other places where the forest was burned, and for 5-6 years the land gave a good harvest until it was depleted; then it was necessary to move again to new areas of the forest and start all over again. In addition to farming and hunting, the Vyatichi were engaged in beekeeping and fishing. Beaver ruts then existed on all rivers and rivers, and beaver fur was considered an important article of trade. Vyatichi bred cattle, pigs, horses. Food for them was harvested with scythes, the blades of which reached half a meter in length and 4-5 cm in width.

Vyatichesky temporal ring

Archaeological excavations in the land of the Vyatichi have opened numerous craft workshops of metallurgists, blacksmiths, metalworkers, jewelers, potters, stone cutters. Metallurgy was based on local raw materials - swamp and meadow ores, as everywhere in Rus'. Iron was processed in forges, where special forges with a diameter of about 60 cm were used. Jewelery reached a high level among the Vyatichi people. The collection of casting molds found in our area is second only to Kyiv: 19 foundry molds were found in one place called Serensk. Craftsmen made bracelets, rings, temporal rings, crosses, amulets, etc.

Vyatichi conducted a brisk trade. Trade relations were established with the Arab world, they went along the Oka and Volga, as well as along the Don and further along the Volga and the Caspian Sea. At the beginning of the 11th century, trade was established with Western Europe, from where handicrafts came. Denarii displace other coins and become the main means of monetary circulation. But the Vyatichi traded with Byzantium for the longest time - from the 11th to the 12th centuries, where they brought furs, honey, wax, products of gunsmiths and goldsmiths, and in return received silk fabrics, glass beads and vessels, bracelets.
Judging by archaeological sources, the Vyatiche settlements and settlements of the 8th-10th centuries. and especially XI-XII. centuries were settlements not so much tribal communities as territorial, neighboring ones. The finds speak of a noticeable property stratification among the inhabitants of these settlements of that time, the wealth of some and the poverty of others dwellings and graves, the development of crafts and trade exchange.