Museo Judío de Berlín

The most particular remains in the earliest settlement of Staraja Ladoga are those of the workshop of a blacksmith and jeweller. The smithy belongs to a complex consisting of a square space, 4.0 × 4.8 m, surrounded by a ditch, dated to the early 750s, and a house constructed

in the early 760s.45 _{In the house were one hearth and a stone anvil,}

and in the other part a hearth for metal melting with slag and cru- cibles, and devices for cold processing of metal. Among half-finished and completed items were knives, an arrowhead, rivets for boats and spikes. After a short period of time, in the early 770s, the smithy was destroyed and the site was not utilised for a decade, after which a wooden log-house was built here, where two oriental coins from

783 and 786 were found.46 _{According to Gubanov}47 _{the new house}

was built by people that came from the south, apparently meaning Slavs, staying there until 840, when new groups of Scandinavians took over the settlement, which existed thirty years, to the 860s when it was burnt down.48 _{There is no evidence that could support Gubanov’s}

opinion about the Slav presence and it is difficult to discern evi- dence of the absence of Norsemen for about seventy years in the material. The destruction of the smithy has to be seen as a specific

44 _{Duczko 2000b:30.} 45 _{Rjabinin 1985:55.} 46 _{Rjabinin 1985:51.} 47 _1998:33.

event of unknown character, perhaps a trace of one of the earliest conflicts in the complex society of the new emporium.

The implements belonging to the smithy were found collected in one place. They represents the tools for many different purposes: drills for wood-working, hammering devices, a spike maker, shears for cut- ting sheet metal, chisels, anvil, tongs and a draw-plate (Fig. 6).49

Since its discovery the smith’s hoard has been recognised as

Scandinavian, though this has sometimes doubted,50 _{because similar}

tools sets—at Telje, Jutland and Mästermyr, Gotland—appear in Scandinavia in later finds, dated up to the tenth century there is hardly any reason for not accepting the Norse origin of the Ladoga

tools.51 _{Analysis of the implements, mostly knives, shows that the}

technology employed in Ladoga was of Scandinavian origin; the knives produced here in the eighth century were already made by the sandwich method; there are in Ladoga, already in level E, knives

made by this method.52

The presence of a draw plate shows that wires between 1.5 and 3 mm diameter were manufactured with this flat piece of iron with 14 holes. The coarseness of the wires indicates that they were used for the embellishment of big objects, like swords, rather than small ornaments. We may compare this plate with another one, also found in Staraja Ladoga but dated to the early tenth century. This plate has 78 holes with diameter between 2 mm and 0.2 mm and was utilised for making fine filigree.53

While some categories of the objects produced by the craftsmen in Ladoga were made for indigenous societies, there were items aimed entirely for Scandinavians. Among such items is a figure, about 5 cm long, of a man’s head with two horns (Fig. 7 a).

The image of a man with pair of horns on his head had been part of Germanic symbolism since at least the sixth century A.D. and survived until the Early Viking Age when it gained popularity for the last time.

The animal ends of the horns on the piece from Ladoga are exe- cuted in an art style current during the Vendel period, or more

49 _{Rjabinin 1985:55ff, fig. 20–22.} 50 _{Vierck 1983; Jansson 1987:780.}

51 _{Munkegaard 1984; Roesdahl 1993:251; Arwidsson & Berg 1983.} 52 _{Khomutova 1984:208; Roesdahl 1993:298f, no 269.}

exactly to the seventh century A.D.54 _{The animal is a bird of prey,}

either a falcon or eagle.55_{Such birds were used as mounts on shields,}

like the ones from boat-grave 7 from Valsgärde, Uppland, as brooches, or even only the heads as parts of brooches of disc-on-bow type and

S-shaped brooches from Gotland and Denmark.56

The dramatic and, as it appears for us, very Nordic figure with horns is often published as a suitable illustration of the Scandinavian milieu in Ladoga, and is always seen as strong evidence for a Swedish presence. The latter opinion cannot be easily sustained, as the his- tory of the motif will show. The earliest examples of the motif belong among the art of sixth and early seventh century warrior elites in Scandinavia, England and Germanic continent. The motif is on the bronze plates from the helmets found in boat-graves No 7 and 8 Valsgärde, Uppland, Sweden and from Sutton Hoo, East Anglia, in the cremation-grave in the East Mound in Gamla Uppsala; it is also present on one of the dies from Torslunda, Öland, on a buckle from

Finglesham and on a foil from Caenby, both in England.57

Few examples of this motif are dated with confidence to the eighth century. Two artefacts originate from different parts of this period, one piece similar to the Ladoga example from Gåtebo on Öland (Fig. 7 b), and one with a small head and a large, simplified hel-

met from Hjulsta, Uppland.58 _{Both items were found in cremation}

graves, the former in a grave with several burials from various peri- ods, the latter was in female grave with beads indicating the tran- sition period to the Viking Age.

From the very beginning of the ninth century there are many more specimens with this motif. The old motif of a horned man holding a sword and two spears, or an X-shaped item, appears again. Its strong symbolic content is proven by the fact that such a man is present in the cultic procession depicted on the tapestry found in

the famous boat-grave of the 830s at Oseberg, Norway.59_{From about}

the same time, the motif is present as the main iconographic element

54 _{Jansson 1987:780.} 55 _{Åkerström-Hougen 1981.} 56 _{Atterman 1934; Nerman 1969.} 57 _{Böhner 1995:712ff; Gaimster 1998:65ff.} 58 _{Holgersson 1978; Thorberg 1975.} 59 _{Hougen 1940.}

on coins struck in Denmark and is also produced as small figures

in Uppland of Svear.60

Three figures similar to the Ladoga piece are known from Denmark, from Zealand (Tissø and Sigerslevøster), and Uppåkra in Scania

(Fig. 7 c).61 _{They are recognised as artefacts from the Viking Age}

though their chronology is not certain.

The specimen from Ladoga has been described as part of unfinished tweezers of Gotlandic type, a product of the metalworker from the

smithy.62 _{The horns on the Gotlandic items are turned down in the}

fashion of the bird-heads on disc-on-bow brooches, no other design is known from Gotland and this excludes the island as the place of

origin of the Ladoga piece.63 _{Other interpretations are more elabo-}

rate with ideas ranging between large brooch pins or keys.64 _Pieces

from Denmark are fragmentary, neither the upper nor the lower parts are preserved, which makes it impossible to recognise the func- tion of specimens, with the exception of a fragment from Sigerslevøster that was part of a pin of a ring brooch.

It has become almost customary to see our motif as a represen-

tation of the god Odin.65 _{This identification rests on a misunder-}

standing. There is no doubt that we are dealing here with one of themes in Wotanic/Odinic ideology manifested in the art originally produced for the Norse elite in the sixth and seventh century. In the iconography of this art the warrior with horned helmet is pre- sented as a representative of divine person not the person itself. In some contexts he is obviously playing the role of a helper, a mid- dleman acting on behalf of a higher power. In Early Viking Age art he stands for high status, and when presented in form of small figures it is a magic amulet.

Now we should consider the problem of the age of the specimen from Ladoga. Its style points to the seventh but its find-context to the mid eighth century. Was it then merely scrap-metal serving as raw material for new castings? It is difficult to be sure about this.

60 _{Pedersen 2000:26, 27; Ringquist 1969; Arbman 1943, Taf. 92:9.} 61 _{Kramer 1998:104f; Bergqvist 1999:119f.}

62 _{Davidan 1980:66.}

63 _{Nerman 1969, Taf. 121:1099–1101.} 64 _{Bergqvist 1999:121.}

It is far from certain that the item itself is as old as it may appear. It could have been manufactured during the first part of the eighth century in traditional way by an artisan consciously employing an older style. If that was the case our piece is much closer to its con- text and should be treated as more or less contemporary.

Finally the question of origin: does our horned man belong to Swedish or Danish sphere? Both alternatives are possible but the Danish milieu seems to be more probable.