Summary
A.A.Tortika (Kharkov, Ukraine)
NORTH-WESTERN KHAZARIA IN ARMY-POLITICAL SYSTEM OF KHAZAR CHAGANATE: ON STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The place of north-Western Khazaria in the army-political system of the chaganate had been modifying from virtually complete subordinacy to the central power at the time of migration of the Alans from Northern Caucasus to the Don reaches in the 2nd half of the VIII c., till the formation of the relatively independent army-tribal structure by the middle-end of the IXth c. The degree of regional self-sufficiency and its independence on the power of the Khazars varied depending on the strengthening or weakening of the central government.
It can be assumed that the Alans-Bulgars living in the Don areas to a certain extent retained their tribal organization which facilitated governing this group of population and its use as frontier guards for the Khazars. On the other hand, those elements of inner self-sufficiency combined with the traditional method of political organization ensured the inner integrity of that population.
Rapid development of the regional economy, the ethno-cultural consolidation of its inhabitants occurring against a background of weakening the influence of Khazar chaganate in Eastern Europe is indicative of the emergence of the opportunities for the establishment of an independent ethno-political entity. However, this tendency was not actualized due to outer army-political reasons.
Z.A.Lvova (St.Petersburg, Russia)
WHO WERE TSAR JOSEPH AND HIS ANCESTORS - BEGS OR CHAGANS?
The paper raises a question as to who was the Khazar tsar Joseph ruling in the period of prosecution of the Jews in Byzantia (932-941) and known for his correspondence with a dignitary from Cordoba whose name was Khasdai Ibn-Shafrut. The given data indicate that Joseph was not a mighty beg, as has been so far believed, but a chagan. This assumption permitted Joseph's comparison with one of 14 Khazar chagans described in the Bulgar chronicle "Gazi-Baradj Tarihy" (XIII c.) yielding the evidence of his life and ruling that was unknown earlier. Joseph is identified as chagan Yusuf who ruled within the period of 925-943, 944. In 944 he was dethroned by Ugez-beg, the placeman of the Samanids, and fled to the Dnieper where he was imprisoned.
N.A.Lifanov (Samara, Russia)
ON PERIODIZATION AND CHRONOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTION OF NOVINKA-TYPE MONUMENTS
The ground burials known under the general name of "Novinka-type monuments" are located on a comparatively small area of the southern part of Samarskaia Luka. The present paper offers synchronization of different categories of the inventory of Novinka interments and their distribution into four chronological stages. The 1st stage (the 1st quarter of the VIIIth c.) includes complexes containing details of the belt outfit of Agafonov's and Voznesensky's appearances, rounded 8-shaped stirrups and bits with cheek-pieces made of bone. The 2nd stage (the 2nd quarter of the VIIIth c.) is distinguished by belts having a decor in the form of a palmette, stirrups that acquired the arched form and bridle bits. Skeleton heads in the interments of these stages are orientated towards the east/north-east. The 3rd stage (the 3rd quarter of the VIIIth c.) is associated with the interments orientated towards the north-west, and later towards the west, high moulded pots and jugs; new belting detail types and ornamental design motives, bits with S-shaped lance cheek-pieces, stirrups with lamellar rings, spear tips, axes and bludgeons appear. These innovations are linked to the inflow of a new wave of cattle-breeding population. The 4th stage (the last quarter of the VIIIth - the beginning of the IXth c.) is marked by Saltovo belts and earthenware, bits with S-shaped flat and rod-shaped cheek-pieces, spread of ground interments and cremations. Interments with different skeleton orientations coexist at the 3rd and 4th stages. The 1st stage should be synchronized with Kominternovskii, Berezovskii (the main burial) and Shilovskii barrows, the 4th stage - with Kaibelskii, Urenskii, Staromainskii burial grounds, Bobrovka, Khriashchovka and Zolotaia Niva intake interments. It is probably at this time that the process of sedentarization of the Medium Volga nomads started.
S.G.Yefimova (Moscow, Russia)
INFLUENCE OF MIGRATORY PROCESSES ON FORMATION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF MEDIEVAL POPULATION IN SOUTH OF EASTERN EUROPE
The results of statistical processing (using the canonical analysis) of the craniological data base of the medieval population of Eastern Europe are presented in the form of maps. The mapping of craniological complexes permitted to display variability of anthropological composition of East European population during V-XIII cc. and to mark out active metization zones. Special emphasis is made on the consideration of complicated migratory processes related with the history of Khazarian chaganat in the context of anthropological conclusions.
M.A.Balabanova (Volgograd, Russia)
ANTHROPOLOGY OF POPULATION OF LOWER VOLGA REACHES (END OF V - FIRST HALF OF IX CC)
The craniological analysis has shown that the population of the Khazarian time of the lower Volga reaches turned out non-uniform in its intragroup structure. Their anthropological composition formed on the basis of intermixture of the representatives of two race types: the newcomers, the carriers of the mongoloid types and probably the remaining groups of the Late Sarmatian population, carriers of the long-headed Europeoid variant. Mongoloid-Europeoid intermixture is of the mosaic nature. On most skulls the half-breed Europeoid-mongoloid type is found, but on some skulls the mongoloid features appear more distinctly than the Europeoid ones. Apparently, both the long-headed Europeoid type, and the custom of artificial deformation are rooted in the Late Sarmatian antiquities. This is justified by the fact that the traces of artificial deformation are most often observed on dolichocranic skulls.
A search for ethnogenetic relationships has indicated that the examined samples displays the greatest resemblance with the early burials of Sarkel and with the population of the Right-bank Tsimlyansk hillfort, as well as with the first group of burials of the Lower Don that belongs to the same culture. Among the anthropological groups of Saltovo-Mayaki monuments only Zlivki series adjoin to the above listed groups which was pointed out earlier.
Ye.V.Kruglov (Volgograd, Russia)
COMPOUND-COMPLEX BOWS OF EARLY MEDIAEVAL EASTERN EUROPE
TThe paper considers the remnants of compound-complex bows, one of the major type of weapons of the steppe nomads in Eastern Europe at the time of Early Middle Ages. Using the technique applied by A.M.Savin and A.I.Semionov, the author defines the principal constructive-technological distinctive features of this type of weapon of long-range combat not by the number of arbitrarily retained horn plates, but by the peculiar features of their manufacture and fastening to the wooden bow. The general characteristics and a preliminary classification of two major designs of compound-complex bows of Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages pointed out by A.M.Savin and A.I.Semionov, i.e. the "Turkic-Khazarian" (or the "Hunnic-Bulgarian", according to A.M.Savin and A.I.Semionov's terminology) design and the "Khazarian" design, are given. A.I.Savin and A.I.Semionov's assumption about the exceptional use of the "Turkic-Bulgarian" bow only by the Proto-Bulgarians of Eastern Azov Sea areas is criticized. A general conclusion about the Central Asian and ancient Turkic origin of the "Turkic-Khazarian" type of bow has been made. The appearance of this weapon on the territory of Eastern Europe in the middle of the VIIth c. is connected with the formation of Khazar chaganate headed by representatives of the elite Turkic Ashin's clan and their nearest milieu. The author highlights inadaptability of the "Turkic-Khazarian" type of bow to the ecology and climate of Eastern Europe of the VIIth c., indicating the objective inevitability of the evolutional modification of this weapon. A mechanism of direct constructive-technological development of the "Turkic-Khazarian" type of weapon into a "Khazar" type of weapon has been exemplified.
Z.A.Lvova (St.Petersburg, Russia)
ON PROBLEM OF SPREAD OF JUDAISM IN KHAZAR CHAGANATE. INCUBATION PERIOD
IThe paper considers the evidence of the Bulgar chronicle "Gazi-Baradj Tarihy" (XIII c.) that casts light on the initial, incubation period of the spread of Judaism in Khazar chaganate when the new religion had already penetrated the ruling Jlite, though it did not become national yet. The chagan-Judaists ruling at that time could in some cases be compared to tsars and chagans mentioned in the well-known Arabic and Jewish written sources which enabled us to compile their biographies.
The ruling of the chagan-Judaist Aibat (after 690 till 730/31) can be considered a pinnacle of the initial period of Judaism spread. Aibat came to power by means of a coup d'Jtat. Contrary to the existing tradition, his wife was not a noble Tengrian, but an adherent of different faith, a Hebrew woman from Bukhara. In the 20s-30s of the VIIIth c. Aibat waged war with the Arabs in the Caucasus, and his son Bardjil was his commander-in-chief. The chagan's grandson Boulan carried out a special mission. He spent the treasure obtained in the war with believers of different faith on erection of a shrine, a marquee, a Tabernacle, a luminaire and sacred vessels.
E.Ye.Kravchenko (Donetsk, Ukraine)
MUSLIM POPULATION OF SEVERSKY DONETS MEDIUM REACHES AND ISLAM SPREAD IN EASTERN EUROPE IN KHAZARIAN TIME
So far the problem of Islam propagation has been the object of purely historical discussions which can be accounted for by the lack of archaeological materials to support scarce evidence of the written sources. In the 80-90s of the XXth c. Muslim necropoles neighbouring the monuments of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture (the Khazar chaganate) were discovered in the medium reaches of the river Seversky Donets (i.e. the right tributary of the Don in the north-eastern Black Sea coast area). Those graveyards were found near the settlements of the villages of Mayaki and Sidorovo and unfortified settlements at the villages of Platonovka, Lysogorovka, Novolimarevka. So far the graveyard of the archaeological settlement situated near the village of Sidorovo in which 216 graves had been studied by the end of the 2003 season has been known best among them.
Most part (90%) of these interments was made strictly according to the Muslim funeral rite. The dominating type of grave at the cemeteries of the archaeological settlement near the village of Sidorovo is a pit with shoulders along its long walls. The funeral chambers were lined with plank laid on the shoulders along or across the grave pit. The buried were orientated towards the west/north-west. The skeletons are normally found lying on their backs or right sides. The bones position is indicative of the fact that the buried were shrouded. Sometimes wooden frameworks serving as coffins which have immediate analogs in pagan necropoles of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture are found in the graves.
Generally no accompanying equipment was found in the graves with the exception of interments 28, 169 and 190. There was a sulphur-polished vessel at the skull in interment 28. A whet stone located in the centre of the pelvis was found in the buried from interment 190. A group of objects found at the skull cervical bone of a child's skeleton (interment 169), i.e. a little round silver bell, three serpentiform pendants cut out of a thin copper sheet, a black glass bead with inlaid yellow "eyes", are of special interest. These objects functioned as a set of amulets attached to the band braided into the buried girl's hair. The above objects have direct analogues in the antiquities of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture. These objects and the materials of the excavations of the neighbouring settlement permit dating the burial grounds under consideration back to the 2nd part of the IX-X c.
The analysis of the details of the rite indicates that Islam was not a new religion for the population of the settlement at the village of Sidorovo. The process of its propagation in the medium reaches of the Seversky Donets may have begun as early as in the middle of the IXth c. At that time the period of confrontation of Khazaria with Islamic states was over having given way to active trade contacts. The ties with the Islamic world including Middle Asia promoted penetration of cultural and ideological influence to Khazaria. Muslim missionaries were most likely to get to Nizhneie Povolzhye from the territory of Khorezm. Then the preachers moved further west by trade routes. It was at that time that Islam was disseminated in the medium reaches of the Seversky Donets along which there was an important trade route.
Muslim burial grounds of the medium reaches of the Seversky Donets so far have been the extreme western points where the process of Islam propagation in the IX-X c. was registered archeologically. However, the written sources are indicative of an attempt to disseminate Islam much further to the west, i.e. on the territory of Danube Bulgaria, in the 60s of the IXth c. The destiny of the first Muslims living in the medium reaches of the Seversky Donets is quite obscure. In XI-XIV cc. there were a number of settlements in this area with descendants of the Khazar chaganate population living in them. In that period the influence of Kiev Rus and Christianity is clearly traced in their material culture. Another stage of wide-spread propagation of Islam on this territory falls on the XIV c.
K.I.Krasilnikov, L.I.Krasilnikova (Lugansk, Ukraine)
BURIAL GROUND NEAR LYSOGOROVKA VILLAGE AS NEW SOURCE FOR ETHNOHISTORY OF STEPPES OF SEVERSKY DONETS REACHES IN EARLY MIDDLE AGES
The ethnic heterogeneity of the population of steppes in the Severski Donets basin in the early Middle Ages (the VIII-X centuries) was proved more than once by finds of settlements and burial grounds.
The paper is based on the materials referring to the ethnic relations (91 burials (pit graves) of the new monument of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture). According to pit typology the burials are divided into 4 kinds, i.e. simple narrow pits, pits with a step and with steps on two sides and complex form pits. Wood, boards and blocks were often used during their building.
Special attention is paid to the pagan (29-35.4%) and Moslem (40-48.8%) funeral rites. There are 13 burials (15.8%) with mixed rites. The proto-Bulgarian burials are usually provided with the inventory and offering. The burials with Islam attributes look differently, i.e. narrow pits, absence of inventory, the skeletons posture on the right side with their faces and feet turned southward and other attributes.
V.S.Aksionov (Kharkov, Ukraine)
SALTOVO HORSE HARNESS KITS WITH HEAD BRASSES (on Materials of Verkhne-Saltovo Catacomb Burial Ground)
In 1984-1992 the archeological expedition of Kharkov Historical Museum led by V.G.Borodulin discovered three separate horse burials (## 1, 3, 4) containing a set of horse harness decorations completed with a horse brass provided with a plume tubule. Another horse harness kit and a horse head brass of a similar kind were taken out of a hiding place made in the floor of catacomb 25 of Verkhne-Saltovo burial ground III. The appearance of the horse brasses with a plume tubule and the plates decorating the harness belting permits dating horse burial 1 and the kit from the catacomb 25 hiding place from the end of the VIIIth c. - the beginning of the IXth c., and horse burial 3 from the beginning or middle of the IXth c. The latest is a kit of decorations from horse burial 4 apparently dating from the 2nd half of the IXth c. Varied appearance of the horse brasses, the composition and material of the harness belting decorations permit a conclusion that these kits had been made by artisans to the order of certain people thus indicating their property status. The entire kit of the horse harness belting decorations was made not at once, but within a rather long period of time, which is testified by the use of the ornamental motifs characteristic of different stages of the initial period of mastering the lotus-like ornamental design by Saltovo artisans.
E.Ye.Kravchenko, V.V.Miroshnichenko, A.N.Petrenko, V.V.Davydenko (Donetsk, Dobropolie, Slaviansk, Ukraine)
STUDIES OF SIDOROVO ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX (ON MATERIALS OF 2001-2003 EXPEDITIONS)
The archaeological complex near Sidorovo village has been studied during three field seasons (2001-2003). Within this time 9 excavation sites were set up at the monument territory with the total area of more than 1300 square meters. Foundation pits of 7 premises, 27 household pits, and over 60 burials were uncovered. Apart from this a number of complexes which can be considered as the cult ones (congestions of astragaluses, burials in household pits) were cleared.
At the territory of Sidorovo archaeological complex a number of settlements of different times are found: a site of the Late Paleolithic time, a settlement of the Dnieper-Donetsk culture. Individual objects refer to the Bronze Age and Sarmatian time.
At the main territory of the medieval archaeological complex a relatively thin cultural layer has been found whose materials are dated by the end of the IX - the 1st half of the X c. It is next to this part of the monument that large Muslim cemeteries dated by the same time are located. Earlier materials (concerning the Saltovo-Mayaki Culture) are found so far on a very small site limited by the inner line of fortifications.
During 2001-2003 field research the early site of Muslim burial ground 1 was found. Nevertheless, the precise borders of that necropolis have not yet been determined. New evidence that the hillfort ceased to exist as a result of devastation that took place about the middle of the X c has been obtained. The materials of later time at the territory of the archaeological complex are represented only by individual finds which is indicative of the fact that after the middle of the X c. the life at the hillfort stopped.
V.S.Aksionov (Kharkov, Ukraine)
NEW COMMEMORATED COMPLEXES OF WARRIORS-HORSEMEN OF SALTOVO TIME FROM UPPER DON REACHES
At the excavations close to the cremational burial ground of Saltov archaeological culture at Suha Gomolsha three ware complexes belonging to soldiers-horsemen have been found. The complexes consist of objects of arms (a sabre, spear-heads and fighting axes), horse equipment elements and objects of economic-household purpose. These complexes are dated the 2nd half of VIII - the 3rd quarter of IX cc AD.
Ye.V.Kruglov (Volgograd, Russia)
ON CULTURAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTION OF BARROW 27 IN TSARIOV BURIAL GROUND
The paper deals with the problem of the cultural and chronological attribution of the interment of barrow 27 in Tsariov burial ground. The complex was studied in 1975 on the site of Lenin district, Volgograd province by V.I.Mamontov, head of Privolzhsky team of the Volga-Don expedition of Leningrad Division of the Institute of Archeology in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and described in a publication of 1992 as the monument of the XIVth c. However, the author asserts that the funeral rite and the burial inventory of that complex cannot be reliably referred to the Golden Horde times. There is more evidence in favour of attributing the complex to the Khazar time. Thus, the new-moon-like amulet and the lead load-seal, in the author's opinion, are indicative of the middle of the IXth c. - the 1st half of the Xth c. The author lays a special emphasis on the mirror from that interment. On one of its sides an unarmed mounted horseman is depicted with a plant in front of him. The author believes that this topical composition can be regarded as an image of a Khazar chagan or bek (shad) during the ritual of the ceremonial Judaic celebration, lighting the religious candle of Khanukia.
O.A.Poliakova (Donetsk, Ukraine)
TWO BARROWS WITH SUBSQUARE SMALL DITCHES FROM VOLCHANSK BURIAL GROUND AT SOUTHWEST OUTSKIRTS OF KHAZARIAN CHAGANATE AND THEIR FUNCTIONALITY
The Volchansk burial ground is located on the right coast of the Malyi Utliuk river that flows into the Azov Sea. The main purpose of this paper is to present two new complexes of the Khazarian time with subsquare small ditches. They are of interest to experts first of all by their extreme southwest position on the territory of Khazarian chaganate being as if it were cut off from the basic concentration of monuments of this circle localized in the area of the Don-Manych interfluve. Another peculiarity is the absence of burials and any other objects having a funeral-commemorated character there which permits to consider them primarily from the traditional point of view, i.e. as barrows-cenotaphs. Proceeding from a number of works, in particular A.V.Yevglevsky and Yu.V.Kudlay's (2001) interdisciplinary research, it can be added that in spite of the external simplicity of the structural elements of the barrows in question, they may be considered as much more complicated archaeological objects from the functional point of view. Therefore, it is necessary to include the astronomical, mathematical, geographical, and others aspects in the long-term plan of their studying.
An important feature of the complexes under discussion is also the fact that, besides some unessential parameter characteristics, at the first sight (concerning the structural elements of the Khazarian time monuments) they look like barrows-"twins", and this permits to relate them to the same nomadic group.
V.S.Fliorov (Moscow, Russia)
RITE OF RENDERING BURIED HARMLESS IN KHAZARIA AGAINST ARCHEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF EASTERN EUROPE OF I MILLENIUM AD
The author has been studying the rites of rendering the buried harmless on the burials of Khazar chaganate since 1975. However, these rites appear much earlier in Eastern Europe. In 1983-1986 their features were registered in Klin-Yar III burial (the Ist c. BC - the VIIIth c. AD) located in the Central CisCaucasian area. The rite of rendering the buried harmless is found in Podkumski interment (I-II c.) and others in Northern Caucasus and Kuban (Direktorskaia Gorka, Mokraia Balka, Nizhni Dzulat, Starokorsunski interments) till the VIIIth-IXth c. Rendering the buried harmless was practiced in the Sarmatian time in the lower reaches of the Don (Kobiakovo burial), in Cherniakhovskaia culture.
The author has found several dozens of burials with the rite of rendering the buried harmless dating from the last centuries BC till the XIVth c. from Bashkiria to Hungary. They belonged to Iranian, Turkic, Ugrian population. Rendering the buried harmless was widely spread in the Oguz. Interments with the traces of this rite were discovered in the Crimea, Mangup.
Finally, the author concludes that rendering the buried harmless was not a peculiar feature of Khazar chaganate as it was known to the peoples of not only Eastern Europe, but the whole populated area. This is a phasic phenomenon. The traces of the rites of rendering the buried harmless have been retained to this day.
The pivotal problem in studying this rite involves improvement of the methods of excavations. One of the major features concerns the peculiarities of the stratigraphy in the interments. In the course of excavations it is necessary to obtain both the evidence of the rite of rendering the buried harmless and complete preservation of the buried.
A great contribution into the study of the rites of rendering the buried harmless has been made by D.I.Dimitrov (Bulgaria), E.A.Symonovich, V.K.Kaminskij, Ye.V.Kruglov (Russia), V.S.Aksionov (Ukraine).
V.P.Lebedev, V.A.Vinnichek (Dzerzhinsk of Nizhniy Novgorod province, Russia)
NUMISMATIC FINDS FROM PRE-MONGOLIAN MONUMENTS OF UPPER SURA REACHES
In the published consolidated data of kufi coins of the VIII-XIII cc. found in Eastern Europe there is no information about numismatic materials from pre-Mongolian archaeological monuments of the Upper Sura reaches. This paper considers the numismatic finds discovered as a result of archaeological studies in the Upper Sura settlements of the VIII-XI and XI-XIII cc. and burial ground with some barrows of the IX-XI cc.
The Upper Sura numismatic complex includes 14 silver - intact or fragmented - (1 Indian jital, 9 Arabian dirkhams and 4 imitations to them), 10 copper coins of different Oriental dynasties of the IO-X cc. and also 9 cast coin-like pendants made from non-precious alloys.
Among the identified coins the Samanids stamp prevails (3 dirkhams and 9 felses), though 2 Volga Bulgaria dirkhams, 1 Ziyarids dirkham and 1 India jital are also available.
Most numismatic finds have pair perforations (2 dirkhams, the jital and the imitation, 7 felses and all coin-like pendants except one). The perforations in coins were punched, apparently, by their owners, and in coin-like pendants they were formed during casting. No regularity was found in punching perforations with reference to legends and coin sides.
A much greater part of felses in the Upper Sura numismatic complex is its distinctive feature in comparison with the Ancient Rus' complex (43.5% and 0.54% of the total number of coins, respectively). In Ancient Rus' archaeological materials no cast coin-like pendants imitating the pattern of kufi coins have been found. The mapping of places where felses were found shows that their distribution all over Eastern Europe was even. The geographic range of cast pendants distribution represents the oblong ellipse whose larger axis extends from the Upper Vyatka reaches in the north-east to the Upper Sura in the south-west. The centre of this ellipse with the greatest number of cast coin-like pendants is located near Bulgar town where the majority of such ornaments were obviously produced.
Thus, the small number of coins in the pre-Mongolian archaeological monuments of the Upper Sura reaches, a high percentage of felses in the numismatic complex, the presence of pair perforations for hanging in most coins testify to the absence of the developed circulation of money in the region in the VIII-XI cc. The major part of silver and all the copper coins were used as ornaments. The shortage of coins was made up for by cast coin-like pendants which were made in trade and craft centres of Volga Bulgaria and, in particular, in the Upper Sura reaches. The silver coins without perforations could act as a currency only with the use of scales, as a precious metal.
V.P.Lebedev, V.I.Galanov (Dzerzhinsk of Nizhniy Novgorod province, Smolensk, Russia)
TWO HOARDS OF KUFI DIRKHAMS AND THEIR FRAGMENTS FOUND NEAR SMOLENSK
Two hoards of kufi coins of the Xth c. found in 1998 and 2002 near Smolensk have been thoroughly examined. One of them found on the Sozh river bank near Sozh village contains 73 coins of the entire 1st half of the Xth c., mostly of the Central Asian dynasty of the Samanids, with the earliest coins aged 952-5 years. By its dynastic and chronological structure it is similar to several hoards of 950s found in this region (basically in Gnyozdovo) earlier.
The Sozh hoard consists of broken dirkhams by 64.4%, however, the pieces are not of the arbitrary size. The weight histogram of hoard coins has two distinct maxima with the position of vertices at 1.7 and 3.4. This permits an assumption that at this time in Smolensk region the entire, not broken dirkhams-nogats and also their fragments still circulated apiece but the latter, apparently, in the form of rezanys.
The numismatic "zest" of the hoard is a foil-like imprint of the obverse of the Samanidian dirkham imitation, originally intended as "the obol of the dead", but apparently included into the coins hoard from money circulation.
The hoard of 1998 found near Barsuki village of Pochinkovsk region also contains 254 coins of the entire Xth c. It was hidden 4 decades later than the Sozh one, not earlier than the beginning of the 990s. In the hoard eastern coins of some dynasties - Abbasids (1), Buvaihids (10), Ziyarids (14), Buvaihids or Ziyarids (2), Samanids (124), imitations to Samanids (4), Volga Bulgaria (1) prevail and there are 94 very small-sized indefinable fragments. Apart from this there are some coins of Christendom - Byzantium (2), Czech (1), Germany (2) and also 1 non-minted circle and a small fragment of a jeweller item in it. The weight distribution of the coins represents the continuous complicate graph with the main peak at 0.3 g and several feebly marked maxima within the interval from 1 to 4 g. This indicates unambiguously that at this time the coins in Smolensk region circulated no more apiece but by weight. The flow of kufi dirkhams decreased abruptly by the end of the Xth c. and their joint circulation with the fragments of certain weight were the reasons why non-minted circles and fragments of jeweller items were involved in money circulation. Single specimens of these substitute coins were found in the Pochinkovsk hoard which confirms the presence of such phenomena in Smolensk region.
Two new Smolensk hoards clearly display the early and the late stages of broken kufi dirkhams circulation in the western region of Ancient Rus.
