Tatiana S. Dorofeeva
RAS Institute for History of Material Culture, St. Petersburg (vesti@archeo.ru)

Key words: Northern paganism, “symbols of eternity”, Rurikovo gorodische, ancient Novgorod.

The article considers graffiti in the form of “symbols (signs) of eternity” scratched on the fang of a walrus (the first half of 10th c.), originated from Rurikovo gorodische and depicted on the Northern wall of the sacristan side-alter of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia (the second half of the 11th c.). The depictions of triangles formed by three contiguous feet and also 8-shaped sign which represent a close graphic system with rhythmically repetitive elements, a sort of “knots” without the beginning and the end, are interesting. All the “symbols of eternity” considered in the article have a religious and magic meaning.