Andrey A. Kudryavtsev^a,#, Andrey A. Gomzin^a,##, Petr G. Gaidukov^b,###, Olga P. Dobrova^b,####, Vyacheslav A. Volkhonsky^c,#####

^aInstitute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia
^bPaleoethnology Research Center, Moscow, Russia
^cNovgorod Museum-Reserve, Veliky Novgorod, Russia

^#E-mail: a-kudravtsev@yandex.ru
^##E-mail: gomzin_a@mail.ru
^###E-mail: russianchange@yandex.ru
^####E-mail: russa-dolya@mail.ru
^#####E-mail: zvonar-a@mail.ru

Keywords: Novgorod, Novgorod vicinity, hoard of coins and artefacts, belt set, dirhams, imitations with bird heads, miliarensia.

The article features the characteristics of the coin and artefact hoard of the late 10th – early 11th century AD found in the vicinity of the village of Staraya Melnitsa near Novgorod in 2014. The place of its finding was examined in 2018. In 2021, the complex entered the funds of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve. The hoard consists of 153 items of various categories, including both typically Slavic jewellery and pendants of Scandinavian origin, as well as a belt set of Oghuz-Pecheneg origin, silver coins (dirhams and miliarensia), weights and glass objects (beads and inserts / overlays). This is only the third hoard of such significance in Novgorod Region. In its composition, it is most similar to the complex found near the villages of Goroshkovo and Lyuboezha in the Novgorod Poozerye (lake district), and to some of the Gnezdovo hoards. Nevertheless, a combination of a number of features (details of a belt set ornamented with gilding and niello, weights, two imitations of Samanid dirhams with bird (falcon) heads crowned with a cross) make it possible to claim its exceptional character for Rus.

DOI: 10.31857/S0869606323020113, EDN: RFTZTP