Andrey M. Grinev ^a,#, Nadezhda N. Tochilova ^b,##

^a Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Veliky Novgorod, Russia
^b St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design, St. Petersburg, Russia

^#E-mail: amgrinev@mail.ru
^##E-mail: arhivolt@yandex.ru

Keywords: medieval Novgorod, Sigtuna, Birka, horn spoons, geometric interlaced ornament, Scandinavian art, Sami art, cultural frontier.

The article deals with comprehensive study of four horn spoons from the early strata of Troitsky and Nerevsky excavation sites from Veliky Novgorod. The main hallmark distinguishing these artefacts among analogies is highly artistic geometric interlaced ornament, which has not been studied fully and is not discussed in Russian historiography. The complex use of archaeological and artistic analysis made it possible to interpret the origins of interlaced ornament in archaeological contexts. The closest typological and stylistic analogies were found in the medieval urban centres of Middle Sweden, on the boundaries of the Scandinavian and Sami cultures. The research prompted an assumption about the North European origin of these spoons from the Novgorod cultural deposit. The ornaments of these artefacts can be regarded as one of the areas of Scandinavian art influenced by Sami tradition.

DOI: 10.31857/S0869606323020101, EDN: RFRPHS