Founding of Ladoga
The oldest tree-ring date from the settlement on the lower Volkhov is 753: Scandinavians founded Ladoga (Aldeigja), the first trading town of the future Rus’ and the gateway from the Baltic to the rivers of Eastern Europe.
- Date
- 753year known
- Place
- Staraya Ladogatoday: Staraya Ladoga, Leningrad Oblast, Russia · Eastern Europe
- Participants
- Varangians, East Slavs
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Aldeigjuborg; Staraya Ladoga; Альдейгьюборг; Старая Ладога
In the lowest layer of the Zemlyanoye Gorodishche excavators found large post-built houses with central hearths of northern European type; the oldest timbers were felled in 753. By the 760s–770s the first Scandinavian colony gave way to settlers of early Slavic culture, and a mixed Slavic–Scandinavian community grew up around the harbour. From the 780s glass beads were made here and traded for furs, and a hoard of Arab silver dirhams whose latest coin dates from 786 — one of the oldest in Eastern Europe — marks the start of the silver flow along the Volga route.
Ladoga remained a key port on the way from the Baltic to the Volga and the Dnieper. The Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle names it as Rurik’s first seat in 862, which gave rise to the idea of Ladoga as the “first capital of Rus’”, though this view is not generally accepted.
Connections
Related events
- Viking raid on Lindisfarne8 June 793 · Western and Central EuropeScandinavians settled at Ladoga four decades before the raid that conventionally opens the Viking Age
- Calling of the Varangians862 · Eastern Europethe Hypatian Codex makes Ladoga Rurik’s first seat
Same participants
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700 · Eastern Europevia East Slavs
- The “Rhos” at the court of Louis the Pious18 May 839 · Western and Central Europevia Varangians
Adjacent events in the thread
- Rise of the Khazar Khaganatebetween 630 and 650 – c. 670 · Eastern Europe
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861 · Eastern Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Donation of PepinApril 754 – 756
- Siege of Pavia and fall of the Lombard kingdomSeptember 773 – June 774
- Battle of Tours10 October 732
- Battle of Roncevaux Pass15 August 778
- Saxon Wars772–804
Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Staraya Ladoga
- Wikipedia (Russian): Старая Ладога
- Franklin S., Shepard J. The Emergence of Rus, 750–1200. — London; New York: Longman, 1996.
- Средневековая Ладога: новые археологические открытия и исследования. — Л.: Наука, 1985.