The Saltovo «footprint» in the Staraya Ladoga materials

The paper has collected information on the finds of the so called Saltovo ‘family of cultures’ from the Ladoga settlement and its vicinities known from earlier publications as well as those not released yet. The authors take the Saltovo culture to a cultural and historical community of nomadic and semisedentary populations of the Khazar Khaganate from the second half of the first millennium who inhabited a vast area and had an identifiable material culture. The items reached Ladoga via the Volga trade route. Presently, around 40 items originating in the Zemlyanoe hillfort, the stone fortress and hills have been accounted for. This paper is the first to publish a number of finds from the stone fortress and excavation trenches in the southern part of the Zemlyanoe hillfort. It should be noted that the ceramic assemblage from the excavations led by V I. Ravdonikas has contained several fragments of specific transport ware (high-necked jars with ribbon handles). Of special interest are products made at a local polyfunctional workshop. In the second half of the 9th this workshop produced plates of southern steppe types using locally available lowmelting alloys and employing techniques familiar to the artisans.