Abstract

Apart from mass import products, dozens of individual items of Western European origin were found in the excavations of medieval Novgorod, including household items and jewelry. Unlike the mass products, they are associated with the following excavation sites: Nerev, Slavna, Ilyinsky, Duboshin, Mikhailova Street, Nutny, Nikitinsky and Troitsky. There were the townhouses of the Novgorod boyars and merchants who traded with the Hanseatic League. About 200 individual items of Western European origin have been found in Novgorod. The author assigned individual objects to every residence. In addition, she attempts at classifying these residences on the basis of their landlords’ ownership of imported European products. The distribution of Western European items among Novgorod residences contributes to our perception of the social status of the owners of imported products. Apart from the traditionally prominent role of the boyars, one can note the high density of Western European items on the sites of nonaristocratic townhouses. Craftsmen and merchants could also purchase Western European imported products. Some of them could get to Novgorod from Karelia, where the local population was in contact with the subjects of the Swedish crown and assimilated certain elements of Western culture. In Novgorod there are zones of accumulation of Western European everyday items that were hardly used by the Novgorodians. These zones are considered to be the quarters of residents from Germany. This observation allows to verify the data of written sources. Simultaneous circulation of certain types of products in Novgorod and in the West correlates with evidence of the intensive trade exchange during the 13th and 14th centuries. These data also allow demonstrating that in certain periods Western style trends extended to the territory of medieval Novgorod.