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Heading down the river Volkhov in northern Russia, travellers meet with a lake, called the Ilmen. At the northern entrance of the lake rises an archipelago of hills, turned by the rising water into little islands or peninsulas, known to the Norse as holmar. On the eastern part of the delta lies a hill, nowadays called Gorodishche. This is believed to have been a powerful local stronghold, and perhaps even the first capital, of the Rus.

Sources:
Gene Pool of the Novgorod Population - Balanovska et. al
Ibn Fadlan and the land of darkness - Paul Lunde, Caroline Stone
New data on the Ryurik Gorodishche near Novgorod - E.N. Nosov
Notes upon Russia - Sigismund Herberstein
Pantographia - Edmund Fry
The emergence of Rus, 750-1200 - Simon Franklin
The Primary Chronicle - Anonymous
Viking Rus - Wladyslaw Duczko
Древнерусское языческое святилище в Перыни - Vasili Sedov

Image credits:
By Sterndmitri - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By WasilissaValskaya - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Sterndmitri - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
6:06 Nordic presence
8:39 Wendish presence
16:24 The Peryn sanctuary
22:17 Political power
27:09 Rise of Novgorod


#vikings #history #russia