The Elite of Sýrnesgarðr: On the Social Stratification of the Population of the Gnyozdovo Archaeological Complex, 10th — Early 11th Centuries

Abstract

This paper analyses the socio-historical topography, the dynamics of urbanization transformations, and social stratification of the population of the early medieval metropolis in the Upper Dnieper area of the tenth — early eleventh centuries known as Sэrnesgarрr, nowadays the Gnyozdovo Archaeological Complex. It was one of the largest political, trade, and craft centres of the Viking Age within the spread of Old Russian archaeological culture. The high degree of archaeological knowledge of this site makes it possible to try and find a solution to the difficult problem of reconstructing the social hierarchy of its urban community referring to the data known to the scholarly community. The society of *Sýrnesgarðr was a developed ranked or even early stratified society with a pronounced three-level hierarchy. The upper stratum used special labour-intensive burial rites with rich grave goods accompanying the deceased; the middle stratum marked its burials with weapons; and the majority of the ordinary population practised various forms of “standard” burials without any exclusive features. The analysis of the chronology of the burials of the elite reveals two generations with different cultural attitudes, economic practices, and behavioural patterns. The first generation of the first half of the tenth century used burial rites in “great mounds” and/or in boats (or “rooks”). The second generation of the middle to second half of the tenth century used burial rites in “wooden chambers”. The change of the “ruling class” of “great mounds and boats” to a new privileged group of “wooden chambers” took place around the 940s–960s, either because the city was conquered by the troops of the Rurikid polity, or, more likely, because of an internal conflict between the two privileged groups.