Numismatic Evidence of the Relationship Between the Varangian-Rus and the Khazars
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Konrad Bennett Hughes Imitations and Alterations: Numismatic Evidence of the Relationship between the Varangian-Rus and the Khazars Konrad Bennett Hughes Several avenues of investigation must be applied to better understand the relationship between the multicultural merchants and mercenaries identified as the Rus, or Varangians, and the Khazar Khaganate during the ninth century CE. Silver dirham coins, minted by the Abbasid Caliphate and imitated by others, were the lifeblood of trade between the Baltic and Black Sea regions. This exchange of silver coins for chiefly slaves and furs was facilitated by both far traveling Jewish merchants and the earliest Rus, who had Scandinavia, Slavic, Baltic, and Finno- Ugric ethnic and linguistic origins. Numismatic and archaeological evidence points to increasing influences between the Baltic Sea region and the East, especially in trade emporia, during the ninth and tenth centuries. With this trade, by the end of the ninth century the earliest Rus’ dynasty, now known as the Rurikids, was able to expand its power to the trading center of Bulgar, modern Kazan in Russia at the edge of the Khazar Khaganate. By adapting the iconic imagery of the Khazar ruling dynasty, the tamga, into Rus’ symbolism, the bident and trident “sign of Rurik,” the early Rus’ solidified their ruler over formerly vassalized groups by the Khazar Khaganate in the tenth century when the steppe khaganate began to wane in power. By following the story told by imitated and altered coins, the influences on the earliest Varangian-Rus culture become more evident. 66 Chronika volume 11iv 66 6/8/21 5:11 PM Imitations and Alterations: Numismatic Evidence of the Relationship between the Varangian-Rus and the Khazars Introduction: There was no law among them, but tribe rose against tribe…they began to In the early ninth century CE, a host war one against another. They said to of merchant cadres, made up of Svear, themselves, “Let us seek a prince who Gotlander, Baltic, Slavic, and Finno-Ugric may rule us and judge us according peoples, traveled down the rivers of modern to the Law.” They accordingly went Russia and Ukraine, including the Dnieper, 1 overseas to the Varangian Russes: Don, Volga, and Kama Rivers. During these particular Varangians were their voyages, these Varangian-Rus traders known as Russes, just as some are encountered a plethora of peoples, ideas, called Swedes, and others Normans, and lucrative trade goods. Most significant English, and Gotlanders… they said among the latter to the Varangian-Rus were to the people of Rus’, “Our land is the silver dirham coins, minted in the Abbasid great and rich, but there is no order in Caliphate, or imitated by the rulers of Volga it. Come to rule and reign over us.”3 Bulgaria, Transoxiana, and Khazaria.2 Only by examining the numismatic evidence from The account goes on to explain that Rurik this era of history, in conjunction with the and his two younger brothers established textual evidence, can we formulate a clearer themselves as rulers and brought order to the picture of the relationship between the early lands. This account is highly aggrandized Varangian-Rus and the Khazar Khaganate in order to ascertain the Rurikid Dynasty during the ninth century. as coming from Scandinavia to rule over the tumultuous Slavic lands.4 It clearly Calling of the Varangians indicates that the ruling house came from Scandinavia, that they were distinct from With the “Calling of the Varangians” episode other eastern Scandinavians, and that (860 CE) in the Russian Primary Chronicle, they established a dynasty in Northern scholars have proposed a terminus post quem Russia with Rurik taking his residence in for dating the instalment of the Rus’ Rurikid Novgorod. To establish the validity of this Dynasty. The text alone does not prove this change in dynastic rule, scholars must turn point, though, as it was written hundreds of to archaeology. years after (twelfth to fourteenth century) and clearly shows itself to be dynastic The Khazar Khaganate propaganda. However, the archaeological evidence corroborates this event. The As trade in silver and furs greatly increased proliferation of the “sign of Rurik,” a bird- in the ninth century, so did the sphere of like bident or trident graffitied on coins and influence of the Khazar Khaganate, who stamped into seals, shows a symbolic shift in the eighth century took advantage of the within the communities from across Eastern power struggle between the Umayyads and Europe and modern Russia after 860 CE. Abbasids in the Islamic Caliphate to expand their hegemony over other peoples, both Though scholars have some issues with the north into the forest zones of modern Russia veracity of the dynastic tales told within and Ukraine, and south into the Caucasus the Russian Primary Chronicle, it is still Mountains and Crimea. Khazar influence the only near-contemporary written source reached its peak in the mid-ninth century which speaks in detail about the activities creating a pax nomadica which allowed of Rurik and his successors, the Rurikids. this trade to flourish. Around 831 CE, the After establishing that the Varangians had Khazar Khagan, or the Beq, the secondary imposed tribute on “the Chuds, the Slavs, military ruler, asked the Byzantine Emperor the Merians, the Ves’, and the Krivichians” Theophilos to send him Greek stone masons (859) but were driven “back beyond the to construct a new fortress to be named sea”, the Russian Primary Chronicle’s entry Sarkel, located on the Don River, which for the years 860-862 states: Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology 67 volume 11iv 67 6/8/21 5:11 PM Konrad Bennett Hughes connects the Volga River system to the The debate between these two sides of Black Sea.5 This kind of large stone fortress Rus ethnogenesis is called the “Normanist building is not the norm for Turkic nomad Controversy.” I, along with other scholars groups, who were certainly influenced by such as Marika Mägi, argue that the origins Iranian, Arabic, and Byzantine practices. Its of the Rus lie within a plethora of peoples, construction shows the importance of the though.7 The Rhos at Ingelheim’s khagan burgeoning trade networks flowing up and was not likely of the Rus people, but a steppe down the waterways. nomad overlord to the groups of Slavic, To address the relationship between the Scandinavian, and Finno-Ugric merchants Rus and Khazars in the ninth century, we and settlers who moved into their sphere of influence, some of whom made up the must turn to the Annales Bertiniani, a Latin 8 account of the East Frankish court of Louis group we identify as the Rus. This brings the Pious. In 839, a group of travelers me to believe that Khagan of the Khazars is the most likely candidate for the chacanus arrived at the court with the Byzantine 9 envoy, who claimed (id est gentem suam) mentioned in the Annales Bertiniani. their “whole people” were called the Rhos. These accompanying Rhos also “claimed” to Imitations and Alterations be on an official mission of friendship from The ninth and tenth century trade their ruler, who is titled chacanus, Latinized routes running through Eastern Europe khagan. The Rhos had travelled with the were not a novel development as the same Byzantine embassy from Constantinople trade routes which brought Baltic amber to avoid a perilous journey back to their to the Mycenaean Greeks in the Bronze homeland, likely an encroaching Pecheneg Age facilitated the movements of goods horde. The Byzantine Emperor Theophilos throughout antiquity. However, the ninth and was invested in these Rhos’ continued tenth centuries CE are a time of increased journey, as he made the request for their activity in this region as the northernmost passage in his letter to Louis. However, end of the Silk Roads ended on the shores Louis did not believe them to be truthful, as of the Black Sea in the Khazar Khaganate. they “belonged to the people of the Swedes” After the collapse of the Hunnic steppe (comperit eos gentis esse Sueonum), so they confederation in the sixth century, Gothic were detained until word could come back and other Germanic warriors returned or from Constantinople.6 From this entry, it resettled in the Baltic Sea region. Not only is clear that the Rhos mentioned had ties do their epic histories, such as the works of to both Scandinavia and steppe nomad Saxo Grammaticus, confirm this, but so do cultures, though what those connections their artistic styles, such as the crossbow were remains in question. type fibulae of the Gothic armies of the fifth Some scholars have used this passage of century, which continued to influence styles the Annales to try to prove that there was all over the Baltic and Scandinavia during a Rus’ Khaganate centered around the the Vendel Period (550-790).10 These Gothic Lake Ladoga region of Northern Russia. connections to Sweden do not end here However, the archaeological evidence does though, as scholars such as Tore Gannholm, not support this claim, as the Norse presence Line Bjerg, John H. Lind, and Soren M. in the settlement at Staraya Ladoga was still Sindbaek have all written extensively on small at this point, with a larger Slavic and the continued trade relations between the Finno-Ugric population in the hinterlands. Danube Basin and the Crimean Goths with This, and evidence of other Slavic groups Gotlanders. These were a distinct group along the river systems where the early of Baltic Scandinavians, separate from the Rus are said to have inhabited, led many Danes, Normans, or Svear who lived on Russian and Soviet scholars to believe that the island of Gotland and the southern tip the Rus were unadulterated Slavic people.