The initial publication of results from the excavation at Staraya Ladoga’s medieval cemetery comes from researchers at the Institute of Materials and Materials Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The team highlighted a significant fraction of artifacts that offer a window into the lives and beliefs of communities that once inhabited the region.
Most noteworthy are the discoveries concentrated in a double burial for two newborns and the grave of a child aged about eighteen months. These findings provide a poignant glimpse into infant mortality and the care taken to accompany young lives into the beyond, reflecting cultural practices and ritual considerations of the period.
Researchers also noted the absence of written records mentioning a large number of burials west of Staraya Ladoga, an area that previously functioned as farmland. The lack of documentary evidence underscores the value of grave goods and burial arrangements as essential sources for reconstructing early medieval life in this frontier zone.
According to the staff of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the newly uncovered cemetery blends elements from pagan and Christian burial traditions. This convergence offers insights into a transitional era when old beliefs coexisted with emerging Christian practices, illustrating how communities negotiated identity and ritual at the edge of cultural change.
In the older interments, researchers found well-preserved inventories accompanying the dead. Marianna Pavlova, a young investigator with the Department of Slavic-Finnish Archaeology at the Institute for the History of Materials of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained that the grave goods reveal prevailing ideas about the afterlife and the social importance of ritual offerings during the early Middle Ages.
Further observations indicate that the later Christian period is represented by inhumations placed in rectangular pits with the head oriented toward the west, a burial orientation commonly associated with Christian customs of the time. The contrast between the Christian and pagan sections underscores the layered and evolving belief systems present in the region during centuries of transition.
Across the pagan segment, two child burials were found within circular recesses, illustrating distinctive burial methods. One grave contains a child aged around one and a half to two years, while the other holds two newborns. The assemblages accompanying these remains include a comb, molded pottery, an iron bell, a rivet disk from a castle, and a composite amulet fashioned from a bear’s tooth and a horse’s wrist bone. These objects reflect everyday life, craft techniques, and symbolic practices linked to protection, status, and memory that endured across generations.