Moscow. August 27. INTERFAX.RU – The Byzantine seal and the ancient Roman coin were found by archaeologists during excavations on the ancient Ilyin street on the Torgovaya side in the historical center of Veliky Novgorod. This was announced on Friday at the Novgorod archaeological conference by the Deputy Director of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Pyotr Gaidukov.
According to the scientist's assumption, a Roman copper coin from the beginning of the 4th century came to Novgorod along with a pilgrim who had visited Italy. “This Roman coin has become the second for Novgorod archeology,” said Gaidukov. Researchers found it in the cultural layer of the 16th century.
But scientists in Veliky Novgorod have never found Byzantine seals similar to those found on Ilyin Street, added Gaidukov. This seal from Asia Minor was in the cultural layer of the 11th-12th centuries.
Among other finds made on Ilyin Street, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences noted 39 lead seals from the late 14th-early 15th centuries. These were princes' seals, seals of thousands, tiuns, and ruler governors. In the Middle Ages, the Slavs sealed the most important documents with such seals. “All Old Russian seals had images (of some – IF ) of a fierce beast,” said the deputy director of the Institute of Archeology.
According to Gaidukov, such a high saturation of seals in the cultural layer on Ilyin Street testifies to the fact that the city nobility lived here in ancient times.
Excavations on the Trade Side are ongoing.
