Чернигов в составе вождества Рюриковичей X – начала XI века: Опыт интерпретации письменных и археологических данных в свете политической антропологии
Chernigov as a part of the Rurikid chiefdom of the 10th – early 11th centuries: An attempt to interpret written and archaeological data in the light of political anthropology

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the entire complex of written sources, onomastic evidence, and archaeological data pertaining to the city of Chernigov in the Tenth century and the first half of the Eleventh. Chernigov was founded on the cusp of the Ninth and Tenth centuries, and it most probably derived its name from that of its oikist-founder, a figure named Cherneg. Although Chernigov formed part of the Rurikid chiefdom during the early to mid of the Tenth century, it was governed by a distinct lineage of chieftains, which obtained a degree of political autonomy, perhaps considerable. No chief of the Rurikid lineage ruled the city prior to the onset of the Eleventh century. By the close of the Tenth and the opening of the Eleventh century, Chernigov had emerged as the center of a discrete polity under the leadership of a chieftain named Chern(’),who was barrowed in the great mound known as «Chernaya Mogila» («Black Grave») alongside a female warrior, possibly his consort. Thereafter, kings of the Rurikid lineage assumed rule in Chernigov: son of Vladimir Mstislav-Konstantin, and his son Eustathius, who appears to have the king’s name Yaroslav. Upon their demise, Chernigov was incorporated into the early state of the ruler of Kiev Yaroslav Vladimirovich, becoming one of the principal centers of the early state forged by his sons. Thus, Chernigov initially belonged to the Rurikid polity; by the early Eleventh century, it had become the seat of an independent chiefs; under the «great archon» Mstislav, it served as the capital of a failed early state encompassing the entire Left Bank of the Dnieper. The establishment of these two distinct polities was formalized by a treaty between the sons of king Vladimir, Mstislav and Yaroslav. Only in the second half of the 1030s was Chernigov, together withthe Left Bank of the Dnieper, definitively absorbed into the early state of «Caesar» Yaroslav and his sons.

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