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[Kievan Rus Archeology] Severyanskaya zemlya i Severyane po gorodishham i mogilam [i.e. The Severian Land and the Severians According to Their Settlements and Graves]

SAMOKVASOV, Dmitrij

Item #2901

Moscow: Sinodal`naya Tipografiya, 1908. 25 x 17.5 cm. [4], 119 pp., ills. in text, 1 fold–out table. Contemporary library binding. In Russian, pre-1917 Cyrillic orthography. Overall good — but ex–library. Washed and restored, with minor traces of water damage. Cancelled library sticker to the front board; number in pencil to the back. Block trimmed to the library binding, top and bottom block edges both stamped “U.C.Ber”. Rubber stamp “University of California. Withdrawn” and a sticker residue to the front Berkeley–branded endpaper. Illustrated publisher’s paper covers are preserved under the boards. Another library sticker on the front publisher’s illustrated cover; pen and pencil marks to front cover reverse and title. Stamped number 834 and yet another pencil mark to p. [3]. No other page nor the pasted down plate are stamped. The whole block is generally in good condition, but faint dampstaining throughout the top block edge with the first few leaves wavy.

A 44 x 39.5 cm color lithograph foldout plan Karta Chernigovskoj gubernii [Map of Chernihov Governorate] scaled 1:840,000, with an inset Plan g. Chernigova 1:42,000 at the top left corner of the sheet. The right margin of the plan is seemingly trimmed. Should be noted, some copies of the edition were supplemented with a less detailed, substantively similar map of 28 x 19 cm with a variant title of Karta gorodishh Chernigovskoj gubernii.

By the date the present book was printed, Dmitrij Samokvasov (1843—1911) was already a renowned professor, welcomed by many universities of the Russian Empire. His academia specialisation was law and history, particularly innovative archeological studies. A native of Chernigov Governorate (modern Ukrainian Chernihiv oblast’ area), Samokvasov was among the first archeologists who held continuous, well– documented expeditions in the area.
The author’s personal interest in the remnants of fortified cities, so–called gorodishha or the hillforts, led to a number of expeditions as early as the 1870s, when the scientific archeological studies in the Russian Empire were still in its infancy. Samokvasov was the first to examine the Chorna mohyla [Black Grave], a princely kurgan in Chernihiv (ex. his offprint: O gorodishhax i kurganax v zemle Severyan i ix znachenii v istorii. Chernigov, 1872). Samokvasov contributed to the evolution of scientific, structured and organized approach to a series of field studies, which led him to develop a complex theory on Slavic origins, which partially was confirmed later with genetic analysis and more specific studies.

With years, Samokvasov diligently explored the Chernihiv region, covering hillforts and burial sites, while comparing them to preserved sources of protohistoric period. By 1900’s the evolution of his understanding culminated in this seminal Severyanskaya zemlya.
According to Samokvasov, the Severians were a rather organized tribal union of Desna river basin and neighbouring forest areas, covering modern Chernihiv, Sumy, Kursk, Bryansk areas. The union’s first mention is tied to 859 in Povest’ vremennykh let. Lush burials proved the existence of aristocracy and class–based militarised society, a possible proto–state preceding Varangian arrival. Severians served as a cultural and military “buffer” that contributed to the safety of the development of the Slavic world significantly.
The study cemented the understanding of Severian Slavic groups as a sophisticated society rather than the primitive culture previously imagined.

Price: $550.00