Novgorod

Early city in northwest Russia, about 160 km south of St Petersburg and founded in the 9th century AD. Waterlogged conditions have preserved intact a complete sequence of medieval wooden buildings and streets dating from the foundation of the city up to the 18th century. Dendrochronology has made it possible to date accurately the layers of timber streets superimposed on top of each other as well as their relationships to the log cabins either side of them. There are small factories with tools for metal, wood, leather and glass working. Also found were medieval textiles and a collection of 700 birch-bark documents which have proved invaluable in understanding the history, trading relationships, and feudal estates of the town. The fortified Kremlin at Novgorod dates from the 11th century and is one of the earliest to have been given a stone enceinte. Novgorod controlled a vast territory in the 14th-15th centuries, extending to the Arctic Ocean and beyond the Ural Mountains.

A city on the River Valkhow about 160 km south of Leningrad in the Soviet Union. Excavations in the medieval town were carried out before and after World War II and proved some of the most remarkable in Europe. Waterlogged conditions have preserved intact a complete sequence of wooden buildings and streets dating from the foundation of the city in the 10th century up to the 18th century. Dendrochronology has made it possible to date accurately the layers of timber streets superimposed on top of each other as well as their relationships to the log cabins either side of them. Particularly interesting are the small factories, complete with collections of tools for metal, wood, leather and glass working. Other important finds from Novgorod include a superb group of medieval textiles, and a unique collection of birch-bark documents which have proved invaluable in understanding the history, trading relationships, and feudal estates of the town. The fortified kremlin at Novgorod dates from the 11th century and is one of the earliest to have been given a stone enceinte.