A blacksmith is the one ancient trade most covered in mystery and myth, it is mentioned in hundreds of tales. Archaeologists found many remains of ancient smithies, along with blacksmithing implements. Most of the smithies found could be classified as village ones. In other words, they served the needs of the villagers and were used to make working tools and household goods, therefore they had primitive tools and were small in size. According to the archaeologists, a typical village smithy at the end of the 10th century through 11th century would be a building about 3 by 3 meters, with walls 3 meters high. The forge would be located in the middle, with a hole in the ceiling above for the smoke.

That kind of building is not fit for our purposes, because our smithy is of a military kind, not a domestic one, so we decided to model our smithy on the largest example of wooden architecture or the respective period from Staraya Ladoga, namely, the remains of the so-called “longhouse”, which is about 8 by 10 meters in size. This building was described in an article by E. Ryabinin called New Information about Longhouses of Staraya Ladoga. We must point out, however, that we altered the design somewhat, to make it safer and more practical.

The version of the ancient Russian city smithy we recreated is designed to serve the military needs of the prince’s armed force. You will see replicas of tools and implements used for making weapons for the army, all the way from melting the ore to the final fitting, woodworking, and jewelry-making processes. A smithy like this would make and repair weapons, tools and implements for the prince’s armed force and the militia, thus having the highest status in the hierarchy of smithies.

We should also point out that jewelry-making, or, rather, the love for results thereof, was widespread among the nobility and the military elite. Various archaeological finds indicate a whole culture of decorating weapons. This is why our smithy includes jewelry equipment for imbedding, embossing, and engraving. In addition to decorating the weapons, decorative elements for the armor, belts, harness, and other things were also a thing. The common theme of Viking art throughout its existence was the so-called animal style, widely spread among the German people during the Migration Period. The post prominent ones are Borre and Oseberg styles. Their typical feature is zoomorphic ornaments with animal heads in the foreground. It can be found in ornaments and details of horse harnesses. The surface of the item gets decorated with small solid motifs including both geometrical patterns and zoomorphic motifs.

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Kilometer 33, 49К-1159, Shevelyovo village, Novgorod District.