Knight's treasure. SmartNews has compiled a map of treasures in Karelia. Treasures of Karelia Unfound treasures in Karelia maps

Somewhere, under the old povetya, there still lies an untouched bundle with the treasured “Catherine’s cards”, or even with golden chervonets. Who knows...
There is not much information about treasures on the territory of Karelia. And this is due not so much to its absence as such, but to the small number of treasures themselves. The region is taiga, sparsely populated, with complex terrain. There were no major trade routes passing through here. There are no trading cities or fortresses. And the wars were fought more in the southern regions. Who is interested in fighting waist-deep in a swamp?

So Karelia remained aloof from the widespread treasure burying. But in any case, there are treasures. And the likelihood of finding a box with coins from the late 19th and early 20th centuries is quite real. Personally, I had the opportunity to see in Zaonezhye how in the evenings, after fishing, men diligently polished 10 kopeck coins of 1922-24 to a shine. They broke down the house and found a pot in the attic. Only about 3 kg of small items. It happened in 1998, on Kolgostrov. So the treasures are still waiting for their owners.

Viking legacy
Petrozavodsk archaeologist Andrei Spiridonov counted the number of treasures discovered in the republic and drew up a rough diagram of their location. The scientist simply entered random information about them into a file cabinet. Over time, he accumulated information about 30 fairly fully documented treasures from the 10th to early 19th centuries. A comparative analysis showed that treasures more often became the savings of our wealthy ancestors, who hid their “wealth” in times of danger. The Scandinavians often “fertilized” the soil with treasures. The Vikings firmly believed that everything they buried in the ground during their lifetime would be with them in the next world. The area richest in treasures today is rightfully the area of the Svir River, just below the river rapids. It was here that several treasures were found at different times. This is not surprising, archaeologists believe. After all, the very place where these treasures were discovered indicates their connection with the fur trade and trade in the Onega region. In the same section of the Svir flow, in the burial mounds of the 10th-11th centuries, several rich burials of merchants and warriors were studied. For example, a pot with 3280 Arab, Western and Northern European coins, dug out of the ground in Lodeynoye Pole in 1878, weighed four and a half kilograms.
And the Lodeynopol treasure of almost three thousand and several fragments of silver items, found in 1949 during excavation work, weighed three and a half kilograms. At prices common to the Baltic countries of the 11th century, for a mark of silver (about 200 grams) you could buy a slave or two cows, for one and a half marks - a slave, a good horse or ten pigs. Finally, it is worth mentioning the two most famous treasures discovered at one time in Petrozavodsk. One of them was found in the middle of the 19th century at the mouth of the Neglinka River by soldiers during the construction of a barracks, the other in 1957 on Svirskaya Street: 300 coins of the 16th-17th centuries.

Coins - per gram
However, most of the “Karelian” treasures include no more than 200 grams of coins. Most likely, this money was hidden by once wealthy peasants. For example, in 1874, seven kilometers from Kolatselga on the banks of the Kolagi River, a treasure of 355 silver coins weighing 150 grams was found. Most of them dated back to the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. In 1932, they dug a hole in Nyurala and discovered 300 silver coins dating back to the reign of Ivan the Terrible to Mikhail Fedorovich. These exhibits could be seen in the Karelian State Museum of Local Lore until they were stolen from the funds in 1952. But 300 coins from the era of Ivan the Terrible, found in 1957 in the village of Reboly on the banks of Ledmozero, are still kept in the local history museum.

COIN HOUSES OF KARELIA
30 coin treasures were found in Karelia
Once in a lifetime, fortune knocks on every person’s door, but at that time a person often sits in the nearest pub and doesn’t hear any knocking,” said Mark Twain. At least 30 residents of Karelia were at home when Lady Luck decided to visit them - 30 treasures from the 10th to early 19th centuries were found in the republic at different times.

Cauldron with money
Provincial local history literature of the last century reported the following finds: in the Povenets district in the village of Kachchieva, a quarter of a verst from the church, in a field, small oblong silver coins are still being found... In the village of Mannieva, one verst from the church, they are also found there is money in the ground, between the villages of Petelnavolok and Maselga, in the reaping, every spring he brings small silver oblong coins to the road with water...”, in Vytegorsky district, “one peasant from the village of Lema pulled a pot of money out of the ground from the ground with a plow.”

Traces of past finds were kept in the munz office at the provincial gymnasium in Petrozavodsk - this collection included silver money from Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, money from the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Dmitrievich, Boris Godunov, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov and Alexei Mikhailovich.

The most accurate records of lucky finds were kept only in the second half of the 19th century. It was then that local lovers of antiquities actively developed their activities, and the Imperial Archaeological Commission was created in Russia, which was entrusted with the function of registering coin hoards.

“I have not specifically studied the topic of treasures,” says Petrozavodsk archaeologist Andrei Spiridonov, “and, unfortunately, I have never found treasures myself. But he entered random information about them into a file cabinet. By 1995, I already had information about 30 fairly fully documented treasures from the 10th to early 19th centuries. Then I reviewed these finds.

It turns out that all Karelian “treasures” were found by accident. There were no mysterious maps indicating the places where the money was buried. And treasures more often became the savings of our wealthy ancestors, who hid their “wealth” in times of danger. The Scandinavians often fertilized the soil with treasures. The Vikings firmly believed that everything they buried in the ground during their lifetime would be with them in the next world. And they buried it. Mostly coins. Apparently, even in those days, men preferred to give jewelry to women rather than to the earth.

Four kilograms of silver

The most generous treasure of the 11th century turned out to be a twenty-kilometer section of the Svir River, above which river rapids began that were dangerous for navigation. As many as six treasures were found here, four of which were discovered in Lodeynoye Pole, two in Svirstroy.

“The very location of the discovery of these treasures on the natural waterway between Lakes Ladoga and Onega indicates the connection of the treasures with the fur trade and trade in the Onega region,” said Andrei Mikhailovich. — On the same section of the Svir, in the burial mounds of the 10th-11th centuries, several rich burials of merchants and warriors were studied. The size of some of the Svir treasures speaks about the wide scope of trade with the Onega region. For example, a pot with 3,280 Arab, Western and Northern European coins, dug out of the ground in Lodeynoye Pole in 1878, weighed four and a half kilograms. And the Lodeynopol treasure of almost three thousand and several fragments of silver items, found in 1949 during excavation work, weighed three and a half kilograms. At prices common to the Baltic countries of the 11th century, for a mark of silver (about 200 grams) you could buy a slave or two cows, for one and a half marks - a slave, a good horse or ten pigs.

Alas, not all of our ancestors had this condition. Most of the finds—nine treasures—include no more than 200 grams of coins. This money was apparently hidden by wealthy peasants. For example, in 1874, seven kilometers from Kolatselga on the banks of the Kolagi River, a treasure of 355 silver coins weighing 150 grams was found. Most of them dated back to the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. In 1932, they dug a hole in Nyurala, and discovered 300 silver coins dating back to the reign of Ivan the Terrible to Mikhail Fedorovich. This money could be seen in the Karelian State Museum of Local Lore until it was stolen from the funds in 1952. But 300 coins from the era of Ivan the Terrible, found in 1957 in the village of Reboly on the banks of Ledmozero, are still kept in the local history museum.

The finds from Vinnitsa and Lizhma look more impressive. In 1937, in the village of Vinnitsa, a treasure of two thousand coins was found, minted during the reigns of Ivan the Terrible to Mikhail Fedorovich. The treasures were buried at the beginning of the 17th century and clearly belonged to a merchant. And in 1909, during the construction of a railway in the village of Lizhma, a treasure of one and a half thousand silver coins was discovered. Most of these treasures were then sold out.

From under the governor's nose

In fact, most of the spoils went to waste. The people managed to steal it even from under the governor’s nose. Thus, in Petrozavodsk in 1849, “near the confluence of the Neglinka River into Lake Onega, while clearing a site for the construction of buildings that belonged to the garrison battalion,” a treasure trove of silver coins was found. Of these, only less than 60 pieces reached the then governor of the province, Pisarev. The rest of the money floated away in an unknown direction. The head of the Olonets mining works, Butenev, sent one of the coins to the Imperial Archaeological Society. It turned out to be a dirham minted in Bukhara around 946. So the treasure was apparently very valuable. Although none of the experts has yet assessed the market value of Karelian treasures.

But the inhabitants of the republic were not always so greedy. The most recent discovery is considered to be a treasure from Sandal Island. In 1972, 71 silver coins were collected on an unnamed island near the canal between lakes Nigozero and Sandal. They were wrapped in something and placed in a hole between small boulders. The fishermen who found the treasure hidden around the 10th-15th centuries did not covet Western European denarii from the 10th-11th centuries and Arab dirhams from the 8th-10th centuries. They gave everything to the Karelian Museum of Local Lore and did not demand any compensation.

“I think that many more treasures will be found in Karelia,” says Andrei Spiridonov, “which will tell a lot of new things about the history of our region.” But this will only happen if the coins are studied by numismatists. And if the new finds do not go to waste, but are transferred to museums.

DEVICHIY ISLAND.
In the folk legends of the Olonets Province, Lithuania’s raids on the local region are remarkable. In some Uyezds, there are places that bear names obtained during these raids.
We once mentioned Devichya Gora, in Pudozh Uyezd, so called from the time when a peasant girl, pursued by the lords (as Lithuania is called here), threw herself into the Vodla River from the steep bank of Devichya Gora.
An island on Lake Onega, five miles from the village of Derevyannago, has a similar name: Devichy-Ostrov. Tradition says that it received this name during the Lithuanian raids. A crowd of enemies, having robbed neighboring villages and captured one girl, tied her up in a boat and went to celebrate on the above-mentioned island. While the Lithuanians indulged in a feast, their captive, rocking the boat, forced it to sail away from the island. The Lithuanians did not pay attention to this, believing that it was impossible for their prey to escape; Meanwhile, the boat was brought to the shore and the girl was saved.
Tradition does not say what happened next to the noisy crowd; only adds that there are supposedly treasures on the island that were once buried by the Lithuanians.
Olonets Provincial Gazette. 1883

Treasure June 2-3, 2008 on the Karelian Isthmus.
My wife, child and friends went fishing for the weekend, took fishing rods, spinning rods, nets, and other fishing paraphernalia. The trunk of the patrol Nissan was stuffed to the ceiling. I was still thinking about whether to buy a metal detector or not...
But I decided to take it anyway, I thought - if there’s no bite, I’ll go with the device. I took my Garik 2500 and my wife’s device - ICQ 250.
We arrived at the place at night. Local guys (our friends) were waiting for us. He left his wife and child for the night in the village, and they themselves went fishing for bream. 5 km on oars and we are there... That night we caught about 60 - 70 kg of bream. While we were sailing on the boat, I talked about my hobby and my findings. One of the locals (Edik) became interested in this topic and began to talk about various interesting places, in his opinion... I take such stories calmly, but still I listened. In general, we decided to check out a couple of farms the next day.
We returned at about 6 in the morning, I didn’t want to sleep, and I decided to fish with a fishing rod. Fishing with nets, although it produces a lot of fish, is not interesting. I fished until 12 o'clock, then the bite subsided, and I went to the base to get some sleep. At about 16 o'clock I woke up, had a snack and went to pick up Edik so that he could show him the places he was talking about. After talking briefly, we went to the treasured place.
Considering the poverty of the Karelian Isthmus for finds, I did not expect anything supernatural from this trip. We stopped at one farm, walked around, waved our clubs, found a couple of Soviet coins and a bunch of vodka caps. We went to another farm, then to a third, fortunately they were all nearby... the statistics of finds were not encouraging. It was already nightfall and we decided to return to the village.
Moreover, it was planned to go for bream again that night. On the way back, Edik showed a couple more farms and said that near the base where we were staying, there were foundations in one of the clearings. We brought him to the village, and we ourselves drove towards the base. There were still a few hours left before the trip for bream and we decided to go with our instruments in that very place next to the base...
They left the car in the middle of the clearing and went to wave the instruments. Everything was littered with traffic jams. In just over an hour I filled my pocket full with them. I was about to turn off the device and headed towards the car, but then I dug out the first coin... 3 kopecks copper Russia, then 1/2 kopeck, then a kopeck, then again three kopecks, and another, and another, and another. And all this is literally 20-30 cm from each other... Thus, in an hour of digging in an area of 10-12 m2, I collected about 50 coins, Andrey and Oleg continued to collect corks... Envying me, I hope, with white envy .
When the signals stopped, I decided that it was loose debris, a wallet, but just in case, I called the guys and we began to remove the turf from this place. The earth pleased with its looseness. After removing the turf, we began to go deeper... And here it is happiness! Coins began to fall straight from the shovel! The device was thrown to the side and we began to select coins with our hands. Each shovel of earth brought 5-10 coins!!!
And then I hit something hard with a shovel.
I threw away the shovel and began to rake the earth with my hands. And here it is, it’s done! A broken jug appeared from the ground! The upper part of the jug was broken into fragments and had a sufficient scatter... Apparently it had been plowed open at some point. And at the bottom lay a decent handful of copper Russia. The white nights helped, but it was still hard to see, we turned on the lamp, the fishing rod was also useful, which served as a bracket for hanging the lamp over the excavation site, and lit a fire, especially since it was quite cool. We extracted the remaining copper using a device and a green “sieve” that Skeet gave me; it had been in the car for a long time, and I didn’t even think that it would be useful. There was such excitement that there was no time to take photographs, although I still took a few pictures during the digging and even filmed the process of sifting the coins... And only the next day we posed to our heart's content with the instruments and the jar full of coins.
Edik went fishing without us that night...
and we had our own, no less exciting and productive fishing!

THE CITY OF KORELA IS THE CENTER OF LADOGA KARELIA
(according to archaeological data by A.I. Saksa)
In this article, Ladoga Karelia refers to the eastern part of the Karelian Isthmus and the northwestern Ladoga region (Ladoga Karelia), in contrast to the western Vyborg part.

A burial in Nukuttalahti on the island of Riekkala near the city of Sortavala, dating back to the 6th century, indicates, in our opinion, the existence, along with hunting trips to Ladoga Karelia, of the practice of exchanging local craft products for jewelry (Saksa 1994, 32). This is precisely what can explain the inclusion of decorations of Western and Eastern origin in the stone mound (Kivikoski 1939, 1-11).
The second of the most ancient Iron Age burials was discovered in the village. Lapinlahti (now Olkhovka) on the southern shore of lake. Sukhodolsky. It dates back to around 800 (Europaeus 1923, 66-75; Kivikoski 1944, 2-3). The burial, which contained a large number of weapons, tools and decorations, records, as we see it, the beginning of the emergence of settlement centers towards the end of the Merovingian era, denoting a completely new situation in which the determining factor becomes internal development within the territories in which, according to some For some reason, a permanent population is formed. In addition to Lapinlahti, such centers of population concentration include Räisälä (Melnikov), Hovinsaari (Bolshoy Peninsula on Lake Vuoksa) and Käkisalmi (Priozersk), in which finds of things from the Merovingian era were made.
The end of the Viking Age in Ladoga Karelia marks, in essence, the onset of a new era. New burial grounds are emerging in Metsäpirtni Koukunniemi, Lapinlahti Naskalinmäki and Lapinlahti Hennonmäki, Kurkijoki Kuuppala, Sortavala Helyulya. It is significant that these burial grounds, unlike military single burials of the previous time, were used for a long time. The number of individual items found is increasing sharply, numbering in the dozens. The share of jewelry has increased significantly (about 40 pieces)

Thus, Kyakisalmi, which arose among other similar settlements of the chronicle Korela on the isthmus and northwestern Ladoga region, from the end of the 13th century. acquires strategic importance not only due to its location at the mouth of the most important water artery, but also as an urban and administrative (later, probably at the latest - from the first half of the 15th century, and religious) center of Ladoga Karelia. Excavations in 1989-1990 revealed the secret of the origin of the settlement on the fortress island. The early layers we discovered in the form of a horizon of logs lying on the mainland date back to the 12th - first half of the 13th centuries. (Le-3810, SU-2084, SU-2085, SU-2088). The horizon of the late 13th - early 14th centuries is also clearly visible. and later, dating back to the second half of the 14th century. (Saksa, Kankainen, Saarnisto, Taavitsainen 1990, 65-68; Saksa 1992, 5-17); for earlier excavations, see: (Kirpichnikov 1979, 52-73). In the layer of sand that covered the lower horizon, a large number of things were found, including beads and jewelry made of bronze and silver, as well as melted pieces of bronze - traces of bronze smelting. Among these mostly Karelian jewelry of the 12th-13th centuries. During excavations in the fortress, two intact equal-armed brooches of the 7th century were found. and a fragment of a third, as well as more than a dozen reliably dated Viking Age jewelry. Undoubtedly, these things belong to the earliest stage that preceded the construction of the fortress at the beginning of the 14th century. It is unclear whether the oldest things come from the burial ground or whether they are all connected with the ancient Karelian settlement that existed on the island before the arrival of the Swedes and then the Novgorodians at the end of the 13th century.

THE RIDDLE OF “NIKOLA LAPOTNY”
“I sent 973 carts from Moscow with various goods to the Kaluga Gate to Mozhaisk. From Mozhaisk I took the Old Road to Smolensk, before reaching the Medyn and Vyazma districts. Stopped at Kuny Bor; a river flows from the night to the winter sunrise, and the name of that river is Marshevka, and then I ordered the Russian people on Kunye Bor to make a stone dam on the dry land, ordered the dam to be lubricated with clay, and in it I placed a slate board and it was written on it where everything should be coming from Moscow to Mozhaisk."
This is how the text of the treasure trove of records begins, made, according to legend, during the Time of Troubles by the Polish king Sigizmund (according to another version, the impostor Grishka Otrepyev). The original of this record, made “on a copper board” in Latin and Polish, according to the conviction of old treasure hunters, was in Warsaw, and a secretly made list from it, translated into Russian, was widely distributed among Russian treasure hunters.
The fact that the “treasures of the Polish king” are dated to the Time of Troubles is not surprising - a huge number of treasures were buried during the Time of Troubles, which is confirmed by numerous finds, and this fact speaks, rather, in favor of the reality of the “treasures of Sigismund”. Who they actually belonged to is another question.
The historical basis of the legends about the “treasures of Sigismund” is connected with the events of 1609-1612. In the summer of 1609, King Sigismund III (in Russia he was called Zhigimont, which gave rise to the folklore name Aglement), at the head of a 30,000-strong army, entered the Russian borders engulfed in Troubles in order to “calm down the riot, exterminate the shameless Pretender, overthrow the treacherous tyrant (that is, the Russian Tsar Vasily IV Shuisky), free the people, establish the faith and the church.” It was about conquering the Russian throne. Some Russian boyars came out in support of Sigismund's claims, believing that this would help pacify the Troubles. “All of Russia will greet the longed-for Tsar with joy,” they wrote to Sigismund. - Cities and fortresses will open their gates; the patriarch and clergy will bless him diligently. Just let Sigismund not hesitate; Yes, he goes straight to Moscow." However, Smolensk stood in the way of the royal troops, near whose walls Sigismund was stuck for a whole year and a half. Only a small detachment of Hetman Zholkevsky, separating from the main forces, moved towards Moscow and defeated the army of Vasily Shuisky in the battle of Klushin.
Troubles flared with renewed vigor. The Poles, with the consent of the boyar Duma, entered Moscow, and the entire Mozhaisk road from Moscow to Smolensk was counter-blocked by Polish garrisons. The short period of agreement between the invaders and the Borya elite ended with the Moscow uprising in March 1611, which was brutally suppressed by the regiments, and Moscow itself was burned and plundered. The Poles, according to Karamzin, “robbed the royal treasury, took all the utensils of our ancient crown-bearers, their crowns, wands, vessels, rich clothes, to send to Sigismund... they tore off frames from icons, divided gold, silver, pearls, stones and precious fabrics.” . These trophies, which included a significant part of the royal treasury, were sent to Smolensk to the king along the Mozhaisk road and, according to legend, some of these treasures were hidden along the road near the churchyard of Nikola Lapotny...
According to one legend, Nikolsky Pogost is called so because here Polish soldiers, having completely broken their boots on Russian roads, changed their shoes to bast shoes.
Recording of Sigismund's treasures was widespread among treasure hunters. She went from hand to hand in a variety of different versions. The main signs remained unchanged: the center of the “treasure-bearing” area in all versions of the recording is the churchyard of Nikola Lapotny (Nikola Lapotnik, Nikola Lapotnikov, etc.), near which, having stopped in Kuny Bor, the Polish king allegedly buried his treasures: “There is a churchyard of Nicholas The Wonderworker, also called Nikola Lapotny, and from him there is also the churchyard of the Holy Martyr George, three miles away from one another. Near the churchyard of Nikolai Chudotvbrets there is a river, Khvorostyanka, and another, Gremyachka.

Living legend of the Swedish knight.
Treasure hunters of Karelia In one of the picturesque places of Karelia on Lake Syamozero (Lake Syamozero is one of the large lakes of South Karelia. The water surface area is 266 sq. km, the greatest length is 25 km, the width is 15 km. The maximum depth is 24 m, the average is about 7 m. The coastline is indented by bays and capes. The shores are mostly low, monotonous.) There is the island “Fokensuari” (The largest island on the lake). According to ancient legend, an old, rich Swedish knight lived on this island. (In Russian times Swedish War) Before his death, he buried his treasures...To this day, the foundation of the house in which he supposedly lived remains on the island. According to legend, these treasures can be found by the person who can ride a horse across the first ice, which froze in just one night. There have been no brave souls yet... In the summer, many tourists and treasure hunters came by boat and tried to find the treasure, but to no avail!!! Any indigenous resident living in the village of “Syargilakhta” can confirm this information.
(The Karelian village of Syargilakhta is located on the shores of Lake Syamozero, 90 km west of Petrozavodsk. The first mention of the village in archival documents dates back to the 16th century. During the Russian-Swedish war of the 16th-17th centuries, Syargilakhta, like many other villages of Olonets region was repeatedly raided.) Also at the moment there are camp sites for visiting tourists in the village. The island of Fokensuari itself has an unusual landscape and shape, and in the middle there are huge stones... Perhaps in the future treasure hunters will be able to find the treasures of the Swedish knight, but for now the main clue is the foundation of the old house.

WHAT IS A TREASURE
Treasure is wealth hidden in the ground or in the wall of a house. There are “pure” ones, i.e. unsworn Treasures that anyone can take without harm to themselves. But most of the Treasures are “unclean”, sworn, protected by evil spirits and accessible to those who know special magical ways of finding and obtaining them.
By hiding wealth, its owner “puts a pledge”, i.e. casts a spell where he determines the conditions under which the Treasure can be taken possession of, for example, endure a seven-day fast, make a sacrifice, etc. The Treasure can be placed “on someone’s head” (for example, on a goose, dog, bull). This means that only the one who kills this animal at the location of the Treasure can take the Treasure. The treasure can be cursed on the head of the father or mother of the one who tries to take the treasure; for 40 human heads, and then 40 people who tried to take possession of the Treasure must die, and only the forty-first will be able to take it.
According to beliefs, there are special demons guarding the Treasure: among the Russians - the treasurer, kopsha, treasure demons, whom demons from among themselves choose on Ivan Kupala, among the Belarusians - the treasurekeeper, a demon dressed in boots with golden horseshoes, a golden belt and a hat, feeding only with bread picked up on the street, among Ukrainians and Poles - skarbnik, among Bulgarians - stopin (owner). Treasures are often guarded by devils, cursed people, among the Western Slavs - dwarfs, among the Bulgarians and Lusatians - snakes. The Treasure Keepers are legendary robbers, atamans and kings.

Places where treasures are hidden are forests, fields, caves, mountains, dungeons of old castles. The treasure was often buried under a stone or tree roots. The treasure can be hidden in the yard and even within the house, for example, in a wall, in a cellar, under a stove. According to beliefs, Treasures buried in the ground rise to the surface, open or glow from underground, then they can be seen and taken. This happens on the eve of Ivan Kupala, on Palm Sunday, at midnight before major holidays: before Christmas, New Year, Annunciation, St. George's Day, Easter.
The location of the Treasure can be determined by certain signs: when the treasure rises to the surface of the earth, fire, reflections of light, and pale lights are visible at this place. The treasure may appear in the form of an old man, a beautiful girl, any animal, a white bird, or an object such as a ball.

To take possession of the Treasure, you must know the conditions under which it is buried. To do this, you need to overhear the spell cast when hiding the Treasure. At this moment, you can change the condition of the conspiracy by pronouncing another, easier one yourself, because The last spell is effective. For example, a tramp, having overheard the owner of the Treasure spelling him “for three good heads,” changed the spell, saying “for three aspen stakes,” and when the owner left, he cut down three aspen stakes and took the Treasure.
Anyone who tries to take the Treasure without knowing magical techniques exposes himself and his loved ones to danger: serious illness and even death. The demons guarding the Treasure frighten, drive away and kill an ignorant person. The treasure is not “given” to him, but only goes deeper into the ground or turns from gold into shards. If the Treasure appears in the form of an animal, bird or object, you need to hit it backhand and say: “Amen, amen, scatter!” or throw some clothing on him.

According to Czech beliefs, anyone who sees a pale light at the location of the Treasure must put a rosary, a white rag or a piece of bread into it, then the Treasure will come to the surface. The Bulgarians believe that the place where the Treasure is located should be sprinkled with ashes from badnyak. The next day, traces will be visible in the ashes, which will be used to determine what kind of sacrifice needs to be made to the Treasure. If traces of an animal or bird are visible, a lamb, ram or rooster is slaughtered; if traces of a person are visible, it is believed that the demon, the “master” of the Treasure, is waiting for a human sacrifice. Before digging up the Treasure, this place must be “aminized”, and during the extraction of the Treasure you must remain silent, no matter what you dream about. A universal means for searching and acquiring the Treasure is considered to be a fern flower and a weeping grass. The fern shows the place where the Treasure is buried, and the weeping grass drives away the evil spirits guarding it.
Despite the precautions taken, the person who finds the Treasure is often unhappy, becomes seriously ill and dies prematurely or goes crazy, because this money is unlucky and cursed by the devil. The Eastern Slavs and Bulgarians believed that a curse often falls on the family of the treasure hunter and his descendants.

Corners of the house
The inviolability of the border of the house was also secured at the beginning of construction: willow branches blessed on Palm Sunday, remains of blessed Easter food, etc. were buried under the corners of the foundation. By placing coins or bread under the corners of the house, they hoped that goods, wealth and etc....
The CORNER of a house as a border space was traditionally considered a place of residence for evil spirits and spirits of the dead (cf. the Russian idea of a brownie living in the CORNER, South Slavic beliefs about a house snake living under the CORNER of the house, etc.) and therefore was the object of many cleansing, apotropaic and propitiatory rituals....

Well
The well is an object and locus, conceptualized as a border space, as a channel of communication with the other world. Visiting the Well and collecting water was surrounded by numerous prohibitions that correlated with daily and calendar time and concerned specific individuals. It was believed, for example, that one should not drink water from the Well on St. George’s Day, when the earth “opens” and releases poison...

The well was used as a communication channel with the “other world.” At dawn, the Bulgarians leaned over the Well, expecting that at sunrise the silhouettes of deceased relatives would appear on the water surface. Among the Russians, the ban on pouring water from a bucket when collecting it from the Well was motivated by the fact that “our parents look at us from there.”...

Attic
The attic is the upper part of the home, the space limited by the roof and ceiling. The attic stood out with the appearance of a ceiling, which limited and somewhat narrowed the “own” space of the house. The attic is the periphery of the home, and therefore it receives negative meanings and acquires the semantics of “foreignness”, half-developed. The attic was used to store items that needed to be temporarily, according to ritual instructions, removed from the house: during the Christmas season and after the end of spinning in the spring, a spinning wheel and a spindle were taken out to the Attic, the finished warp prepared for weaving was hidden for the summer (Polesie), etc. . In some Russian regions, old people kept coffins prepared for themselves in the Attic.

The attic was considered one of the habitats of the brownie and the enrichment spirit. In the Attic, housewives left treats for them on major calendar holidays. On the eve of fasting, a piece of meat or a cup of milk was taken to the Attic. In Polesie, a reconciliatory sacrifice was made in the Attic for an angry brownie: if the bread placed in the Attic disappeared the next morning, then it was believed that the brownie had forgiven the owners and was no longer angry...

Fern
Fern, Fire-flower, is a plant that, according to popular belief, blooms once a year on one of the summer nights. The FERN flower was endowed with wonderful magical properties.

FERN flowering most often occurs on Kupala night (see Ivan Kupala), on one of the nights of the Assumption Lent, on the eve of Ilyin or Peter's day, as well as on the so-called sparrow night, when strong thunderstorms occur. A person who managed to get hold of a bright red FERN flower that blooms only for a moment acquires magical knowledge and skills: he will be happy all his life, learn to understand the language of animals, birds and plants, and from the conversations of plants he will learn which plant helps with which disease; Treasures and treasures hidden in the ground will be revealed to him, he will acquire the ability to become invisible, to bewitch the girl he likes, to “turn away” a hail cloud from his field, evil spirits have no power over him; with the help of this flower a person can obtain healing ant oil, which is knocked down by ants on the night of Ivan Kupala, etc.

According to Slovenian beliefs, if you pull the fern from the ground by the roots on Kupala night, you will find a gold ring at the end of the root...

Bookmarking a house
Laying the foundation of a house is the initial stage of a construction ceremony, designed to ensure the success of construction, as well as the well-being and prosperity of the owners of the future home.

When choosing a building material (usually wood), a number of prohibitions were observed related to the type of trees, their location and the time of felling. A number of trees prohibited for building a house included the so-called sacred and cursed trees: aspen, spruce and pine, linden. Slovaks avoided harvesting spruce and larch because these trees were believed to “attract” thunder and lightning.

An important point was the choice of location for the future home. It was forbidden to build a dwelling in “holy” (churches, gardens and fields), dangerous (cemeteries, places of massacre), “unclean” (crossroads, bathhouse, mill, swamp, landfill) places: this could lead to illness, death of the owners, etc. misfortunes.

The choice of a construction site was often carried out using fortune telling: millet or rye was sprinkled around the future structure, four piles of grain, four pieces of bread, and vessels with water were left at the four corners of the chosen place. If in the morning (after three, nine days) everything remains untouched (especially if the bread is intact), then the place has been chosen well, the house will last for many years and there will be prosperity in it. It was considered a positive sign if the next morning there was dew under the left frying pan or the water was rising in the vessels with water, the wool in the pots became damp, or ants were found.

When choosing a place, the Russians baked bread, one of which was “assigned” to the new house. If the bread succeeded, it was a good omen, but if the bread fell apart or did not rise, it means “it will be bad.”

When laying the foundation of the house, particular importance was attached to the choice of time to begin construction. Russians in Siberia began to build a house during Lent (early spring). The southern Slavs tried to start work at a “good” hour: before sunrise or before noon, noting that “as the day grows and develops, so should the house under construction grow and develop.” In Polesie, they mortgaged a house after sunset, because they were afraid of the evil eye. The foundation of a house was often timed to coincide with the full moon or new moon. If you start laying a house when the month is damaged, the house will collapse.

The foundation began to be dug from the east side, often done by the owner or the oldest man in the house, who then threw money at the craftsmen for the foundation stones “so that they would not shake.”

When the foundations of the future structure were in place, protective rites were performed or objects were buried in the foundation - apotropaia: consecrated herbs, grain, bread, water, oil, coins, incense, pieces of an Easter candle or Easter and spruce branches - from "lightning", garlic, mustard seeds, mercury, glass, “for it does not rot or decay and unclean spirits fear it”...

Bake
... Since the chimney communicates with the outside world, including the “other world,” the OVEN is comparable to a door and windows. The chimney is a specific exit from the house, intended mainly for supernatural beings and for contacts with them: through it, a fiery serpent and a devil enter the house, and a witch, the soul of the deceased, illness, fate, a call addressed to the evil spirit fly out of it strength, etc.

The OVEN also performs a symbolic function in the sense that food is prepared in it, i.e. a natural product becomes a cultural object, a raw product becomes boiled, baked or fried, and firewood, in turn, turns into ashes and smoke rising to the heavens.

Different symbolic meanings of the OVEN were actualized depending on the ritual context. If in wedding and native rites it symbolized the giving birth female womb, then in funeral rites it symbolized the road to the afterlife or even the kingdom of death itself, sometimes differentiated into hell and heaven. If in rituals designed to introduce a newborn child or a purchased pet to the home, it designated its center, then in tales about a fiery serpent or devil penetrating a house, a mortal danger for its inhabitants was associated with it.

In the ritual of baking a child, the OVEN symbolizes both the grave, death, and the giving birth female womb, and putting the child into the OVEN is intended to kill the disease and the sick child itself in order to revive a healthy child. Accordingly, the same actions performed during different rituals received different meanings: when they looked into the OVEN after returning from a funeral, they thus wanted to get rid of fear of the deceased and longing for him; when the bride did the same when entering a new house, then she expressed the wish that her groom’s parents would die..

Pipe
A chimney, along with a window, a door, a basement, an attic, is conceptualized as an open border, an intermediary between this world and the other world, a place connected with the world of the dead.

According to South Slavic beliefs, a vampire, a thing, a devil, spirits of illness, and spirits of fate crawl into the house through the Pipe. Eastern and Western Slavs believed that a devil in the guise of a deceased husband flies to widows through the Trumpet, and a flying serpent brings wealth; The Czechs believed that Panna Melusina was moaning in the Trumpet, carried there by a whirlwind. Through the Pipe, the devils carry away the soul of the deceased sorcerer, the witch flies out to the Sabbath... The Eastern Slavs believed that near the Pipe there was a place for the brownie, and in the east of Poland they believed that an enriching spirit sat there. To prevent demons from entering the house, the Serbs stuck hawthorn thorns into the Truba, the Ukrainians sprinkled poppy seeds around it, and baptized the Truba itself at night.

The pipe is the path along which the souls of the dead go to the afterlife, and the souls of newborn children are born. Belarusians believed that the soul of the deceased, whom relatives forgot to remember, rushes into the chimney with the wind and moans, asking for remembrance; According to Ukrainian beliefs, the souls of stillborn children are there, and according to Serbian beliefs, the souls of ancestors, so on Christmas Eve the housewife threw the remains of dinner into the Truba to feed them. Ukrainians believed that death, coming for a person, sits near the Pipe. In order not to be afraid of the deceased, when they came home after the funeral, they looked into the Pipe.

Monastic and church treasures
First of all, they are looked for in monastery wells or embedded church pillars. And, of course, not in existing religious buildings, but in those destroyed at one time by the Bolsheviks or during the last war. Moreover, in Russia, unfortunately, there are still plenty of such sad ruins.

Monastery wells attract treasure hunters not with mythical treasures, but with concrete ones. From century to century, ancient coins were thrown into wells by pilgrims, this is known. It is also known that the Bolsheviks extracted 25 - 30 pounds of silver and copper coins from some monastery wells near Moscow.

Finding treasures in embedded church pillars is not an easy task, but the finds here can be quite serious. The fact is that in the old days, during the foundation of a particular church, it was customary to present expensive gifts. The donors, as a rule, were very high-ranking persons, including royalty. According to church rules, gifts in the presence of the donor were placed in a special niche of the mortgage pillar. And they walled themselves up. For example, it is known for certain that at the foundation of the temple in the village of Nizino near St. Petersburg, Emperor Alexander III was personally present, who presented about three kilograms of gold and silver coins as a gift on a silver platter. In the early nineties, treasure hunters visited the temple, which was converted into a potato warehouse during the years of Soviet power. But... they didn’t find anything. The upper niche of the foundation pillar turned out to be empty, since the pillar itself was originally built with another niche in mind, located much below the basement level, in the altar part of the temple. At the moment, thank God, the Nizinsky temple has regained its former purpose. And if no one stole the imperial gift during this time, it is in the possession of the temple to this day, of which Igor Sidorov is absolutely sure.

Everywhere in Altai, when old houses are demolished, ritual coins are found, placed by the builders either under the "cushions" of the windows, but more often in the corners of the log houses - under the first crown, lying on larch "chairs" or on stone stools.

The earth and the grave become the new home of the deceased, and they arrange it like a home. Just as when building a new home, coins are placed under the corners of the house as payment for the place of the earth or unnamed inhabitants of the other world, at funerals it is customary to throw money along with the earth into the grave. This can be explained in the same way: the land needs to be repaid. Who? Yes, among those who settled there before, among those who accept the new deceased into their community. However, sometimes the land itself acts as the recipient of the ransom: “When they bury a grave, they shove a bunch of copper money in there - they paid for the grave. They lower the coffin, there is the handkerchief with which she cried, the tears are gone, and they cover the grave. [At whom?] At the ground” (KA). They buy a plot of land for their relative so that he will not be a stranger there. Then he will live well there (he needs to pay for the house). Someone else's land becomes one's own, or more precisely, ancestral land, belonging to the family, clan.

When they laid down the two lower logs - the first two crowns, so that where a log lay with its butt, they piled another with its top, the owner came, brought (vodka, drank \"stack\". Under the front, holy corner, at the request of the owners, they buried a coin on wealth, carpenters from themselves - a piece of incense for the saint.

Until recently, similar rituals were preserved in the Novosibirsk region. For example, in the village of Suzun and in the village of Starodubrovino, Moshkovsky district, a coin was placed under the crown molding, on the foundation, in the four corners of the future hut “to have money.” In the villages of Mamonovo and Starobibeevo, Bolotinsky district, in addition to placing coins under the right side of the house, where its front corner would be, they buried a treasure for a certain period of time, which at the appointed time “must come out on its own.”

The discovery of a coin on the right side of the strip foundation of the southwestern tower of the Umrevinsky fortress is clearly not accidental, since it was here that the front corner of the structure was located. The placement of the coin on the foundation pile of the southwestern tower of the Umrevinsky fort with the coat of arms of the Russian Empire facing upward was also symbolic. It is known that during this period of Russian history, careless attitude towards state symbols was punished quite severely. Dropping a coin with the coat of arms down was considered not only a bad omen (by analogy with the game “heads-tails”), but could also be interpreted as an insult to the symbols of royal power.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
NEWSPAPER "AiF-Karelia"
A.I. Leontyev, M.V. Leontyev. "The Campaigns of the Normans to Rus'", M.: "Veche", 2009
http://obzor-novostei.ru/
K. Tiander, SCANDINAVIAN TRAVELS TO THE WHITE SEA, St. Petersburg 1906:
http://karelov-mir.rf/
website "Travel to Karelia"

Treasure hunting is becoming an increasingly popular activity among residents of Karelia every year. It is difficult to find a settlement where gloomy people with so-called metal detectors would not walk along the outskirts of it in the spring. Some even compare this type of recreation with fishing or hunting. SmartNews learned how to properly search for treasures of Karelia.

The meanings of such concepts as treasure or treasure have changed greatly, and instead of the cultural history and mystery hidden behind these words, they are now seen as rare finds of coins, jewelry, and household items. Heroes from legends spent their entire lives searching for treasures and never found them, and stories about this were passed down from generation to generation.

Modern treasure hunters bear little resemblance to their predecessors, as ingenuity and courage have been replaced by GPS navigators, search magnets and four-wheel drive vehicles.

Expert opinion

— A found object without context, without the layer in which it was found, is just garbage. Usually the finds are all typical and are known in hundreds or thousands of pieces. For some reason, everyone thinks that archaeologists work to obtain precious metals. But in fact, it is the complex of things that is important, the reconstruction is important. The so-called black diggers kill the cultural layer, as they deprive it of those things that could date this layer. In doing so, they deprive us of the opportunity to answer one of the key questions we ask the monument: “When?” Also, black diggers, when tearing a thing out of the ground, make holes and at the same time destroy the picture of the layers, after which it is almost impossible to answer the second question: “Who?”

Black diggers have different reasons why they do it. Some are dug for resale, others for putting in a sideboard or on a shelf in the garage. I saw bags of things from different periods collected from fields that were simply lying around in barns as unnecessary. After all, the so-called treasures in the Middle Ages were rarely small silver, but more often just iron or copper, since the people were poor.

People engaged in black excavations make me feel disgusted. I don't understand why they do this. If you are a collector, you can buy all the same things for quite modest money. If you like the process, why not just sign up for an expedition and work under the guidance of specialists. Many people make excuses for some dubious romance emanating from this activity, but personally, I can’t see anything other than greed in this.

Archaeologists who dig illegally now face up to six years in prison. A law on increasing liability for illegal archaeological work has come into force in the Russian Federation.

Video

Story about the new law on increasing liability for illegal archaeological work

Video: rianovosti

Despite the inattention of modern people to the past of the land on which they live, many legends about real treasures that have not been found have been preserved in cultural memory.

For example, there is a legend that in the middle of the Karelian Lake Syamozero there is an island on which an old rich Swedish knight lived during the Russian-Swedish War. The foundation of his house has survived to this day, and anyone can see it. The knight buried his treasures on the island before his death. If you believe the legend, only the one who can ride a horse across the first ice, which froze in just one night, can find them. All residents of the village of Syargilakhta, which is located near the lake, know this legend and still tell it today.

In the folk legends of the Olonets Province, Lithuania’s raids on the local region are remarkable. In some Uyezds, there are places that bear names obtained during these raids. An island on Lake Onega, five miles from the village of Derevyannago, has a similar name: Devichy-Ostrov. Tradition says that it received this name during the Lithuanian raids. A crowd of enemies, having robbed neighboring villages and captured one girl, tied her up in a boat and went to celebrate on the above-mentioned island. While the Lithuanians indulged in a feast, their captive, rocking the boat, forced it to sail away from the island. The Lithuanians did not pay attention to this, believing that it was impossible for their prey to escape; Meanwhile, the boat was brought to the shore and the girl was saved. The legend does not say what happened to the noisy crowd; He only adds that there are treasures on the island that were once buried by the Lithuanians.

Stories about treasures and gold are the most important attribute of folklore monuments. It is not only a rich source of data for historians, folklorists and anthropologists, but also a key element in the education of the habitat within which it exists. Information about treasures hidden nearby helps a person mentally ennoble the cultural space around him and at the same time evokes respect for the age and memory of this space.

In the village of Riekkala, Kurkijoki volost, they said that decades ago a wanderer came to them from the Russian side. He asked about unusually shaped stones, such as Allaskivi (Trough-stone), Satulakivi (Saddle-stone), and also about the stone in the Rahola clearing. They are all flat and very noticeable.

Everyone in the village was sure that the wanderer had come to look for treasure. Another legend also talks about the Saddle Stone. Next to it, the Swedes allegedly lowered to the bottom the treasures that they had taken from the monastery after its plunder. This monastery was located nearby, on the island of Kannansaari in Lake Ladoga. Such legends are easy to believe - valuable finds in those places are not uncommon. So, in the fall of 1866, a resident of the village of Kuppala discovered several hundred silver coins under a stone. These were mainly coins of the German principalities, but there were also coins from England and even from Central Asia.

Usually, first a blue light will appear on the stones in the distance. As you get closer, he basically turns into a little snake that needs to be touched with something. If you touch it, it will scatter in rubles, or even in chervonets - know and collect. One girl saw a light, she also saw a snake in the stones, but she couldn’t take advantage of it: she got scared and ran away. Meanwhile, as soon as she hit the snake with something, she would get the treasure.

Expert opinion

Head of the Archeology Department of the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia, SmartNews

— A huge number of ordinary people participate in archaeological expeditions throughout the country, but they do it officially, under the guidance of specialists. There are currently few excavations being carried out in Karelia, and they are mainly attended by history students and volunteers who have been tested over the years. All finds, according to the law, are transferred to the National Museum of Karelia.

Treasure hunting is becoming an increasingly popular activity among residents of Karelia every year. It is difficult to find a settlement where gloomy people with so-called metal detectors would not walk along the outskirts of it in the spring. Some even compare this type of recreation with fishing or hunting. We learned how to properly search for treasures of Karelia.

Modern treasure hunters bear little resemblance to their predecessors, as ingenuity and courage have been replaced by GPS navigators, search magnets and four-wheel drive vehicles.

People engaged in black excavations make me feel disgusted. I don't understand why they do this. If you are a collector, you can buy all the same things for quite modest money. If you like the process, why not just sign up for an expedition and work under the guidance of specialists. Many people make excuses for some dubious romance emanating from this activity, but personally, I can’t see anything other than greed in this.
Ivan, student of the Faculty of History of Petrol State University.

Archaeologists who dig illegally now face up to six years in prison. A law on increasing liability for illegal archaeological work has come into force in the Russian Federation.

Video - ban on the use of metal detectors

Despite the inattention of modern people to the past of the land on which they live, many legends about real treasures that have not been found have been preserved in cultural memory.

In the folk legends of the Olonets Province, Lithuania’s raids on the local region are remarkable. In some Uyezds, there are places that bear names obtained during these raids. An island on Lake Onega, five miles from the village of Derevyannago, has a similar name: Devichy-Ostrov. Tradition says that it received this name during the Lithuanian raids. A crowd of enemies, having robbed neighboring villages and captured one girl, tied her up in a boat and went to celebrate on the above-mentioned island. While the Lithuanians indulged in a feast, their captive, rocking the boat, forced it to sail away from the island. The Lithuanians did not pay attention to this, believing that it was impossible for their prey to escape; Meanwhile, the boat was brought to the shore and the girl was saved. The legend does not say what happened to the noisy crowd; He only adds that there are treasures on the island that were once buried by the Lithuanians.
Ethnographic materials//Olonets Provincial Gazette. 1883

Usually, first a blue light will appear on the stones in the distance. As you get closer, he basically turns into a little snake that needs to be touched with something. If you touch it, it will crumble into rubles, or even chervonets - know and collect. One girl saw a light, she also saw a snake in the stones, but she couldn’t take advantage of it: she got scared and ran away. Meanwhile, as soon as she hit the snake with something, she would get the treasure.

Ethnographic materials. From the life and beliefs of the Korels of the Olonets province//Olonets Provincial Gazette. 1892

The topic of treasures interests many. And many people devote their leisure time to searching for treasures. Vacations and weekends are spent on obtaining maps, equipment, ammunition and everything else that may be useful on a trip for bluebirds. I don’t think that treasure hunters hope to get rich and acquire countless treasures in one moment. For one trip to Tmutarakan or somewhere else further away. Rather, they are driven by human curiosity, excitement, and a thirst for adventure. In any case, the people are enthusiastic, erudite and interesting. The times of discovering quite serious treasures are becoming a thing of the past. There are very, very few chances left. And even modern technology, sometimes, is unable to detect anything other than Soviet-era kopecks. But this doesn’t stop real treasure hunters. Somewhere, under the old povetya, there still lies an untouched bundle with the treasured “Catherine’s cards”, or even with golden chervonets. Who knows... There is not much information about treasures on the territory of Karelia. And this is due not so much to its absence as such, but to the small number of treasures themselves. The region is taiga, sparsely populated, with complex terrain. There were no major trade routes passing through here. There are no trading cities or fortresses. And the wars were fought more in the southern regions. Who is interested in fighting waist-deep in a swamp? So Karelia remained aloof from the widespread treasure burying. But in any case, there are treasures. And the likelihood of finding a box with coins from the late 19th and early 20th centuries is quite real. Personally, I had the opportunity to see in Zaonezhye how in the evenings, after fishing, men diligently polished 10 kopeck coins of 1922-24 to a shine. They broke down the house and found a pot in the attic. Only about 3 kg of small items. It happened in 1998, on Kolgostrov. So the treasures are still waiting for their owners. The information below was collected on the Internet. As they say, what you bought for, you sold for.
MONEY OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE
Natalya VITIVA

30 coin treasures were found in Karelia

“Once in a lifetime, fortune knocks on every person’s door, but at that time a person often sits in the nearest pub and does not hear any knock,” said Mark Twain. At least 30 residents of Karelia found themselves at home when Lady Luck decided to visit them - 30 treasures dating from the 10th to early 19th centuries were found in the republic at different times.
Cauldron with money

Provincial local history literature of the last century reported the following finds: in the Povenets district in the village of Kachchieva, a quarter of a mile from the church, in a field, small oblong silver coins are still being found... In the village of Mannievoy, one mile from the church , they also find money in the ground", "between the villages of Petelnavolok and Maselga, during the reaping, every spring, small silver oblong coins are brought to the road by water...", in Vytegorsky district, "one peasant from the village of Lemy pulled out a cauldron from the ground with a plow onto the field money."

The very location of the discovery of these treasures on the natural waterway between Lakes Ladoga and Onega indicates the connection of the treasures with the fur trade and trade in the Onega region, said Andrei Mikhailovich. - On the same section of the Svir, in the burial mounds of the 10th-11th centuries, several rich burials of merchants and warriors were studied. The size of some of the Svir treasures speaks about the wide scope of trade with the Onega region. For example, a pot with 3,280 Arab, Western and Northern European coins, dug out of the ground in Lodeynoye Pole in 1878, weighed four and a half kilograms. And the Lodeynopol treasure of almost three thousand and several fragments of silver items, found in 1949 during excavation work, weighed three and a half kilograms. At prices common to the Baltic countries of the 11th century, for a mark of silver (about 200 grams) you could buy a slave or two cows, for one and a half marks - a slave, a good horse or ten pigs.

Alas, not all of our ancestors had this condition. Most of the finds - nine treasures - include no more than 200 grams of coins. This money was apparently hidden by wealthy peasants. For example, in 1874, seven kilometers from Kolatselga on the banks of the Kolagi River, a treasure of 355 silver coins weighing 150 grams was found. Most of them dated back to the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. In 1932, they dug a hole in Nyurala, and discovered 300 silver coins dating back to the reign of Ivan the Terrible to Mikhail Fedorovich. This money could be seen in the Karelian State Museum of Local Lore until it was stolen from the funds in 1952. But 300 coins from the era of Ivan the Terrible, found in 1957 in the village of Reboly on the banks of Ledmozero, are still kept in the local history museum.

In fact, most of the spoils went to waste. The people managed to steal it even from under the governor’s nose. Thus, in Petrozavodsk in 1849, “near the confluence of the Neglinka River into Lake Onega, while clearing a site for the construction of buildings that belonged to the garrison battalion,” a treasure of silver coins was found. Of these, only less than 60 pieces reached the then governor of the province, Pisarev. The rest of the money floated away in an unknown direction. The head of the Olonets mining works, Butenev, sent one of the coins to the Imperial Archaeological Society. It turned out to be a dirham minted in Bukhara around 946. So the treasure was apparently very valuable. Although none of the experts has yet assessed the market value of Karelian treasures.

But the inhabitants of the republic were not always so greedy. The most recent discovery is considered to be a treasure from Sandal Island. In 1972, 71 silver coins were collected on an unnamed island near the canal between lakes Nigozero and Sandal. They were wrapped in something and placed in a hole between small boulders. The fishermen who found the treasure hidden around 1015 centuries did not covet Western European denarii from the 10th-11th centuries and Arab dirhams from the 8th-10th centuries. They gave everything to the Karelian Museum of Local Lore and did not demand any compensation.

I think that many more treasures will be found in Karelia,” says Andrei Spiridonov, “which will tell a lot of new things about the history of our region. But this will only happen if the coins are studied by numismatists. And if the new finds do not go to waste, but are transferred to museums.

The ritual of sacrifice, in addition, had the purpose of reproduction and multiplication of animals, i.e. creating a future of abundance. Along with wild animals, they also donated domestic animals, as well as bread, vodka, scraps of cloth, and bullets. In addition to the mentioned 20 sacrificial treasures of silver objects, another 11 Lapp sacrificial sites of the 10th-14th centuries are known. (Swedish Lapland - 9, Norway - 1, Finland - 1), where jewelry items, coins with holes and arrowheads of Western European and Russian origin, local products were found.

DEVICHIY ISLAND.
In the folk legends of the Olonets Province, Lithuania’s raids on the local region are remarkable. In some Uyezds, there are places that bear names obtained during these raids.
We once mentioned Devichya Gora, in Pudozh Uyezd, so called from the time when a peasant girl, pursued by the lords (as Lithuania is called here), threw herself into the Vodla River from the steep bank of Devichya Gora.
An island on Lake Onega, five miles from the village of Derevyannago, has a similar name: Devichy-Ostrov. Tradition says that it received this name during the Lithuanian raids. A crowd of enemies, having robbed neighboring villages and captured one girl, tied her up in a boat and went to celebrate on the above-mentioned island. While the Lithuanians indulged in a feast, their captive, rocking the boat, forced it to sail away from the island. The Lithuanians did not pay attention to this, believing that it was impossible for their prey to escape; Meanwhile, the boat was brought to the shore and the girl was saved.
Tradition does not say what happened next to the noisy crowd; only adds that there are supposedly treasures on the island that were once buried by the Lithuanians.

Olonets Provincial Gazette. 1883

Treasure June 2-3, 2008 on the Karelian Isthmus.
My wife, child and friends went fishing for the weekend, took fishing rods, spinning rods, nets, and other fishing paraphernalia. The trunk of the patrol Nissan was stuffed to the ceiling. I was still thinking about whether to buy a metal detector or not...
But I decided to take it anyway, I thought - if there’s no bite, I’ll go with the device. I took my Garik 2500 and my wife’s device - ICQ 250.
We arrived at the place at night. Local guys (our friends) were waiting for us. He left his wife and child for the night in the village, and they themselves went fishing for bream. 5 km on oars and we are there... That night we caught about 60 - 70 kg of bream. While we were sailing on the boat, I talked about my hobby and my findings. One of the locals (Edik) became interested in this topic and began to talk about various interesting places, in his opinion... I take such stories calmly, but still I listened. In general, we decided to check out a couple of farms the next day.
We returned at about 6 in the morning, I didn’t want to sleep, and I decided to fish with a fishing rod. Fishing with nets, although it produces a lot of fish, is not interesting. I fished until 12 o'clock, then the bite subsided, and I went to the base to get some sleep. At about 16 o'clock I woke up, had a snack and went to pick up Edik so that he could show him the places he was talking about. After talking briefly, we went to the treasured place.
Considering the poverty of the Karelian Isthmus for finds, I did not expect anything supernatural from this trip. We stopped at one farm, walked around, waved our clubs, found a couple of Soviet coins and a bunch of vodka caps. We went to another farm, then to a third, fortunately they were all nearby... the statistics of finds were not encouraging. It was already nightfall and we decided to return to the village.
Moreover, it was planned to go for bream again that night. On the way back, Edik showed a couple more farms and said that near the base where we were staying, there were foundations in one of the clearings. We brought him to the village, and we ourselves drove towards the base. There were still a few hours left before the trip for bream and we decided to go with our instruments in that very place next to the base...
They left the car in the middle of the clearing and went to wave the instruments. Everything was littered with traffic jams. In just over an hour I filled my pocket full with them. I was about to turn off the device and headed towards the car, but then I dug out the first coin... 3 kopecks copper Russia, then 1/2 kopeck, then a kopeck, then again three kopecks, and another, and another, and another. And all this is literally 20-30 cm from each other... Thus, in an hour of digging in an area of 10-12 m2, I collected about 50 coins, Andrey and Oleg continued to collect corks... Envying me, I hope, with white envy .
When the signals stopped, I decided that it was loose debris, a wallet, but just in case, I called the guys and we began to remove the turf from this place. The earth pleased with its looseness. After removing the turf, we began to go deeper... And here it is happiness! Coins began to fall straight from the shovel! The device was thrown to the side and we began to select coins with our hands. Each shovel of earth brought 5-10 coins!!!
And then I hit something hard with a shovel.
I threw away the shovel and began to rake the earth with my hands. And here it is, it’s done! A broken jug appeared from the ground! The upper part of the jug was broken into fragments and had a sufficient scatter... Apparently it had been plowed open at some point. And at the bottom lay a decent handful of copper Russia. The white nights helped, but it was still hard to see, we turned on the lamp, the fishing rod was also useful, which served as a bracket for hanging the lamp over the excavation site, and lit a fire, especially since it was quite cool. We extracted the remaining copper using a device and a green “sieve” that Skeet gave me; it had been in the car for a long time, and I didn’t even think that it would be useful. There was such excitement that there was no time to take photographs, although I still took a few pictures during the digging and even filmed the process of sifting the coins... And only the next day we posed to our heart's content with the instruments and the jar full of coins.
Edik went fishing without us that night...
and we had our own, no less exciting and productive fishing!

Living legend of the Swedish knight.
Treasure hunters of Karelia In one of the picturesque places of Karelia on Lake Syamozero (Lake Syamozero is one of the large lakes of South Karelia. The water surface area is 266 sq. km, the greatest length is 25 km, the width is 15 km. The maximum depth is 24 m, the average is about 7 m. The coastline is indented by bays and capes. The shores are mostly low, monotonous.) There is the island “Fokensuari” (The largest island on the lake). According to ancient legend, an old, rich Swedish knight lived on this island. (In Russian times Swedish War) Before his death, he buried his treasures...To this day, the foundation of the house in which he supposedly lived remains on the island. According to legend, these treasures can be found by the person who can ride a horse across the first ice, which froze in just one night. There have been no brave souls yet... In the summer, many tourists and treasure hunters came by boat and tried to find the treasure, but to no avail!!! Any indigenous resident living in the village of “Syargilakhta” can confirm this information.

(The Karelian village of Syargilakhta is located on the shores of Lake Syamozero, 90 km west of Petrozavodsk. The first mention of the village in archival documents dates back to the 16th century. During the Russian-Swedish war of the 16th-17th centuries, Syargilakhta, like many other villages of Olonets region was repeatedly raided.) Also at the moment there are camp sites for visiting tourists in the village. The island of Fokensuari itself has an unusual landscape and shape, and in the middle there are huge stones... Perhaps in the future treasure hunters will be able to find the treasures of the Swedish knight, but for now the main clue is the foundation of the old house.

THE RIDDLE OF “NIKOLA LAPOTNY”

“I sent 973 carts from Moscow with various goods to the Kaluga Gate to Mozhaisk. From Mozhaisk I took the Old Road to Smolensk, before reaching the Medyn and Vyazma districts. Stopped at Kuny Bor; a river flows from the night to the winter sunrise, and the name of that river is Marshevka, and then I ordered the Russian people on Kunye Bor to make a stone dam on the dry land, ordered the dam to be lubricated with clay, and in it I placed a slate board and it was written on it where everything should be coming from Moscow to Mozhaisk."

This is how the text of the treasure trove of records begins, made, according to legend, during the Time of Troubles by the Polish king Sigizmund (according to another version, the impostor Grishka Otrepyev). The original of this record, made “on a copper board” in Latin and Polish, according to the conviction of old treasure hunters, was in Warsaw, and a secretly made list from it, translated into Russian, was widely distributed among Russian treasure hunters.

The fact that the “treasures of the Polish king” are dated to the Time of Troubles is not surprising - a huge number of treasures were buried during the Time of Troubles, which is confirmed by numerous finds, and this fact speaks, rather, in favor of the reality of the “treasures of Sigismund”. Who they actually belonged to is another question.

The historical basis of the legends about the “treasures of Sigismund” is connected with the events of 1609-1612. In the summer of 1609, King Sigismund III (in Russia he was called Zhigimont, which gave rise to the folklore name Aglement), at the head of a 30,000-strong army, entered the Russian borders engulfed in Troubles in order to “calm down the riot, exterminate the shameless Pretender, overthrow the treacherous tyrant (that is, the Russian Tsar Vasily IV Shuisky), free the people, establish the faith and the church.” It was about conquering the Russian throne. Some Russian boyars came out in support of Sigismund's claims, believing that this would help pacify the Troubles. “All of Russia will greet the longed-for Tsar with joy,” they wrote to Sigismund. - Cities and fortresses will open their gates; the patriarch and clergy will bless him diligently. Just let Sigismund not hesitate; Yes, he goes straight to Moscow." However, Smolensk stood in the way of the royal troops, near whose walls Sigismund was stuck for a whole year and a half. Only a small detachment of Hetman Zholkevsky, separating from the main forces, moved towards Moscow and defeated the army of Vasily Shuisky in the battle of Klushin. Troubles flared with renewed vigor. The Poles, with the consent of the boyar Duma, entered Moscow, and the entire Mozhaisk road from Moscow to Smolensk was counter-blocked by Polish garrisons. The short period of agreement between the invaders and the Borya elite ended with the Moscow uprising in March 1611, which was brutally suppressed by the regiments, and Moscow itself was burned and plundered. The Poles, according to Karamzin, “robbed the royal treasury, took all the utensils of our ancient crown-bearers, their crowns, wands, vessels, rich clothes, to send to Sigismund... they tore off frames from icons, divided gold, silver, pearls, stones and precious fabrics.” . These trophies, which included a significant part of the royal treasury, were sent to Smolensk to the king along the Mozhaisk road and, according to legend, some of these treasures were hidden along the road near the churchyard of Nikola Lapotny...

According to one legend, Nikolsky Pogost is called so because here Polish soldiers, having completely broken their boots on Russian roads, changed their shoes to bast shoes.

Recording of Sigismund's treasures was widespread among treasure hunters. She went from hand to hand in a variety of different versions. The main signs remained unchanged: the center of the “treasure-bearing” area in all versions of the recording is the churchyard of Nikola Lapotny (Nikola Lapotnik, Nikola Lapotnikov, etc.), near which, having stopped in Kuny Bor, the Polish king allegedly buried his treasures: “There is a churchyard of Nicholas The Wonderworker, also called Nikola Lapotny, and from him there is also the churchyard of the Holy Martyr George, three miles away from one another. Near the churchyard of Nikolai Chudotvbrets there is a river, Khvorostyanka, and another, Gremyachka. At the mouth of this graveyard there is a third.

We, in turn, can organize a search tour in any of these directions. Estimated cost from 1200 rubles. day. The price will include equipment rental (hiking, search equipment), transfer, meals, guide.

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On the way from Petrozavodsk to the west, towards the Finnish border, the navigator took us onto a strange road.
The road was first asphalt, and then suddenly turned into dirt and stretched through the forests.
The forest nature around is beautiful, wild and pristine. But these are cruel places...

1. It seemed that the road had brought us here on purpose.
The Finnish-language names of settlements reminded us of history: Hautavaara, Potkuselga, Kokonniemi... this large piece of Karelia used to be Finland.
After the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. this territory passed to the Soviet Union, and the names of settlements have not been renamed since then

2. Fierce battles took place in the forests of Karelia in those years; traces of defensive structures remain there to this day

3. These places also suffered during the Great Patriotic War.
There are trench lines littered with branches and rotten dugouts everywhere.

4. And somewhere after the city of Suoyarvi along the road you begin to see military graves. I marked on the map with a triangle approximately where they begin.

5. There are a lot of soldiers’ graves there

6. There are signs along the road, and the graves themselves are hidden in the forest...

7. ... and to get to them you need to follow forest paths

8. More often than not, these are just mass graves of soldiers without names.

9. The burials are well-kept, although there are no settlements nearby

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11. And all around are just wild Karelian forests

12. Memorial dedicated to the soldiers of the rifle division who fell in the Great Patriotic War

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14. Unmarked soldiers' graves

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16. In those places there are also Finnish military graves

17. Finnish memorial

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19. They also look after him, Finns visit him, the border is very close there

The soil of those places is soaked with the blood of soldiers, and not only of our country...
Eternal memory to them...

20. We stopped at a gas station in the city of Pitkyaranta and came across an interesting pedestal with a rare tank from the 30s

21. This is a T-26 light tank

22. At the end of the journey, closer to the city of Pitkäranta, the road deteriorated so much that we were almost floating on gray slurry. Kamaz trucks, loaded with some kind of stone chips or sand, rushed towards us and splashed dirt around. It turned out that there was either a cement or crushed stone plant located there. I took photos on the go, sorry for the quality

23. Huge piles of stones and sand, and trucks are almost a line

24. As a result of such “swimming” in the cement road porridge, our “tank” turned out to be pretty covered in mud

25. Gray stone slurry tightly adhered to the entire bottom