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Ibn Fadlan’s relation concems the Varangians, but archaeological traces of sanctuaries of the type described in it (a large statuę of a deity surrounded by smaUer idols) have been found also in Slavonic territories. Researchers have also some written source sat their disposal, but nonę of them contains such a detailed description of the cult practiced in sanctuaries of that type. Ibn Fadlan described the main statuę and the lesser idols very comprehen-sively. It is not very elear how they were fenced, but a mention about “high pales” outside the circle of smali figures may mean that the sanctuary was surrounded with high sticks.

Further information about the methods of separating the sacred space is supplied by sagas. In Scandinavia the place of counselling assembly and adjudication was usually separated from the world of profanum, just like the sanctuary. According to EgiVs saga (ch. 56): “the place of adjudication was situated on a fiat area surrounded with hazel-tree branches. Moreover, there was a circle marked out with ropes, which was called the border of peace. In that circle the judges sat...” The fact that the judge’s seat was surrounded with lines is also mentioned in the Icelandic Law Codę Gragas (72). It is a very old tradition, as the Frank law recorded in Lex Ribuaria demanded that oaths were sworn in a circle surrounded with hazel-wood sticks (de Vries, 1956-1957, vol. 1, p. 374). Another fenced place was a yard where holmgang, trial by ordeal, was organized (Poetic Edda, Helga qvida Hjorvardzsonar, prose before stanza 35; Kormak’s saga, ch. 10). The place of thing (counselling assembly) and adjudication was also the place of religious offerings. The main character of the aforementioned Egil’s saga (ch. 64-65) brought a case against Atli to Gula-Thing, and it was decided by a holmgang. Before the ordeal “they brought an old, enormous buli, which was to be sacrificed to gods. The winner was supposed to kill it. Sometimes only one animal was brought, sometimes each of the duelers ordered to bring his own beast.” After the yictory Egil “instantly ran to the place where the sacriflcial buli stood. He seized its snout with one hand, its horn with the other and threw it to the ground in such a way that the legs stuck out upwards and the neck was broken.”

Archaeological excavations carried out by P.N. Tretiakov and E A. Shmidt (1963) in the Smoleńsk region, which in the early Middle Ages was probably inhabited by the Eastem Balts, resulted in finding three tempie strongholds dated to the 6th-8th century. They were situated in villages Tushemla, Prudki and Gorodok. The stronghold in Tushemla, which was examined most thor-oughly, occupied a high headland over a river that surrounded it from the west. In the earlier stage of its development there was a circular sanctuary in its northem part. The central point of the sanctuary was a large column and several smaller połes. Remains of the poles lay within a ditch fonning a circle of six-metre diameter, which was - as the analogies from Gorodok and Prudki allow to conclude - a remnant of a palisadę formed of half-pales set very densely with the convex side directed to the inside of the circle.

Fig. 45. Tushemla. The later phase of devełporaent of the stronghold. After P.N. Tretyakov, E.A. Shmidt, 1963, lig. 23.

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