Moshchina Gorodishche

the ruins of a fortified settlement in the vicinity of the village of Moshchina, near the city of Mosal’sk, Kaluga Oblast, RSFSR. The site was first excavated in 1888 by N. I. Bulychev. The cultural levels contain objects from the fourth and fifth centuries and from the tenth to 13th centuries. The settlement originally was part of a patriarchal commune of one of the eastern Baltic tribes. In the lower level, a treasure of silver and bronze ornaments with colored enamel was found. The materials of the upper level (utensils, weapons, and ornaments) reflect the life of a medieval feudal settlement on the lands of the Viatichi. Not far from Moshchina Gorodishche, near the villages of Chan’kovo and Pochepok, kurgans with cremated remains have been excavated; the objects found in the kurgans are contemporaneous with and similar to the finds of the lower level of Moshchina Gorodishche.