On 2 June 2016, the latest session of the Weaponry Seminar was held in the State Hermitage.
The seminar, created in early 2016, is held on a regular basis. Those attending discuss diverse aspects of the study of weapons of various periods and countries – from the arms and armour of the ancient East and classical Antiquity to the creations of present-day craftsmen. The study and display of arms and armour is traditionally one of the main fields of the Hermitage’s research and exhibiting activities, determined by our museum’s rich collections in this area.
At this session, Viacheslav Kuleshov of the Department of Numismatics presented a paper on “Information about European and Russian swords in works of Arabic literature of the 9th–11th centuries”. In it he refined conceptions of trade and warfare among the peoples of Northern Europe in the Viking era and of Eastern Europe at the time of the formation of the earliest Russian statehood. He put forward an interpretation of four passages from the Arabic literary tradition of the classical period (9th–10th century) containing information about the Rus and mentions – direct and indirect – of their swords. The text of the paper has been printed.
