Archaeologica.org

I have long been a interested in ancient trade and its consequences.

In some recent research into the amber trade, and other north/south trade including the Viking selling white female slaves to Arabs, I came across this idea.
I have never heard of it before.
I am sure it is one of those things that got forgotten during the Cold War.

The current Dnieper river goes through a well drained flood basin from the Black Sea to almost the Baltic Sea.
There are a few modern canals to connect the two.
It is a little know equivalent to the Rhine/Danube connection.

The argument is that in the past the swampy “indistinct dividing line” between the south flowing and the north flowing currents made it easy to use a single boat for the whole trip.

As late as the Second World War the Pripet Marshes were very important to blocking east/west trade while encouraging north/south.

Can anyone give me some places to look that go beyond the below?

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top ... eper-River

The Dnieper basin has been populated since ancient times. It was of central importance in the history of the peoples of eastern Europe, particularly in the founding of the ancient Kievan state. Along this waterway a system of river routes developed in the 4th to 6th century ad as a “route from the Varangians to the Greeks,” connecting the Black Sea with the Baltic and linking the Slavs with both the Mediterranean and the Baltic peoples. Half of the Dnieper (about 700 miles) borders or passes through Ukrainian territory, and the river is for the Ukrainians the same kind of national symbol that the Volga River is for the Russians.
The first historical information about the Dnieper is recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century bc); the river is also mentioned later by the ancient writers Strabo and Pliny the Younger. It was first depicted on a map drawn by Ptolemy in the 2nd century ad. Instrument surveys of the Dnieper were begun early in the 18th century.

The first historical information about the Dnieper is recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century bc); the river is also mentioned later by the ancient writers Strabo and Pliny the Younger. It was first depicted on a map drawn by Ptolemy in the 2nd century ad. Instrument surveys of the Dnieper were begun early in the 18th century.

kb,

Most of the primary research sources are probably in Russian and Ukrainian, and little known in the west. You might find pointers to some of them in English in the archives of the old paleoanthropology forum, as they were published in English for some of the conventions/meetings held.

Its interesting to note that as in China, the Second World War really brought research to halt, and that the recent economic situation has further hindered work there.

Most of the research is now focused beneath the Black Sea, and what it is finding is of continuing interest.

I have done a little more research into this inland route from the Mediterranean to Baltic route.

I have always thought of the Ural Mountains as the division between Europe and Asia.
And in geology terms it may be.
But in cultural terms this marsh was the dividing line.
Other than boats, you could not get through it.
You had to go around it.
Vilna-Smolensk at the north end and Lemberg-Kiev at the South end.
From hooves to tank tracks, it drove cavalry generals to drink.

It seems to have been pretty well used until the 1600’s
It turns out not to be just one route, but a collection of different ways through a very large marsh/swamp area.
In historic times they were called the Varangian Route.
It was very important to the Byzantium trade from the Baltic to the Mid East.

With knowledge of this route we can begin to make sense of the rituals on the island of Samothrace.
This Aegean Sea island marked the BEGINNING of voyages to the Northern Oceans by way of the Black Sea and the waters that separated Europe from Asia.