World History: The XII century seal of the Russian Prince is first-ever found in the Kaliningrad Oblast

In the Kaliningrad Oblast near the Privolnoe village of Zelenograd District, the archaeologists found a seal of the Russian Prince Vsevolod Mstislavovitch, which dates from the beginning of the XII century. According to the head of the Samba expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Science Alexander Khokhlov, this is for the first time ever found in the region tangible evidence of close economic ties between the previously resided here Prussians tribes and the Russian northwest.

The seal was discovered at the site of a wealthy settlement of ancient Prussians - the Baltic people. Among the valuable findings is a fragment of Abbasid dirham, Cologne’s and Duisburg’s denarius, the stump of silver payment hryvnia - the ten cents coin.

The most interesting and speaking for itself finding became a discovery of ancient Russian pendent act lead seal, stamped on behalf of the grandson of Vladimir Monomakh - Prince Vsevolod Mstislavovitch, Gavriil in Holy Baptism, the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Kiev Mstislav from his marriage to Christina, the daughter of the Swedish king Inge I the Elder. Vsevolod Mstislavovitch was reigning in Novgorod for the long time (from 1117 to 1136 with a short break in 1125), in the last years of his life (in 1137-1138 years) was invited to the throne of Pskov.

One side of the seal features a scene of the Annunciation: the angel Gabriel, the saint guardian of the seal’s owner, delivers a good news to the Virgin Mary, the other side - a holy warrior, according to the explanatory inscription, the Great Martyr Theodore (the saint guardian of the Duke's father).

The lead princely seals confirmed the authenticity of a document written on parchment, to which they were appended - possibly, grant-charters to the land or certificates providing duty-free passing through the lands which are under the jurisdiction of the governor.