Origin and Name
Dendrochronology suggests that Ladoga was founded in 753. Until 950, it was one of the most important trading ports of Eastern Europe. Merchant vessels sailed from the Baltic Sea through Ladoga to Novgorod and then to Constantinople or the Caspian Sea. This route is known as the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks. An alternative way led down the Volga River along the Volga trade route to the Khazar capital of Atil, and then to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, all the way to Baghdad. Tellingly, the oldest Arabian Middle Age coin in Europe was unearthed in Ladoga.
Old (staraya means "old") Ladoga's inhabitants were Norsemen, Finns, and Slavs, hence different names for the city. The original Finnish name, Alode-joki (i.e., "lowland river"), was rendered as "Aldeigja" in Norse language and as "Ladoga" (Ладога) in Old East Slavic.
Read more about this topic: Staraya Ladoga
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)