When Pra-Peter drowned. Part 1

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In my articles, I have repeatedly written that the most likely dating of the death of the ancient city on the site of modern St. Petersburg should be considered a period in the 13-14 centuries. At meetings with colleagues and in dialogues on various thematic resources, the issue of dating and the cause-and-effect relationships of the events that led to the death of the city is periodically raised. Different researchers have different views on this issue, someone dates this event to the 17th century, and someone pushes it back a thousand or even two thousand years into the past. At the last meetings held in December 2019, I was once again convinced that my layouts are different from the generally accepted, unusual. Unusual in the sense that they are complex. Cover the full range of factual material. So the idea arose to voice all your arguments and thoughts in writing in the format of an article.

Now to the point. To understand the essence of the issue, it is necessary to put together data on materials science, soil science, geology, botany, zoology, ichthyology, linguistics, the history of dynasties, religions into a single mosaic, and all this must be connected with written sources. Written sources include not only manuscripts, chronicles and other documentaries with fiction, but also geographical drawings and maps. Also, let's not forget about the technological structure of different historical eras, including architecture. This is what we will do. The article will be voluminous, although I will try to be as short as possible and lay out the material only to understand the essence and not overload the article with numerous detailed information. If you lay out all the factual material and analyze it in detail, you will get an article that is too heavy for perception. In general, there will be thematic sections with brief profile information, at the end of the article analysis and conclusions.

So let's go.

Let's start with Materials Science.

The entire historical center of St. Petersburg with a high degree of probability should be attributed to the antediluvian period. Speech primarily on the basement and basement parts of buildings. Most of these buildings in the city have foundations or parts of walls (plinths) well below ground level. The building material of such foundations and plinths is granite and calcareous tuff. Red brick is also present in many places. Very often, all three building materials are intertwined. Somewhere this can be explained by numerous rebuildings of buildings, somewhere restoration, somewhere replacement. Red brick without special treatment (impregnation) does not tolerate the aggressive atmosphere of the atmosphere, and therefore it is most often used in the inner part of foundations and plinths. The outer part is usually of calcareous tuff (limestone) or granite. Limestone is also not the most durable material and erodes quickly enough in an aggressive environment. However, it is very easy to replace it, because since the restoration of the city since 1703 it has been used most often as a decorative cladding. And since the 19th century, exclusively as a facing or decorative stone. Granite is another matter. It is a very hard stone, almost completely hygroscopic and therefore very durable. So durable that any granite boulder found in the forest or on the shores of the Gulf of Finland can be easily polished to a mirror-like shine with a slight loss of its original shape and size. At the same time, no one will tell you how many centuries or millennia this cobblestone has lain. But there are indirect signs that even from granite can tell that it was worked relatively late, or relatively recently. It is relative, because the backlash is very large. And this backlash is measured not in segments of decades or centuries, but in times. That is, for example, this sample is two or three times older than that sample. Conditionally, to understand the essence. The oldest samples of granite can be found on some parts of the embankments, on the basements and basements of a number of historic buildings. For example, the Staro-Kalinkin bridge over the Fontanka looks very old.

In general, everything is extremely muddy with this bridge. The official history knows neither its date of construction, nor its architect. Only speculative. Moreover, it is known that this is a typical bridge, and once there were at least 7 such bridges (documented). Now two bridges have survived, although they have been restored and rebuilt many times. And they even moved to a new place. This is what his native granite looks like. Photos are clickable.

Tower, it is completely assembled from old elements.

Here old granite adjoins with new. As I already wrote, the bridge was restored and reconstructed several times. It is difficult to say how young this "new" granite is, it is either the end of the 19th century, or even, perhaps, the 1960s, when the last restoration took place.

During the reconstruction of the bridge, some of the old granite elements were preserved.

Granite products look very old in a number of suburbs of St. Petersburg - in Pushkin, Petrodvorets, etc., especially in forest-park areas where the hand of restorers did not touch historical artifacts. The most illustrative example of comparing two samples of deterioration (erosion) of granite I saw in the Smolny Cathedral. They coexist there, side by side. Old and new. On the basement and basement. The new one, with a high degree of probability, is the work of Rastrelli, that is, the middle or second half of the 18th century. The old one looks very eroded. If we assume that both samples initially had the same degree of processing, then the age of the old sample should be several times greater. I had an article about Smolny Cathedral. There are photos of granite samples there. One of them is old eroded granite. The photo is clickable.

As for the iconic structures, which also with a high degree of probability should be attributed to the antediluvian - the Alexander Column and St. Isaac's Cathedral, then it is somewhat more complicated. These structures have had subsequent restorations, especially since you can polish the granite whenever you want. There are traces of polishing on all Isaac's columns and on the Alexander's column. They are perfectly visible, especially in sunny weather. They are in the form of waviness and segments - dark and light stripes. You can even see the step with which the polishing unit went. But, there are also traces of antiquity of these products. Close up it is very clear that the columns have cavities. These are traces of erosion. The caverns are deep, so deep that the polishing could not smooth them out. Rather, it could, if I had to sharpen and grind the columns before polishing, but apparently they did not do this, because this would imply at least the loss of the original geometry (shape and volume) of the product. We can easily find caverns of similar depth on any wild cobblestone in the Gulf of Finland or in the forest. We will not find any caverns on granite columns on which there was no aggressive environmental impact. Not inside the Kazan Cathedral, not in the Hermitage, not anywhere else. They are perfectly smooth. The photo shows the caverns of the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral and traces of polishing. Clickable.

The same applies to the Atlanteans of the Small Hermitage. They have no traces of obvious erosion, which is understandable. They are under the visor, always dry. In addition, in this place there is no calm, strong wind, and even more so from the wind with sand and dust. The preservation conditions are close to those inside the premises. And where these Atlanteans were before they were installed in this place, no one knows. By the way, since we are talking about the Atlanteans, I will digress a little. In recent years, a number of resources and some researchers from among history lovers have promoted the idea that the Atlanteans were cast from artificial granite. At the same time, no one knows by what technology. And they are all supposedly cast in a single matrix, that is, they are all the same. Now, this is a delusion. All Atlanteans are different. And even not only in details, such as the pattern of folds on the loincloths, but also in geometric terms. Who does not believe, take a tape measure and go measure it. In particular, the length of the foot varies in the delta of 0, 5-1, 5 cm. I will not post a photo with a tape measure and measurements, I will post a photo with a metro card, you can clearly see from the strip on it that the fingers hang in different ways.

Also, the undeniable proof that the Atlanteans are made of natural stone is the texture pattern of the stone. Note the quartz vein running through the entire statue from top to bottom. It is a single vein of a single monolith. It is impossible to repeat it artificially, ever and in any way. The photo is clickable.

There are a number of granite specimens whose dating can be dated with a high degree of certainty. These are, in particular, the embankments of rivers and canals in the city and some forts in the Neva Bay. This is what has detailed and trustworthy documents for construction, reconstruction or restoration. In particular, the Northern Fort or Fort Obruchev. Samples of granite from embankments and forts are very similar in appearance in terms of the degree of erosion and can be taken as a unit of measurement as a sample of preservation. The aggregate unit of measurement on average is obtained in a delta of 150-200 years. So this degree of erosion is very small, so small that it is not very clear whether it was carved this way during the processing of the stone initially, or whether it still caused some traces of wear. The same Staro-Kalinkin bridge in this kind of comparison should have several wear units. Once again, a few. For example, a few photos. Here is Fort Obruchev.

Here is his granite close up. His age is about 120 years. This part of the granite is subject to the most aggressive action. Ice in winter, ultraviolet and water in summer, constant wind. At the same time, the preservation of granite is such that it is difficult to determine whether this or that was the original level of stone processing. And is there any traces of erosion on it at all. The photo is clickable.

Take the North Fort. He is 50 years older. The treads have a similar level of wear. The photo is clickable.

But the decor is granite. It's almost exemplary fresh. Almost, because the cavities are already starting to appear. At the same time, we do not observe any other changes in the geometry of the stone. Here the train is really the next series of questions, why are there such decorative elements on the defensive structure, and even made of granite. Around the perimeter. Tens and even hundreds of meters, it's not cheap and not easy. Try now to order a granite squiggle of a similar shape from some factory and ask how much it might cost. If at all they undertake to do it. Anyway. The photo is clickable.

This decorative visor had similar conditions of an aggressive environment to the sample from the Smolny Cathedral (see photo above). His age is 150 years old, even with a hook. If you take it as one unit of measurement, then try to determine the number of units at the visor of the Smolny Cathedral yourself. For me, certainly at least 5, and possibly all 10. Photos are clickable, so look and compare.

Further. Soil science. I had a special article on this topic a few years ago. It was called What the forests grow on in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. Detailed, with analysis. The conclusion is as follows. On the territory of the Leningrad Region, above the Baltic klint (ledge), there is a thick layer of humus - up to 0.4-0.5 m. And below the Baltic klint, humus as such is practically absent, only 1-3 cm, locally up to 5-10 cm. Considering the speed the growth of humus, it can be assumed that 400-500 years ago this land area was the seabed. For example, a photo on which the forest actually grows. Photos are clickable.

Honey mushrooms are able to grow right in the sand. This is a furrow from a tractor that made fire ditches. In general, you learn a lot of amazing things. Before I was seriously carried away by history, began to look at the world more attentively and generally climbed into the jungle, many things did not even occur to me, and if someone said that mushrooms, especially mushrooms, can grow on the sand, they would never believed it.

The year before last, I took a shovel and decided to check how thick the sand was. I dug a hole for 4 shovel bayonets and stopped. All sand with no visible hints of anything else. I drove off to another place, then another. I dug in the forest, here and there, then I drove to the sea, dug by the water. It's the same everywhere. A bottomless layer of sand. But only below the Baltic glint. Above the klint, it is different, somewhere there is sand, but more humus and clay. Some interesting things. About 25 years ago I remember going to Pskov to bury a relative of my wife who had crashed on a motorcycle. Surprised that the cemetery is on a hillock with pine trees. A hillock of sand. So, to the depth of the grave, that is, at least 2 meters, it is completely sand. Clean sand.

The scheme of the Baltic klint (ledge) will also be very appropriate here. It is indicated by a dotted line. By the way, it is on this ledge that a number of old fortresses are located, but we will return to this issue later.

Further. Botany.

It follows directly from soil science. For humus to begin to form, something has to grow. And everything grows according to certain rules with a timeline. Let's say the water is gone. The sea retreated. The forest will not start growing next year. Years must pass. Years for the seeds of coniferous trees to be carried onto stones and sand (everywhere stones, sand and gravel). Only needles can grow on rocks and sand. The seeds of coniferous trees are not carried by the wind, only by animals and birds. This increases the term. The first shoots are usually destroyed (eaten, trampled, cut down) and mass growth begins only at a certain saturation of the location. These are all years, or rather decades and even centuries. When the needles have reached sufficient volume, different living creatures appear in it - insects, animals and birds, as well as vegetation. At the initial stage, it is mainly moss, ferns and blueberries, which, together with falling needles, will begin to form humus. Only when the locations of the needles develop into the stage of a continuous forest with their own microclimate will humus locations appear (in the lowlands where rain and melt water flows) in which deciduous trees (birch, aspen, etc.) will begin to grow. Coniferous forests predominate below the Baltic Klint, while coniferous forests prevail in the coastal zone. By the way, interesting information for "non-Petersburgers". On the northern shore of the Neva Bay, nothing of the fruit and berry grows at all. No apple tree, no pear, no cherry, no plum, not even potatoes with strawberries grow. The modern most advanced summer residents are trying to plant something there, but these are tears. And 20 km to the south, along the southern coast, any garden berry grows, even grapes in skillful hands. These are the features of St. Petersburg. The forests below the Baltic klint are young. The thickest trees have a trunk diameter of no more than 70 cm. According to a local forester with whom I spoke, there were no such forests back in the 19th century, and there were apiaries of the famous merchant Eliseev in the area around Lake Lubenskoye. Bees do not live in the forest and do not collect honey in Christmas trees, they need grass. Given the actual analysis of the thickness of the humus, the forester's words perfectly complete the picture. Here, in the topic of botany and soil science, it is worth noting the fact of swamps and peat bogs. Their location is also very interesting and resonates well with a number of maps, but this will be discussed below. The oldest trees in the region were directly in St. Petersburg itself and in the Sergievsky Park near Peterhof. These are oaks. The oldest oak tree on Elagin Island is considered, its diameter is about 170 cm. Officially, it is given more than 250 years.

There was a similar one on Kamenny Island, the so-called oak of Peter the Great, allegedly planted already in 1716. Now a young oak tree has been planted in its place.

Two similar oak trees now live in Sergievsky Park, here they are. Both photos are clickable.

However, the fact that these oak trees are more than 200 and even more so more than 250 years old is a myth. In the Sergievsky Park there are two stumps with a diameter of 150-160 cm. Rather, there were. Several years ago I wrote about them on one Internet resource and posted a photo. To my surprise, when I returned to these stumps the next year, I found that the stumps were destroyed. I don't know, maybe a coincidence. And it is possible that this is also someone's malicious intent. However, I managed to count the rings on these stumps. Although even then it was badly considered because the stumps were already partially rotten back then, but in general it took about 150 years there, with assumptions of a maximum of 180 years. An interesting feature has been noticed. For the first 30 years, the trees grew very quickly, with an average of 3-4 mm between the rings. Then the growth rate dropped sharply, to about 1.5 mm per year, while there were two periods of a couple of decades each, in which the growth rate decreased to 0.5-1.0 mm per year. The rapid growth of oak trees at the beginning of life can be explained either by the warm climate at that time, or by the fact that the undergrowth of fast-growing trees such as birches or needles has not yet grown, which created a shade and thereby reduced the growth rate of the young oak. Or maybe both together. It's a pity that I could not find out when these stumps were cut down. It could have been 5 years ago or 50 years ago. If it turned out to be found out, it would be possible to make more specific assumptions about the climate in particular and the general history in general. If suddenly someone has such information, please indicate in the comments. Here is a photo of an already destroyed stump. The photo is clickable.

There is also a park supposedly laid by Peter the Great. It is believed that the oldest park in Sestroretsk "Dubki" was opened in 1714 by order of Peter I. It is believed that the tsar liked this picturesque place so much that he immediately ordered to equip a park with a summer residence here. In 1717, several thousand young oak trees were allegedly planted here, while the tsar planted about 200 in person. As far as this is true, it is difficult for us to judge, it is important that around modern Sestroretsk (and therefore the entire coast) at the beginning of the 18th century was deserted. Now everything is completely forest thickets, in fact, from the water's edge.

Further. Zoology.

Everything is standard here, with the exception of old written sources. They tell that some "corcodiles" were found in the Volkhov River. What kind of beast we do not know, however, their description and name inclines in the version about their relationship with crocodiles. If this is so, then it becomes natural to ask about the climate of these places at that time, as well as about the causes of climate change. Very significant.

For example, we read the second Novgorod archival chronicle.

In the summer of 7090 (1582). Set up an earthen town in Novgorod. Of the same summer, the beasts of the river and the way of the shutter came out of the Korkodili lutia; I went to a lot of people. And people were terrified and pray to God throughout the whole earth. And you will hide your packs, but you will have hid others.

Here it is interesting that the described is not an isolated case, which could be attributed to some escaped crocodile from some overseas merchant, but a massive exit of "corcodiles" who either bit or devoured many people. The word "eat" can be interpreted as biting and how to devour. In any case, someone B. Sapunov is trying to assure us that in this case, the word went to read correctly as a bite. It is he, by the way, that Wikipedia quotes. I do not know. The chronicler would write that someone had bitten someone there. Unlikely. But if several people were actually eaten or at least killed, this is a completely different matter. This is memorable. By the way, further, in 4 parts of the article, the text from the Tale of Bygone Years will be given, where the word "yadyakha" is unambiguously interpreted as eating. And do not bite in any way. For me it’s so yadyakha and eat this one word. Only different authors and, in addition, different late scribes.

For example, Herberstein, a diplomat of the Holy Roman Empire, who in 1549 published the book Notes on Muscovy, wrote about some incomprehensible reptiles.

This area is teeming with groves and forests in which terrible phenomena can be observed. There are still a lot of idolaters there, who feed at home, as it were, penates, some kind of snake with four short legs like lizards with a black and fat body, no more than three spans in length and called givoites. On the appointed days, people cleanse their home and with some fear with the whole family worship them reverently, crawling out to the supplied food. Misfortune is attributed to the fact that the serpent deity was poorly fed.

True, in this case, Herberstein described the territory of the modern Baltic, but this is all quite close in geographical terms. And the reptiles are quite small, three spans is about 55 cm. But now they are not found either.

Another English diplomat, by the name of Garsey, in the book "Notes on Russia" already directly writes that he saw a crocodile, though dead. And already away from St. Petersburg, on the territory of modern Belarus.

I left Warsaw in the evening, crossed the river, where a poisonous dead crocodile lay on the bank, which my people tore the belly of with spears.

Let's go back to Novgorod. One of the pre-Christian Novgorod princes named Volokh could transform into a "korkodil". The Mazurin chronicler writes about this.

The big son of this prince Slovenian Volkhov is a devilish and wizard fiercely at people then, and by demonic tricks and dreams, creating and transforming into the image of a fierce beast of a cork-maker, and lying in that river Volkhov, the waterway and those who do not worship him are devouring, ejaculating; For this, for the sake of people, then neveglasi, the real god of the accursed one, and his Thunder, or Perun, narekosh.

However, this was written by a Christian monk with the deliberate goal of desecrating everything non-Christian. Most likely here you need to understand that Volokh, he is Veles, is one of the pre-Christian Vedic gods, by the way, very revered. He also had a number of zoomorphic images. He could be depicted with horns, with hooves, it is possible that in other guises, including a certain lizard. In general, the lizard cult in this region was very popular, which is extremely surprising given the absence of any large lizards in wildlife. And if we take into account the fact that this kind of reptiles could exist in this area, then everything becomes logical and understandable. And also the fact that this area has a number of consonant toponyms. What else was pointed out by Academician Boris Rybakov, one of the leading Soviet scholars on the pre-Christian beliefs of ancient Russia. For example, there is a lake Yashchino in the Tver region (near Vyshny Volochok). Yashchino is according to Rybakov from Yaschera. In the Leningrad region there is the Yaschera river and villages with the same names - Yaschera, Malaya Yaschera, Bolshaya Yaschera. There is also the village of Spas-Korkodino in the Moscow region, where Korkodino by the name of the prince who inherited this village. And where did the prince get such a surname, history is silent.

There is a legend that the corpse of a crocodile was brought to the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg from the Nizhny Novgorod province to make a stuffed animal. However, they cannot find him now. Either he got lost in the storerooms, or, according to another legend, on the way the men simply threw him out, and drank the barrel of wine in which the crocodile was transported. There was evidence that fishermen saw creatures similar to crocodiles in the 19th century, and in the 20th century, and even in Karelia (Onega). But they are not documented. But the fact that crocodiles were caught in the 21st century is just documented. Nobody knows where they come from, they are trying to blame the new Russians, who allegedly release exotic animals into wildlife. However, however … For example, here is a link to how the fishermen caught a one and a half meter crocodile in Vuoksi. They write that half a centner weighs. Here is a link to how the remains of a crocodile were found on the banks of Ladoga.

In addition to crocodiles, one can also mention turtles. I personally saw a dead turtle in the Duderhof Canal in June 2019. I also have a video in my archives of how a fisherman caught a turtle with a fishing rod in one of the lakes in the city. Moreover, as the fishermen write in the St. Petersburg club of fishermen, turtles are caught regularly. But this is all within the boundaries of the city, where there is a very high probability of release of turtles by aquarists. Therefore, we will not take turtles into account, unless someone gives information about the capture of turtles outside the city, where with a high degree of probability one can assume their wild nature.

It is impossible not to say about the seals. They live in the Gulf of Finland, Lake Ladoga and Lake Saimaa (a huge squiggly lake with a bunch of islands and channels in Finland). There is also a small population in Onega. One species is called the ringed seal. Moreover, the seal from Lake Saima is larger than Ladoga and is slightly different in color (lighter). There was unverified information that the Saimaa seal was met in Onega. Almost every year in the news feeds there is information that they saw a seal in the Neva in the city limits. While fishing on Ladoga, I personally saw seals several times. These seals are very close relatives of polar seals, in fact, just their freshwater subspecies. It became a freshwater subspecies relatively recently, according to the official version, about 10 thousand years ago, when their Baltic-Ladoga area began to form.

We pass directly from zoology to Ichthyology.

Let's start with the smelt. Because this is the main St. Petersburg fish. An interesting feature, it is not found in the Atlantic. Well, except that in the most northern parts, which in fact are already the Arctic Ocean. It has several subspecies. As in the case of seals, all subspecies are localized by the distribution area. To put it simply, the smelt in the Baltic Sea is the same smelt as in the White Sea and, in general, along the entire coast of northern Europe. The one that lives in the deep-water part has a characteristic black color of the back and head; fishermen call it black back. The one in the coastal zone is lighter. For spawning, both black-back and light smelt go together and come across in the catches interspersed. It spawns in the mouths of rivers flowing into the sea and in shallow bays. During spawning, flocks of smelt along the Neva reach up to 40 km. Lacustrine subspecies of smelt are much smaller in size and have a shorter lifespan. The Ladoga and Onega subspecies of smelt are called smelt. The most interesting thing is that if the smelt is released into the Baltic, it turns into a normal smelt and vice versa. This trait is generally common to all fish and is well known to fishermen and aquarists. In small enclosed bodies of water, fish always decrease in growth. The most illustrative and well-known example is that a crucian carp released into an aquarium takes on a dwarf form and stops growing. Some of the enclosed lakes of Scandinavia also have smelt, which suggests that in the past these lakes had access to the sea.

Now the highlight of the program. This is a catfish. In this region, it is massively found only in Volkhov. It is listed in the Red Book of the Leningrad Region. The truth is, for whatever reason, it is completely unclear. It is not in the Red Book of the Novgorod Region. In Volkhov, catfish are regularly caught by fishermen. The truth is relatively small, I personally have not heard cases of captures weighing more than 45 kg, but probably there were. Sometimes catfish comes across in Ladoga near the mouth of the Volkhov and in the Novoladozhsky canal. Occasionally there is information about catching a catfish in the Neva, mainly on the net, and at the end of the 1980s I remember a newspaper article about catching a catfish in the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland, and in winter from the ice, I even remember a photo. Here is a miracle of miracles. Well, what do you say. Here's what. There is a very interesting nuance. Catfish are found in some of Finland's inland lakes. As well as smelt and seals. And for a long time, because L. P. Sabaneev in the 19th century in the book Pisces of Russia. It is noteworthy that L. P. Sabaneev writes that catfish are not found in Italy and Spain, and now these are the main countries of fishing tourism for catfish. There it was artificially populated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. By the way, in France too. Okay, back to our shores. And there is catfish in Karelia. For example, it is in Onega and even in Shotozero. So what's the problem with the catfish. Why did I pay so much attention to him. The fact is that he is thermophilic. At water temperatures below 10-12 degrees, it reduces activity, and at temperatures below + 5-7, it falls into a daze and practically stops eating. It is capable of spawning at a water temperature of at least + 15-16 degrees. For understanding, I will say that the temperature above +15 at the mouth of Ladoga and in Volkhov is about 3-4 months a year, and in the lakes of Finland, Onega, and even more so Shotozero, there may not be a temperature of +15 at all for several years in a row. Moreover, even in the relatively warm Volkhov for more than six months, the water temperature is below +10 degrees. That is, those catfish populations that are now are relict, endangered. With the exception of Volkhov, where the conditions for his life are at the very least there. The Volkhov river is shallow and the water warms up quickly. And the Volkhov flows out of Lake Ilmen, already warm, this lake is also very shallow (average depth is 3 meters). And the climate in the Novgorod region is much warmer than in St. Petersburg, and even more so than in Karelia or Finland. By themselves, in a natural way in the lakes of Finland, in Onega, and even more so in Shotozero, catfish could not swim. They have been living there since the times when there were comfortable conditions for them and natural migration routes. This is also indicated by the fact that catfish bones are found in layers of band clay in the Leningrad region.

Continued in part 2.