Maps: left—map of Viking routes throughout Europe; right—map of early Kievan Russia. Left map from Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga, edited by Ward

and Fitzhugh. Right map from Ferguson, The Vikings: a History.

Maps of the Byzantine Empire (600-1000 AD) and Abbasid Empire (left-c. 650-750, right-c. 950-1050). From Lynn Hunt, The Making of

the West, Volume 1, 3rd edition.

Map of Russian river trade with the Middle East. From Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings.

Early Rus burial mounds at Staraja Ladoga. Image from Wikipedia.

Images from Olaus Magnus, Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, 1555. Left—hunting of martens and sables; right—hunting of squirrels.

In Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings.

Images of portage on Russian rivers from Olaus Magnus, Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, 1555. In Gwyn

Jones, A History of the Vikings.

Items from early Russia burials: left top—bear tooth amulets; bottom left—bear or beaver paw amulets; right—folding scales. Images from

Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga, edited by Fitzhugh and Ward.

Early Russian rulers: left—a gold coin of Vladimir I; right—a facial reconstruction of Iaroslave I, the Wise, by Mikhail Gerasimov, 1939.

Images from Wikipedia.

Model of the original St. Sophia, Kiev. Image from Wikipedia, model housed in St. Sophia, Kiev.

Trade between Scandinavia, Russia, and the East: left—an 8th century bronze Buddha statue found in Helgö;

right top—obverse and reverse sides of an Abbasid dirham, dated to 786 and found in Staraja Ladoga; right bottom—8th century quartz beads from the Caucasus found in Birka. Images from Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga.