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396 THOMAS S. NOONANBondari, 1913-1914 420Khabrivka, 1916 106/129Four of the seven hoards for which some estimate of size is availableexceed 2,000 dirhams; also, if the clay pot found in 1851 contained severalthousand dirhams, then the "jug full" of coins uncovered in 1787 may havebeen of similar size. The "large" 1889 hoard probably numbered at least500 dirhams, if not more. Dirham hoards of a thousand or more coins arenot unknown in Eastern Europe, but a fairly large number of smallerhoards, ca. 50-200 coins, were usually also found. Kiev and vicinity arethus marked by a high concentration of very large dirham hoards. One canargue that these hoards represent the accumulation of wealth in an emergingcapital rather than groups of dirhams taken here and there to facilitateeveryday trade. Kiev may thus have reaped the profits of the Islamic tradewithout having had a major role in it.Using the above estimates for "jug full" and "large," and assumingthat the 1706 and 1787 hoards did contain Islamic coins, we can project thatthe nine hoards from the Kiev region probably contained in the neighborhoodof 17,000 dirhams. While this may not seem to be a huge sum, itrepresents more dirhams than were found in all the ninth century hoardsfrom the entire Baltic. Large numbers of dirhams were thus imported intoKiev and its vicinity over a relatively short time, specifically ca. 12,000 dirhamsbetween ca. 905 and 955, or some 240 per year on average. Theequivalent of one fair-sized dirham hoard reached Kiev annually during thefirst-half of the tenth century.Based on the above analysis, I should like to put forward the followinghypothesis. Kiev's connection with the Islamic trade began only ca. 905,when the route by which dirhams reached Eastern Europe shifted from theCaspian/ Caucasus routes to a Central Asian route transversing the Volga-Bulgar lands. While most of the dirhams imported into the middle Volgawere re-exported to central and northern Rus' or to the Baltic, for around ahalf century or possibly longer, a significant number were diverted to Kievand vicinity. It is not clear whether these dirhams were the result of fairlybrief but intensive trade with Volga Bulgaria, of tribute collected from EastSlavic tribes in the form of silver dirhams, or of loot brought back fromvarious campaigns. Probably all three factors were operative to someextent.The first real influx of monetary wealth into Kiev and vicinity thus cameduring the first half of the tenth century, when at least 12,000 dirhams wereimported into the area of Kiev. There is no monetary evidence for Kiev'sties with the Orient before 900, and the ties beginning then seem to havedisappeared around 955, i.e., several decades before the silver crisis in the