Viking bronze mirror 85 mm, Kievan Rus, 750 AD – 1100 AD; Diameter 64 mm; Height: 85 mm Weight: 99.95 g; Not attracted to magnet. Origin: found in the area of Northern Pontic Steppes, north to the Black Sea. Condition: some genuine patina and stable rust, overall perfect condition; Some history: The story of the arrival of the Rus in the east is first told in the Primary Chronicle (also known as the Tale of Bygone Years, c. 12th century CE) of Russia. This work relates how the people of the land invited the Rus (identified as Scandinavian Vikings) to rule and maintain order in their country in the mid-9th century CE. Three brothers, including one named Rurik, accepted the invitation and founded the Rurik Dynasty which would last for over 700 years. This version of events is supported in the present day by historians who are labeled `Normanists’ (those who accept a Norse origin for the Rurikid Dynasty) and is challenged by so-called `Anti-Normanists’ who argue for a Slavic origin of Russia and the other states. The Normanist claims are presently considered more valid and it is generally accepted that the Norse leader Rurik (r. 862-879 CE) founded the dynasty which would endure, in an unbroken line, through the reign of Ivan IV, first Tsar of Russia (r. 1547-1584 CE) also known as Ivan the Terrible. The state of Kievan Rus fell to the Mongols between 1237-1242 CE, breaking the region in pieces which eventually developed into the modern states of Belarus, Russia, and the Ukraine. Vikings founded Kievan Rus in the mid-9th century, but Scandanavian settlements in Eastern Europe actually date back to at least A.D. 750. This is when pre-Viking-Age Scandanavians likely settled the northwestern Russian town of Staraya Ladoga (or “Old Ladoga”), across Lake Ladoga from what is now Finland. One of the artifacts archaeologists have unearthed from the city is a talisman with the face of Odin, the Norse god of war. “The early Scandinavians were particularly attracted to Ladoga by the appearance of Islamic silver coins or dirhams there,” writes scholar Thomas S. Noonan. “The regular flow of Islamic dirhams from Russia to Scandinavia via Ladoga began in the early ninth century and is further evidence of a Viking presence in Ladoga long before 840.” https://www.history.com/news/vikings-in-russia-kiev-rus-varangians-prince-oleg