Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District
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Інститут історії України НАН України
2005
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| Cite this: | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District / M. Sahaydak // Ruthenica. — 2005. — Т. 4. — С. 138-160. — Бібліогр.: 25 назв. — англ. |
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| citation_txt | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District / M. Sahaydak // Ruthenica. — 2005. — Т. 4. — С. 138-160. — Бібліогр.: 25 назв. — англ. |
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Mykhailo Sahaydak
Medieval Kiev from the Per spective
of an Archaeological Study of the Podil Dis trict
Archaeological com mentary on the early his tory of medieval Kiev has long at tracted
scholars’ attention. Regular large-scale ex cavations, which opened new pages of
the city’s history, have con tributed much to this. The 1970s and 1980s be came the most
important land mark in this pro cess. It was the time of summing up the re sults of more
than twenty years of re search (1969–1982), the most dis tinctive feature of which was
con sid er able ex pan sion of the scope of ex ca va tions. Tra di tional ex ca va tions in the Up-
per Town were sup plemented with large-scale in vestigations in the Podil district of
the Lower Town. De spite fre quent floods and di sastrous episodes of de position, this
territory turned out to have been pop ulated early and to have remained densely
populated for a long time.
Excavations carried out along the construction of the second (Obolon’) subway line
revealed the remnants of a large urban set tlement, which arose here in the late ninth
century and came to occupy ap proximately 150 hectares within 30 to 40 years.
The town be gan to form along the river, above the gen eral level of the river valley, on
the terrace above the flood plain. The ter race stretched be tween the precipitous slopes
of the wa terfront and the course of the deep Dnieper’s tributary, the Pochaina River,
which served as a convenient harbor.
From the very beginning of the ex cavations in the Podil district it be came clear that it
was definitely the be ginning of a new stage in the study of the city. The major factor
that changed at ti tudes to ward the po ten tial of ar chae o log i cal study was the ex cel lent
preservation of the or ganic ma terial in the earliest ho rizons of the cultural layer, pri -
marily wood, the ba sic and principal building material of the Middle Ages, which is
rarely pre served in soil. Everything that made up the material ba sis of life, from
the timber dwellings that formed whole quar ters of the city and to burial com plexes
with var i ous wooden in ven to ries, pre sented it self to the ar chae ol o gists in its original
appearance in the cultural layer of Podil.
The second fact dis covered in the excavations in Podil was also important. The cul-
tural layer showed that besides hu man activity other fac tors also had a great influence
on its for mation. Lay ers of pure river sand, clay, and loess formed ap proximately half
its thickness. All this pointed to the fact that the pop ulation in habiting Podil had often
been forced to leave the area. The in tervals were short-term, but they changed the sit ua-
tion sig nificantly. The en tire ex panse of the dis trict was simultaneously cov ered with
� Mykhailo Sahaydak, 2005
these layers; the thickness of the deposits dif fered and in some cases reached 1.5 me-
ters. Ev erything that peo ple failed to carry away was covered with the de position. Af ter
the situation stabilized the in habitants had to build new dwellings and reconstruct their
properties and city quarters.
As the ex cavations re vealed, such a dy namic of life in Podil soon became standard for
its in habitants. This is con firmed by the signs of intensive re construction ac tivity af ter
each ep i sode of de po si tion. The ac com mo da tion be tween di sas trous nat u ral phe nom ena
and hu man beings took place for a rather long time, from the ninth to twelfth centuries.
In or der to ob tain clearer information about these pro cesses, to un derstand and ex plain
the mech anism of in teraction of all the el ements in such a com plex system as this ter ri-
tory has turned out to be, we had to exceed the limits of the usual ar chaeological methods
for studying a site. An assumption was made that the mechanism of de velopment of
the relief in Podil had been launched by the force of neotectonic movements ap parently
activated in this historic pe riod.1 The movements (these were mainly subsidence, al -
though rising was also pos sible) caused block de formations of the uni form sur face of
the hills which sur rounded Podil, whereupon fast-forming ravines di vided their sides.
In the 1970s, joint ef forts of ar chaeologists and geologists re sulted in putting to-
gether the stratigraphic section of the cul tural layer of Podil along more than 2000 me-
ters of the sub way line (Fig. 1). Dur ing the next de cade a dendrochronological study of
the timber collections from the ex cavations in Podil was conducted. As a result,
a dendrochronological scale was built and an at tempt was made at absolute dating.
The collection of timber suitable for dating allowed con structing a scale 383 years
long. The last felling of trees rep resented in the scale was made in 1123, and 740 be -
came the low ermost date, i. e. the date of the be ginning of the growth of one of the speci-
men in the col lection.2
The generalization of the stratigraphic data and correlation with dendro-dates
opened a per spective on establishing a detailed chronology of all the hor izontal strata
of the cul tural layer, even those which failed to pro duce timber suitable for
dendrochronological dating. The earliest stratum, deposited at depths of 11.5–12.5 me-
ters, is dated from the 880s to the 920s. The next one, de posited one meter above, cove-
red the pe riod up to the beginning of the eleventh century. The third stratum of
the layer, 8 me ters in depth at the top, is dated to the 1040s. On the level of the fourth
stratum (7–7.8 me ters) buildings were built in the mid-eleventh century and they fell
into decay in the early twelfth century (Fig. 2).
If we take the full strati graphic sec tion com posed of ma terials from the ex cavations
in the central part of Podil — Kontraktova Square — we see that from 913 (i. e.,
the dendro-date of the earliest timber structure dis covered by the ex cavations of
1971–1973) up to 1131 (the re corded date of the beginning of construction of the stone
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 139
1 Ãîéæåâñüêèé Î. Î., Ñà ãàéäàê Ì. À. Çàìêîâà ãîðà â Êèºâ³ (äî ïè òàííÿ âïëè âó ïðèðîäíèõ ôàê -
òîð³â íà òî ïîã ðàô³þ äàâ íüî ðóñü êèõ ì³ñò). Ñòà ðî æèò íîñò³ ϳâäåí íî¿ Ðóñ³. Ê., 1993. Ñ. 63.
2 Ñà ãàé äàê Ì. À. Äåí äðîõ ðî íî ëî ãèÿ äðåâ íå ãî Êè å âà. Íî âîå â àð õå î ëî ãèè Êè å âà. Ê., 1981. Ñ. 450.
140 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
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church of the As sumption of the Vir gin Pirogoshcha, in vestigated in 1976–1978 and
1998–1999) 14 depositional episodes of dif ferent thicknesses took place.
The most sur prising finding was that after the construction of the church
the depositional ep isodes in Podil prac tically stopped. There are no traces of floods
above the level of the entrance into the church. For 218 years, the pe riod between
the first oc cupation of the area and the con struction of the church, the level of the sur -
face of Podil grew more than by 10 meters, while in the next 870 years the level grew
slightly more than 2 meters.
This ev idence sug gests that we managed to dis cover the traces of a natural phe nome-
non which sharply changed the relief of the district. Ap parently the balance in the sys -
tem was upset un der the influence of ex ternal forces. The released en ergy caused
the transference of huge masses of soil from the hills into the valley; af terwards the sys -
tem re gained its balance, but on a new level cor responding to the changed conditions.
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 141
Fig. 2. The chro nology of the Podil cultural layer. I. Kontraktova ploshcha 1971–1973. II. Zhytniy
bazar (mar ket). 1973. 1 — cul tural layer; 2 — al luvial-diluvial de positions; 3 — wooden con structions
found in the cul tural layer; 4 — rel ics of the stone me dieval ar chitecture with the chron icle dates of
building; 5 — dendrochronological dates
142 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 143
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As spe cial ists in geo mor phol ogy note, un bal anced geomorphologic sys tems au to mat i-
cally tend to return to a pre vious state.3
Thus, the en ergy of the hills surrounding Podil on the south and west caused a trans-
formation in the re lief of the river valley. Here, a terrace formed on the valley sloping
towards the Dnieper; its area expanded to gether with the in crease of the ma terial on it
(i. e. the thickness of the layer).
In view of the fact that the terrace formed on a nar row slop ing space, its spatial de-
velopment was limited by the slope on one side and by the river on the other. Dur ing
seasonal floods the river leveled the whole valley, bring ing masses of river sed iment
together with wa ter. Within the in teraction of these complicated pro cesses people had
no other al ternative than to en gage in con stant con struction ac tivity.
Earlier con clusions were based on materials from only 11 excavated units; dur ing
the last twenty years their num ber has in creased to 60 (Fig. 3). This con siderable in -
crease in the number of ex cavated units has not only pro duced data important for re -
constructing the landscape which pre ceded the growth of the area, but also for re con-
structing a picture of the ef forts un dertaken by the inhabitants of the wa terfront district
to secure the place of their settlement. This is im portant in formation ac cording to
which one may judge the de gree of organization of the first settlers in their adjustment
to natural calamities.
It turned out that con siderable ef fort and re sources were spent on re inforcing the ri-
verbank, which practically co incided with the edge of the terrace. Dur ing the 1985 ex -
cavations at 40 Khoryva St., a system of timbering was discovered which oc cupied
the whole area of the ex cavation. It consisted of three lines of par allel cells made of
planks placed edgewise. The cells were at tached to the soil by stakes driven into
the corners of the cells from the in ner and outer sides. Most of the stakes had cut holes
mea sur ing 2 � 2 cm. Overall, three lines of cells were re vealed on the site; the distance
between them was 1.6 to 2.6 me ters, while the in di vid ual cells mea sured 2.4 � 3.3 m; in
the middle part they were some times divided into smaller chambers (Fig. 4).
Analogous con structions were also found in other parts of Podil and as a rule they
were oriented to wards the riverbank or towards the banks of full-flowing streams run -
ning from the slopes to the river. In terestingly, these hy dro-technical structures formed
part of the buildings on prop erties bor dering dan gerous plots. Sometimes they
stretched deep into the space which faced the river. Such structures were dis covered in
1987 at Obolons’ka St. They are rem iniscent of the wooden bases for transporting
cargo on shallow water or possibly even ships.
The reconstruction of the town-planning structure of the Podil settlement has been
the most important re sult of the ex cavations of Podil. In vestigation of the bor ders
of prop erties showed that the fence lines of one plot were reconstructed about 12 to 17
ti mes, pre serv ing a sta ble lay out for cen tu ries. Dis place ments ei ther deep into the pro-
perty space or outside it (the dis tance did not ex ceed 1–1.5 m) were pos sibly con nected
144 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
3 Ïîç äíÿ êîâ À. Â. Äè íà ìè ÷åñ êîå ðàâ íî âå ñèå â ðåëü å ôî îá ðà çî âà íèè. Ì., 1988. Ñ. 6.
with wider-scale changes, for ex ample, fluctuations in the course of the stream flow ing
through the central part of Podil or with movements of the riv erbank of the Dnieper and
the Pochaina rivers. Snow melt and heavy rains caused fast alluvial de position of soil
material; with the ravines grow ing, conditions de veloped for form ing streams. De spite
the timbering of the banks, the stream changed its course repeatedly and sharply, forc -
ing peo ple to change the lines of fences.
The first ho rizons of the oc cupation of Podil in the late ninth-early tenth cen tury
show that the first line of prop erties was con structed along the edge of the terrace.
The terrace itself had a complicated con figuration and did not stretch along the course
of the Dnieper, but di verged from this line along an east-west axis (Fig. 5). This was
one of the main directions along which the street system of the settlement of Podil
formed. Fragments of such streets have been lo cated by archaeological ex cavations.
According to top ographic ref erence-points, this may be seen in the di rection from
the foot of Shchekavytsia hill towards Kontraktova Square and fur ther on to
the St. Elias and St. Nicholas Naberezhny churches (Fig. 6). The north-south axis, i. e.
from Starokyivs’ka hill to wards the Obolon’ dis trict, was another di rection. Prop erties
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 145
Fig. 4. Plan of cells’ lo cation (11
th
cen tury) in 40 Khoryva St., Kiev. 1984
which had been built along this street were excavated in 1971–1973 in the foundation
pit of the subway line from the southern side of Hostynny Dvir.
No matter how trivial it may sound, ev ery town re flects, ex presses, and em bodies
the social system of its so ciety and the way its pop ulation lives. Hence, the first impulse
of town for mation plays the most important role in the fur ther his tory of the town’s de -
velopment. Later, some func tional points of attraction may form, re flecting the in ter-
ests of the population in the city: a cult center, a cas tle or a trading point. But the main
question about the be ginning of ur ban life is: What was it in the very beginning?
Nowadays, many students of cities stress that archaeologists should sug gest their
own criteria of ur banization based on the materials from ex cavations and only af ter-
wards should they re fer to his torical sources. Judg ing from the distinctive layout struc-
ture, Podil most likely emerged as a trading point. It def initely represents a new type of
a set tlement for the whole Dnie per area. It was rather large (ap proximately 150 hect a-
res) and densely built up. The river, or rather har bor, was the main center of attraction
for its pop ulation. The large scale of building attests that this was purely an economic
center, since a political cen ter would never have at tracted such a large population so
rapidly. However, the sta bility of the lay out re flected the substantial sta bility of basic
conditions there, which sug gests that the Podil settlement emerged under the auspices
of the authorities and enjoyed their support (Fig. 7).
146 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
Fig. 5. Ero sion of the hills to the west of the Dnieper River that cre ated and en larged the Podil ter race
It is well known that in the early 1980s an of ficial con cept was forged ac cording to
which the continuous history of Kiev dated back to the fifth and sixth cen turies. It was
linked to a large-scale celebration of the city’s millennium and an an niversary. One has
to note, however, that at that time, as well as later, most scholars did not consider it an
axiom or universally recognized the ory. For many it prob ably ap peared to be one of
the pos si ble and ad mis si ble com pro mises be tween schol ar ship and the po lit i cal and
social practice of the time.
The anniversary of the city was con ceived as an act of consolidating So viet pa trio-
tism and in ter na tion al ism in his tor i cal ex am ples, which was vi tal for the for mer party
leadership. However, one can suggest that for the ac ademic es tablishment it had yet an -
other, deeper, mission. It was in tended to pro long the life of one of the fundamental
con cepts of the So viet his to ri og ra phy, cre ated by works of the Marx ist his to ri ans
Serafim V. Yushkov, Boris D. Grekov, Mikhail N. Tikhomirov, Boris A. Rybakov, and
M. G. Rabinovich. By the 1980s, with the advancement of me dieval ar chaeology,
the con cept had started to crumble and the need to stabilize it was felt intensely.
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 147
Fig. 6. Map of the re lief of Kiev and the dis tribution of ob jects im ported from Scan dinavia. Key: 1 —
Zamkova Hora; 2 — Starokyivs’ka Hora; 3 — Hora Dytynka; 4 — Kudriavets’ Hora; 5 —
Uzdykhal’nytsia Ter race; 6 — Shchekavitsia Hora; 7 Lysa Hora (Yurkavytsia)
The no tions for mulated by this school in 1940s and 1950s re garded ur banization of
Eastern Eu rope as a phe nomenon in trinsically linked to the emergence of classes and
the state. Town formation co incided with the origin of class re lations in the depths of
primitive so ciety. “Feudalizing” traditional no bility acted as town found ers. In due
time this led to subordination and making the pop ulation of the towns pay tribute. Thus,
towns’ incorporation into the texture of tribal society was being ex plained. As yet
another type of city, the lo cales artificially founded by the central au thority were also
ranked. They were intended for the con solidation of a new (state) system — feu dalism.
In this way the ap pearance of cas tles and fortresses were ex plained; later their popula-
tions grew and they turned into towns.4
The agrarian sec tor was considered the economic basis for early urban life; therefore,
the most ancient towns must have appeared in the re gions with ad vanced ag riculture,
primarily in the Middle Dnieper area. In ad dition to the state-administrative function,
such towns of the re gion as Kiev, Chernihiv, and Pereyaslavl’, as well as the nu merous
148 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
Fig. 7. The Lower Town (Podil) of Kiev of the 9
th
— 10
th
cen tu ries (Re con struc tion by M. Sahaydak;
drawing by Y. Malanyuk)
4 Äîâ æå íîê Â. È. Ñòî ðî æå âûå ãî ðî äà íà Êè åâ ñêîé Ðóñè. Ñëà âÿ íå è Ðóñü. Ì. 1968.
centers of the Dnie per area, also per formed redistributive functions; in other words,
they were considered the economic cen ters of the ag ricultural hinterland.5
The theory within which the hi erarchy of the main town func tions was de fined had
a di rect ef fect on the ways the early topography of the Rus’ towns was re constructed.
It is pos sible to speak about the pressure of theory com pelling the unification of the lay -
out of towns. The so cial and topographic aspect al lowed a town to be pictured as con-
sisting of two main parts, namely, an ad ministrative and ideological cen ter, dytynets’,
which usu ally in cluded its orig inal ancient settlement, and the commercial and indus-
trial outer hold of a castle or okol’ny grad. The for mer, nec es sar ily well for ti fied, ac-
com mo dated the mil i tary and po lit i cal ad min is tra tion (the prince and his ret i nue) and
sometimes cult rel ics of a tribe, indicating the connection of the center with the life of
a tribe. In com parison with a dytynets’ fortress, the outer holds of a cas tle were sec ond-
ary ur ban structures. Their existence was con ditioned by a grow ing de mand on
the nearest neigh borhood for com mercial and trading services, which accordingly af -
fected the so cial com po si tion of the pop u la tion.6
It should be ad mitted that owing to the anniversary of Kiev, this compound old-fashi o -
ned con ception, which claimed to cover all aspects of town formation in Eastern Eu ro-
pe, gained a new im pulse in de velopment. Many of the opin ions and stereotypes
formed then re mained in ac ademic cir culation until re cently. Then as now there were
some good reasons for this. The theory of ur banization in Eastern Eu rope was built into
the gen eral the ory of state formation (which be came ax iomatic for most schol ars), ac -
cording to which Kievan Rus’ was viewed as a state formed as a result of the in ternal
fer men ta tion within the so ci ety and con sol i da tion of East Sla vonic tribal units.
The two theories cor related splendidly and did not en courage any al ternative ap -
proaches, not even minor dis senting views. Being guided by the the oretical framework de -
signed by em inent historians, archaeologists were ex pected only to pres ent their own find -
ings, prov ing the con tin u ous line of evo lu tion of ar chae o log i cal ma te ri als start ing from
the middle of the first millennium AD up to the formation of Kievan Rus’. Ar chaeology
supplied il lustrative material; the world of ideas made the world of things its hostage.
Set tle ments be long ing to the Praha-Korchak cul ture, identified with the historic
Sclavini (rec ognized as Slavs), were taken as the starting points. Ac cording to the domi-
nant view, later this culture in corporated the Slavonic Raykovets’ka and Pen’kivka cul -
tures (identified with the historic Antae) of the right-bank Ukraine. Thus, Kiev, where
an impressive as sortment of both pre-Slavonic (Zarubintsy, Chernyakhiv and Kiev)
and the Slavonic cultures can be doc umented at the core of town for mation, was con-
sidered the first east Sla vonic ur ban center.
In nu mer ous pub li ca tions and dis cus sions gen er ated by this oc ca sion, the word of
Boris Rybakov turned out to be de cisive. He ad vocated an early date, yet he pro ceeded
from his own id iosyncratic theory about the genesis of the eastern Slavs and not from
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 149
5 Êàð ïîâ Â. Â. Î ôàê òî ðàõ ýêî íî ìè ÷åñ êî ãî è ïî ëè òè ÷åñ êî ãî ðàç âè òèÿ ðóñ ñêî ãî ãî ðî äà â ýïî õó
ñðåä íå âå êîâüÿ. Ðóñ ñêèé ãî ðîä. Ì. 1976.
6 Òè õî ìè ðîâ Ì. Í. Äðåâ íå ðóñ ñêèé ãî ðîä. Ì. 1956. Ñ. 47 –51.
a rig orous analysis of the artifacts. The late fifth cen tury was rec ognized as the date of
foun da tion of Kiev.
From the present perspective, it is ob vious that ex cessive trust was put in written
sources. Scholars fell un der the spell of the ver sion narrated by The Pri mary Chron i cle
and were try ing to sub stantiate it with evidence.
The Pri mary Chron i cle tells the story of the Poliane and their leaders Kyi, Shchek,
Khoryv, and their sister Lybid’, who founded their own town ships and a central one
named af ter the eldest brother. The status of this story was never clearly de fined in his-
to ri og ra phy. The tale, typ i cal for me di eval chron i cles, is now be lieved to be rep re sen ta-
tive and symbolic. It might have had a folkloric or igin and its symbolism was inter-
preted by the chron icler as a prac tical ac tivity of the pro genitors of the Poliane tribe.
Without an un derstanding of its inner sub stance and its place in the chronicler’s vi sion
of the past, it can not be used as di rect ev idence. In any case, it has resisted at tempts at
incorporating it into purely archeological argument.
It has not been clear enough un til now which group of Korchak ar ti facts the be gin ning
of ur ban life of Kiev should be identified with. For a long time most researchers showed
their pref erence for Starokyivs’ka Hill, but a top ographic ad justment was made dur ing
the preparation for the an niversary, when great im portance was at tached to dating finds
and also to a site with good for tification char acteristics. Zamkova Hill was recognized as
the most ancient settlement and pro totype of the future city dytynets’; a spot of
the “town” proper was as signed to Starokyivs’ka Hill. The area on Starokyivs’ka Hill (in
com par i son with Zamkova Hill) was sig nif i cantly larger, al low ing schol ars to vi su al ize
a per spective of ur ban de velopment that would match the city’s status.
The cultural layer of the hill has been damaged by later in trusions, which com plicates
the aim of detecting closed complexes. How ever, the finds of many ar chaeological cul tures
that existed in the Middle Dnieper area from the first mil lennium AD until the late Mid dle
Ages have been un covered here. On the northwestern side a layer corresponding to
the Zarubintsy cul ture was excavated. Among the finds with rather precise dat ing are frag-
ments of a dou ble handle and conic base of a light clay am phora from the first century
BC-first century AD, a bronze fibula of the late La Téne pe riod,7 some Roman coins
(among which there is a bronze as bearing the name of Spurius Aphranius, a con sul dur ing
whose reign it must have been coined in 200 BC), and also many finds of other coins.8
From the mid-first to the mid-second cen turies AD there was a recession of ac tivity
on the hills. Renewal of ac tivity is connected with solitary finds belonging to the Kiev
culture: a bow-like gar ter-type fib ula with a bro ken re ceiver,9 a pen dant with enamel,10
and a biconic spin dle whorl. Proceeding from the established dates of fib ulas similar to
150 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
7 Ìàê ñè ìîâ Å. Â. Ñðåä íåå Ïîä íåï ðîâüå íà ðó áå æå íà øåé ýðû. Ê., 1972. Ñ. 28.
8 Áðàé ÷å âñüêèé Ì. Þ. Ðè ìñüêà ìî íå òà íà òå ðè òî𳿠Óêðà¿ íè. Ê., 1959. Ñ. 40.
9 Øîâ êîï ëÿñ Ã. È. Ïà ìÿò íè êè çà ðó áè íåö êî ãî âðå ìå íè â Êè å âå. ÌÈÀ. 1969. ¹ 160. Ñ. 78.
10 Êîð çó õè íà Ã. Ô. Ïðåä ìå òû óáî ðà ñ âû åì ÷à òû ìè ýìà ëÿ ìè V — ïåð âîé ïî ëî âè íû VI ââ. í. å. â
Ñðåä íåì Ïîä íåï ðîâüå. ÑÀÈ. Ë., 1978. Ñ. 68. .
this one, the complex may be dated to the late second cen tury AD, but no later than
the first de cades of the third cen tury AD.11
Over all, the an tiq ui ties of the Kiev cul ture hint at the possibility that a group of set tle-
ments ex isted in the central districts of Kiev around Zamkova Hill. Be sides
the Starokyivs’ka area, they were discovered on Dytynka Hill near Lvivs’ka Square
and on Kudryavets’ (a ridge of hills overlooking Podil). Since the peo ple of the Kiev
culture as well as the Zarubintsy cul ture used slash-and-burn ag riculture, it may be as -
sumed that in this case we are dealing with the same community, which changed its lo -
cation ac cording to its ag ricultural needs. Shifting of the settlements took place on
the level space of the Kiev pla teau, which ac cording to the land scape map was covered
with oak groves alternating with areas of steppe.
A sim i lar sit u a tion was ob served with the an tiq ui ties of the Chernyakhiv cul ture,
which ap peared in the mid-third cen tury AD. First, a compact settlement emerged on
Zamkova Hill, and then a burial ground on Starokyivs’ka; the settlements also moved
within the central plateau from the south ern slopes of Khreshchatyts’ky Ravine to
Lukyanivka. The relics of this pe riod on Zamkova Hill are represented by pot tery,
the stray find of a glass ves sel with drops of blue glass on it, which is dated by analogy
with northern Black Sea area an tiquities to the forth-early fifth cen turies AD,12 and
also by a gar ter fib ula with a lamellar body ((Na tional Historical Mu seum of Ukraine,
¹ 2050).13 The cemetery of this pe riod on Starokyivs’ka hill oc cupied a rather large
territory; a second burial ground occupied the slope of Khreshchatys’ky Ravine near
Prorizna St.14
As this brief re view suggests, a certain pat tern was established dur ing the first centu-
ries AD: a hill fort set tlement al ways gravitated towards Zamkova Hill, while
Starokyivs’ka Hill was mostly used for burial grounds. For some rea son, this tradition
changed dur ing the time of the Praha-Korchak culture.
The finds of this ep och on Zamkova hill are represented by scarce frag ments of pot tery
which can be dated to the late fifth-early sixth cen turies according to the typology by
I. P. Rusanova.15 Be sides, four Byzantine follises of the emperors Anastasias I
(491–518) and Justinian I (527–565) were also found there.16 Nev er the less, schol ars as-
sume that there was a well-fortified hill fort with man-made fortifications on this site.17
Some distinct traces of a set tlement were ex cavated in the Starokyivs’ka area, where
the remains of buildings and a stove filled with ceramic vessels were found.18 Thus,
the settlement on Zamkova Hill spread, in par ticular to Starokyivs’ka Hill and
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 151
11 Àìáðîç À. Ê. Ôè áó ëû þãà åâ ðî ïåé ñêîé ÷àñ òè ÑÑÑÐ. Ì., 1966. Ñ. 50–51.
12 Äðåâ íîñ òè Ïðèä íåï ðîâüÿ. Ñîá ðà íèÿ Õà íåí êî. Âûï. V. Ê., 1902. Ñ. 59.
13 Êîð çó õè íà Ã. Ô. Ïðåä ìå òû óáî ðà ñ âû åì ÷à òû ìè ýìà ëÿ ìè. Ñ. 63.
14 Ïî ëå âîé Ï. Î÷åð êè ðóñ ñêîé èñ òî ðèè â ïà ìÿò íè êàõ áûòà. T ²². ÑÏá. 1880. Ñ. 6.
15 Ðó ñà íî âà È. Ï. Ñëà âÿí ñêèå äðåâ íîñ òè VI–IX ââ. ìåæ äó Äíåï ðîì è Çà ïàä íûì Áó ãîì. ÑÀÈ.
Ì., 1973. Ñ. 19–22.
16 Áðàé ÷å âñüêèé Ì. Þ. Êîëè ³ ÿê âè íèê Êè¿â. Ê., 1963. Ñ. 77.
17 Òî ëî÷ êî Ï. Ï. Äðåâíèé Êèåâ. 1983. Ñ. 29.
18 Êè ëè å âè÷ Ñ. Ð. Äå òè íåö Êè å âà ²Õ — ïåð âîé ïî ëîâèíû Õ²²² âåêoâ. Ê., 1982. Ñ. 28–29.
Kudryavets’. This ex pansion, however, can not be in terpreted as ev idence of a sharp
growth in pop u la tion size.
Slash-and-burn agriculture, ex hausting the soil, might have caused the same com mu-
nity to move within the core of the town for mation, spreading artifacts over a large area,
which pro duced the impression of settlement ex pansion. This pat tern is well at tested.19
More precise dat ing of ce ramics lately has started to confirm the idea of significant
interruptions in the oc cupation of this territory. It has been sug gested that the dwellings
on Starokyivs’ka Hill as well as other Korchak sites in Kiev ter ritory were destroyed,
since they bear traces of fire. Can this be evidence of a military in trusion? In 560,
the Avars appeared on the historical ho rizon of Eastern Eu rope; ru ining the Slavonic
settlements, they caused population to move west.
The con ti nu ity be tween the an tiq ui ties of the Korchak type and the antiquities of
the fol low ing Pen’kivka and Kolochin cul tures is also an important prob lem. There
seems to have been a gap in the oc cupancy of the site in the early sev enth century. A re-
cent re examination of ce ramic frag ments ex cavated on Zamkova Hill in 1940 shows
that above the Korchak layer (the up per dating of which is the early sixth cen tury) there
were the ho ri zons with ce ram ics be long ing to Pen’kivka cul ture which are dated to
the late sev enth-early eighth cen tury.20
Recently the artifacts of the Sakhnivka type have been de tected. The finds of an an-
thropomorphic fibula, a cast star-like earring, and a silver bracelet with round cored
ends, covered with incisions, which were excavated in the southern part of
Starokyivs’ka hill may be ev idence of the ex istence of a graveyard here. The finds of
five more analogous bracelets and a Byzantine coin of the eighth cen tury in the eastern
area may also indicate a burial ground, although G. F. Korzukhina con sidered them to
be de posited as hoards. Ob viously, an ur ban model of central Kiev dur ing the so-called
Antae ep och cannot be reconstructed ac cording to the tra ditional scheme as a settle-
ment on Zamkova Hill and a ne cropolis on Starokyivs’ka Hill. Based on a spe cific agri-
cultural model, these settlements moved quite often.
The late eighth cen tury remains un confirmed in finds. Dur ing this period, a cul ture of
Luka Raykovets’ka type was prominent in the right-bank Ukraine and a cul ture of
Volyntsevo type was dom inant in the left-bank Ukraine.
One more de tail, established by the ex cavations of Zamkova Hill in 1940, is signifi-
cant for our dis cus sion. While in spect ing the stra tig ra phy doc u men ta tion of the ex ca-
vation, a sterile layer of loam with no traces of hu man activity was discovered.21 This
layer di vided the early Slavonic and Old Rus’ strata.
The sterile layer, identifying the decline of ac tivity, is ev idence of the next activation
of geo logic pro cesses, which af fected the stratigraphy of Podil. This is vis ible in
the traces of nu merous depositional episodes in the territory. This layer covered
152 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
19 Áàðàí Â. Ä. Äàâí³ ñëîâ ’ÿ íè. Óêðà¿íà êð³çü â³êè. Ò. 3. Ê., 1998.
20 Ùåã ëî âà Î. Â. Ïðîá ëå ìû ôîð ìè ðî âà íèÿ ñëà âÿí ñêîé êóëü òó ðû VIII–X ââ. Êàí äè äàò ñêàÿ äèñ-
ñåð òà öèÿ. 1987 ã. Ñ. 8.
21 Àðõåîëîã³ÿ. Ðîçêîïêè â Êèºâ³ íà ãîð³ Êè ñåë³âö³ â 1940 ð. 1947. Ñ. 145–146.
the “early Slavonic stratum”, gen erally dated to the sixth-seventh centuries, and
the layer of the ninth-tenth centuries followed the sterile one.
It was men tioned above that ar chaeological finds excavated in the layer un derlying
the sterile stratum belonged to the Pen’kivka cul ture. Bracelets with round ish cored
ends and cast ear rings ex isted from the late sev enth to the early eighth cen turies, as well
as lamellar, anthropomorphic, and zoomorphic fib ulas analogous to those found in
the Pastyrs’ky and Khariyevs’ky hoards.
Consequently, the ster ile layer may have ap peared as early as the late eighth cen tury.
It was one of the first signs of the natural cataclysms be ginning, which caused fur ther
dynamic changes in the original relief of the Up per Town, and “ex plosive” landslides
in the territory of Podil. Taking into account the earliest dendrochronological date for
the occupation of Podil (a building ex cavated in the Zshytniy Market dating to 887), it
is possible to as sume that the most ac tive phase of the first cataclysm lasted for about
100 years. Only after this phase was over, when landslides became rare and a phase of
temporary stabilization en sued, did the building up of the Lower Town be gin (its tempo
and dynamics will be discussed below).
The isolation of Zamkova Hill went on quickly. As for the mechanism of form ing
the sterile layer of the hill, it could only have ap peared if the soil from higher neighbor-
ing territories had eroded onto the sunken terrace. The lower ground of Zamkova Hill
for some time be came a place for the ac cumulation of soil ma terial washed down from
the main plateau. Soon deep ra vines formed around the hill; eroded soils rushed down
in their chan nels and de position stopped on the hill. The steep slopes of the ra vines in -
terfered with communication with the other ar eas of the Up per Town, although the hill
remained one of the most attractive places for occupation.
Activation of the nat ural pro cesses would have had a significant in fluence on the to-
pography of settlements and in par ticular on the loss of the “dominant” po sition of
Zamkova Hill. Still, as the growth of the urban ter ritories after the eighth century
shows, it was not the only factor which caused the changes. Starting from the late ninth
century, the picture of Kiev’s occupation changed radically.
This has been demonstrated by the rate and dy namics of the pro cess of town planning
re vealed by ex ca va tion. The fol low ing ma te rial serves for com par i son with the pre vi-
ous epochs.
The found ers of the town were compelled to look for territories which could accom-
modate a large pop ulation; the territory of Podil was the most suitable for this pur pose.
Frequent landslides and floods were the only inconvenience. Nev ertheless, they did not
stop the found ers of the city and by the early tenth century Podil had turned into a large
urban district with regular building throughout the territory and a de veloped layout
struc ture.22
Thus, if we assume the sterile layer to be the re sult of geo logic sub sidence of the hill
from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, we see that the territory of Podil sank, to gether
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 153
22 Ñà ãàé äàê Ì. À. Äàâ íüî ê è¿âñüêèé Ïîä³ë. Ê., 1996.
with Zamkova Hill and the ad joining zone, and the rate of sub sidence some times
slowed down, some times ac cel er ated. Dur ing the de layed sink ing or sta bi li za tion of
the hills, con ditions ap peared for building Podil. The acceleration of sub sidence led to
the submergence of Podil and to an ac cumulation of the sterile layers of soil. Certain
risings may also have hap pened there (the os cillatory character of tectonic movements
is well known); this created con ditions for the oc cupation of the territory. With some
tendency towards growth, which is confirmed by the thickness of the layer, this pro cess
lasted un til the mid-twelfth cen tury. No traces of its activity have been discovered in
the up per part of the cul tural layer. There is no al ternation of strata here; a cer tain uni
formity of the layer is ob served: the layers of the twelfth to thirteenth centuries are
covered with the ho rizons dating back to the four teenth to six teenth century and up to
the modern sur face (the lay ers of the seventeenth through the nine teenth century).
In the con text of these developments, we consider the ap pearance and ex istence of
the original castle on Starokyivs’ka Hill, which was usually re ferred to as the most an -
cient town core of the sixth-ninth centuries. How ever, as we have seen, comparatively
re li able con ti nu ity be tween the ar chae o log i cal cul tures of the late first mil len nium AD
on this territory has never been established. The accepted theory of the city’s origin
needs to be revised.
The condition for its sur vival was the identification of the Up per Town with its early
hill forts on Zamkova and Starokyivs’ka hills as the ab solute center. They were given
the role of the major core of the town for mation; other ar eas were considered suburbs.
Subsequently, the reg ular growth of Kiev Podil within this model could only have
started after the spatial formation of such urban el ements as administrative, cult, mil i-
tary, and po litical func tions. In other words, af ter the appearance of dytynets’ be fore
the late tenth cen tury, when the administrative and cult cen ter in the Up per Town
formed completely. Ac cording to this con cept, starting with legendary Kyi, each pe -
riod of the town’s life had to have a sig nificant per son who de fined the strategy of
the town’s de velopment, es pecially as both types of sources (written and archeologi-
cal) seemed to corroborate it.
Without go ing into the specifics of this model’s ba sic no tions, we note that un til
the 1970s no prin cipal modifications were in troduced into it. They sud denly appeared
with the pub lications of comparative studies, which sug gested that in North ern Eu rope
a network of early ur ban centers emerged in the late first millennium AD and that these
towns represented a distinct type. It be came ob vious that while solving such fun damen-
tal prob lems the world of things should not yield to the world of ideas, i. e. archaeology
should not be given the role of illustrative material only. The materials from the ex ca-
vations of Podil presented a picture of Kiev’s ur banization quite different from
the accepted one.
The written sources nar rate only one wide-scale construction in the town in the ninth
and tenth centuries. This pe riod is as sociated with the reign of Volodymyr
Svyatoslavych in Kiev (978–1015), when a town was founded on Starokyivs’ka Hill.
The annalist de scribes Volodymyr’s pro gram in de tail; it en visioned the construction
154 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
of a line of de fensive struc tures with some entrance gates, erec tion of the main church
and a complex of pal ace buildings around it. The rest of the territory was allotted as
land for the clergy and the closest mem bers of the prince’s retinue. On the whole,
the program may be con sidered to be the crown of Volodymyr’s successful reign. He
was bap tized; re li gion was es tab lished through out Rus’; the op po si tion of re bel lious
territories was suppressed; the Kiev prince’s sons reigned in the capitals of the ap pa-
nage principalities. All this culminated in the construction of the new Christian capital
(Fig. 8).
How ever, ar chae o log i cal data raised a ques tion: Who had or ga nized the gran di ose
(for those times) construction of Podil one century before? Where was the military and
political ad ministration lo cated and what did it look like? These ques tions need
the most scrupulous investigation be cause the answers remain obscure.
A num ber of ste reo types still dom i nate ac a demic dis cus sion. Tra di tion ally, the task
is reduced to the corroboration of the myth found in the written sources, the in ner sub -
stance of which is ig nored. A search was launched for archaeological sites that would
confirm it chronologically. It was also thought necessary to iden tify the sites and ob -
jects in space in order to dem onstrate that the annalistic tale about the foun dation of
the town re flects real stages of the town’s history. Yet, the re sulting con cept of the “em-
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 155
Fig. 8. Reconstruction of the Town of Volodymyr (late 10
th
cen tury) and the “Field out side the town”
with the bar rows of the Pa gans’ cem etery (Re construction by M. Sahaydak; draw ing by Y. Malanyuk)
bryos,” advanced to ex plain the city’s ex istence be fore the ac tual ur ban set tlements ap -
peared, does not pro vide a clear ex planation of the town’s genesis. It makes the ini tial
stages of ur banization in Eastern Eu rope un necessarily vague, which stands in sharp
contrast to North ern Eu rope, where this process had common roots and went on rather
simultaneously.
In its ear liest stage, Kiev is viewed as a complex conglomerate of in dependent set tle-
ments which had ap peared on the spots where it was con venient to live. Scattered on
the hills around the ‘core’ (a small piece of territory on the edge of a wide plateau which
included Zamkova Hill and part of Starokyivs’ka Hill), they were somehow sub ordi-
nated to the ‘center’. Grad ually fus ing around this ‘core’, they formed city of Kiev as
we know it.
According to this con cept (sug gested by the chron icle ac count), the town developed
naturally, since its space had a significant re serve of free areas. However, from
the point of view of the medieval town planning, in which the defensive func tion of
the city walls was a major consideration, these areas were un fit to form a ho mogeneous
town body. They were limited in size and had natural bor ders (ravines) blocking com-
munication between different parts of the city.
Archeological stud ies in re cent years have led to a crit ical re vision of the ac cepted
theory. It is now ob vious that the or igins of ur ban life, which be came vivid in Kiev
from the late ninth cen tury, should be associated not with the con struction of the Up per
Town, but with the territory of the Podil district. In just one century (from ca 887 AD,
according to dendrochronological dating, to the late tenth cen tury) and in spite of
the re strain ing nat u ral phe nom ena, its ter ri tory cov ered 150 hect ares.23 The town’s
structure was formed almost in stantly from two main cores. The first was situated be -
tween the bank of the Pochaina River and the foot of Zamkova Hill, while the second
formed on the territory later known as the “Flat part” (Ploska chastyna) of the Podil dis-
trict between the right bank of the Pochaina River and the foot of the ad jacent hills.
The first street with a regular ur ban layout started its for mation from the road which
connected the two cores and led to the northern (Borychiv) and the northwestern
(Ugors’ky) slopes (Fig. 9). Borychiv slope, facing southeast and mentioned in a chro-
nicle entry of 945, stretched (ac cording to our ver sion) from the cen ter of Podil to
the Triokhsvyatitels’ka Church of the late twelfth century (which marked the place of
a pa gan sanctuary) and the St. Basil Church of the tenth cen tury in the Upper Town.
The second slope stretched along the Yurkivs’ka gully towards Vyshgorod and
Bilgorod. A settlement here was marked by a (newly discovered) twelfth-century
church and it may be iden tified as the ‘Ugorskoie’ mentioned in chronicle. The slopes
were also used by the in habitants of the Lower Town as ascents to the bar row cemeteri-
es situated on the up per plateaus of Starokyivs’ka Hill and Lysa Hill (Cemetery I and
Cemetery II) (Fig. 7).
156 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
23 Ñà ãàé äàê Ì. À. Àêòóàëüí³ ïè òàí íÿ çà ðîä æåí íÿ òà ôîð ìó âàí íÿ ðàí íüî ãî Êèºâà. Ìàã³ñòåð³óì.
Âèï. 6. Ê., 2001. Ñ. 13.
Gradually, the street came to play the role of the city’s main axis; it stretched along
the river and reached the slopes where the roads from the city be gin. The street’s main
function was to pro vide access to the river, which was nav igable all year round due to
the constant inflow of the Dnieper. Narrow but full-flowing rivers and streams from
hilltops through valleys played the role of ad ditional communications.
The territory allotted for house hold con struction bears traces of reg ular plan ning.
The prop erties were of almost iden tical size (300–320 square meters); fence lines
which marked their boundaries were fixed for sev eral cen turies de spite the fact that
they had to be renewed after nat ural ca lamities. The con nection with the outer world
was of principal concern for those who founded the town on the Pochaina River, there-
fore they paid spe cial attention to the for mation of the wa terfront and ac cess to
the river. How ever, it has been difficult so far to iden tify the key element which de fined
the settlement’s structure in this ini tial stage. The ‘central street’ and the wa terfront
compete for this role.
In this phase the prince’s residence was ex-territorial in re lation to the town. How -
ever, in the late tenth century, when the role of the town in creased as the strong hold of
the po lit i cal power and Chris tian faith, the ad min is tra tive func tion be came dom i nant.
It resulted in the con struction of a new town with a prince’s court and the ma jor Chris-
tian church at the center on the site of the for mer pagan cemetery. Thus the Up per
Town on Starokyivs’ka Hill was formed. At the same time the Lower Town’s land-
scape also started to change. The church of St. Elias might have been the first to ap pear,
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 157
Fig. 9. Re construction scheme of the first street of the Podil dis trict with the main Chris tian tem ples
(Re con struc tion by M. Sahaydak)
still in the mid-tenth century. The church marked the route of an cient Borychiv Lane24
and was fol lowed by the stone St. Nicholas Church on “Ugorskoie.”
The next phase is as sociated with the expansion of town by Yaroslav ‘the Wise’ in
1037. Its walls encircled a new space termed the “field outside the town” in the chroni-
cle (Fig. 10). The impressive new ur ban en semble (called the ‘town of Yaroslav’ by
historians) was meant to es tablish Kiev’s status as the cap ital of Rus’ and the dy nasty’s
most pre cious pos session. The Rurikids’ collective rule over the family do main and
the system of lateral in heritance practiced by the clan prompted Yaroslav’s sons to
found Christian mon asteries in or around the city in or der to dem onstrate their shar ing
in common au thority. Pol itics affected the city’s landscape and its layout. Each of
Yaroslav’s elder sons had a chance to rule in Kiev and dur ing the next pe riod the Up per
Town emerged as the sum of separate princes’ settlements: the ‘Town of Volodymyr,’
the ‘Town of Yaroslav,’ the ‘Town of Izyaslav,’ and the ‘Town of Svyatoslav.’
In con trast with the de velopments in the Up per Town, the structure of the Podil dis -
trict experienced vir tually no change dur ing the eleventh century: its spa tial dimen-
sions remained practically the same; the dis trict pre served the same streets and al leys as
158 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
Fig. 10. Town of Yaroslav viewed from the Lyadski Gates (11
th
–12
th
cen tu ries) (Re con struc tion by
M. Sahaydak; draw ing by Y. Malanyuk)
24 Ñà ãàé äàê Ì. À. Äàâ íüî ê è¿âñüêèé Ïîä³ë. Ê., 1991. Ñ. 22.
during the phase of its or igin. The streets initially founded in the late ninth and the early
tenth cen turies pre served their di rections. The bound aries of the prop erties did not
change sig nif i cantly. Con trast ing with the Up per Town, nat u ral fac tors like os cil la tions
of the riv erside line and movements of the streambeds had the greatest impact on
the district’s development.
As the pa gan burial ground on Starokyivs’ka Hill (Cemetery I) stopped func tioning,
those who died in the old faith might have been bur ied in Cemetery II, close to
the church of St. Nicholas on Ugors’ky de scent. How ever, in the early eleventh century
the first Christian cemetery ap peared in Podil near the mouth of the stream which
crossed the territory of Podil in an east-west direction, almost on the bank of
the Pochaina River.25
By this time the Lower Town had reached its max imum size, approximately
180 hectares. The ur ban sys tem was enriched with new streets, along which new prop e-
rties emerged. The construction of stone structures must have been sup plemented by
the construction of timber churches. The re mains of such a church were discovered
during the ex cavations of 2003 not far from the plot of the initial building
(3/7 Mezhyhirs’ka Str.) Ap parently, these were private churches.
Scandinavian and North European early mer chant towns in gen eral pro vide a re li-
able parallel to Podil’s initial lay out as a settlement stretching along the wa terfront.
Hopefully, fu ture ex cavations will reveal this model in more de tail, allowing compara-
tive studies with the towns of Viking-Age Swe den, such as Sigtuna. How ever, dur ing
the next phases of ur ban de velopment, when the town of ad ministrative type formed in
the eleventh century, Byzantine influences prevailed.
Most of the Scan dinavian imported ob jects in Kiev of the ninth through the early
eleventh cen turies have been excavated in the Podil dis trict and the so-called “Flat
part” (Ploska chastyna) ad jacent to it on the northwestern side, but also come from
the burial ground on Starokyivs’ka Hill with its “St. Michael’s part” tow ering over
the Podil dis trict. To a lesser extent the Scan dinavian ma terials have been traced on
Zamkova Hill (Kyselivka). The North European artifacts found in the Podil district as
well as on Zamkova Hill were originally con nected with res idential complexes.
The situation in the “Up per Town” is quite different. Up to the 980s, Scandinavian fab-
rications were de posited here in the burials of Cem etery I. Af terwards, oc casional ar ti-
facts of North Eu ropean or igin came from the prince’s court and household complexes
of the Kiev no bility. The number of Scandinavian items dating from the ninth to
the eleventh century found in Kiev, ac cording to the data of the recently compiled cata-
logue, amounts to 70 items from 64 sites. Judg ing from their ar chaeological con text,
they were in te gral components of ur ban material culture and were used by both men
and women re siding in Kiev. Scandinavian in type and style, these ob jects were not
limited to the military sphere, but represent daily life of the town’s residents. Hoards of
Me di eval Kiev from the Per spec tive of an Ar chae o log i cal Study 159
25 Ibidem. P. 96.
Arabic coins suggest that the periods of their accumulation were also linked with
Scandinavian activity.
Our dis cussion of the Kiev’s or igin sug gests that the city was founded and initially
set up as a mer chant town of North Eu ropean type. Its ma jor function was trade, which
determined its orig inal layout and defined its de velopment for the first hun dred years.
During this time the town proper was lo cated on the low terrace over looking
the Pochaina River, while a vast burial ground occupied the plateau. Only later, with
the massive con struction ef forts by Volodymyr and Yaroslav, did the city’s center shift
to the Up per Town. The initial stage of Kiev’s history must be viewed in the context of
urbanization pro cesses in Viking-Age Northern Europe.
²íñòèòóò àðõåîëîãi¿ ÍÀÍ Óêðà¿íè
160 ÄÈÑÊÓѲ¯
|
| id | nasplib_isofts_kiev_ua-123456789-190475 |
| institution | Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |
| issn | 1995-0276 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-12-07T18:14:39Z |
| publishDate | 2005 |
| publisher | Інститут історії України НАН України |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | Sahaydak, M. 2023-06-09T17:44:46Z 2023-06-09T17:44:46Z 2005 Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District / M. Sahaydak // Ruthenica. — 2005. — Т. 4. — С. 138-160. — Бібліогр.: 25 назв. — англ. 1995-0276 https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/190475 en Інститут історії України НАН України Ruthenica Дискусії Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District Article published earlier |
| spellingShingle | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District Sahaydak, M. Дискусії |
| title | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District |
| title_full | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District |
| title_fullStr | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District |
| title_full_unstemmed | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District |
| title_short | Medieval Kiev from the Perspective of an Archaeological Study of the Podil District |
| title_sort | medieval kiev from the perspective of an archaeological study of the podil district |
| topic | Дискусії |
| topic_facet | Дискусії |
| url | https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/190475 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sahaydakm medievalkievfromtheperspectiveofanarchaeologicalstudyofthepodildistrict |