Early Slavic housing from Belz surroundings

Territory of the upper reaches of Western Bug River, especially the annalistic of Belz in Solokiya and its surroundings, is rich in archeological sites. In 2016, as part of the Program «Protection and Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of the Lviv Region for 2016–2018», conservation research was conducted at the settlement Belz 22 (Hora). It is a multi-layered settlement with cultural and chronological horizons from the final Paleolithic to modern times. Information and research on it were conducted with advantages during XX century however, for the first time in the settlement; remains of a Slavic dwelling-semi-dugout (object 20) of the Prague culture were discovered and studied. Research has shown that dwelling had two periods of functioning. Traces of restructuring were confirmed, which led to a reduction of the area and changing of the shape – from rectangular to square. Evidence of the reconstruction was the remains of two clay ovens, the oldest of which was partially cut down by a later wall. Under the remains of this wall above the furnace a Roman denarius of the II century was found. Ovens are built on special sites made of compacted clay. The older oven has a dome lined with special rollers. Discovered material is represented mainly by handmade ceramic pots, some of them are reconstructed. Some of the forms of utensils were common during the late V – early VI centuries, and the other part – during the second half of VI – early VII century. This division corresponded to the periods of housing. An important find was the weights for the loom, which were reused to build the oven. An additional evidence of the development of weaving in the settlement is a bi-conical spinner with flat platforms, which comes from dwelling. The settlement on the outskirts of the annalistic Belz is characterized by permanence and genetic connection throughout the Middle Ages – from individual Slavic settlements in this region to the creation of a separate principality around the big city. Key words: Prague culture, Belz, Solokiya, dwelling, oven, ceramics, denarius.

Review of the problem of transforming the name of Mezhybizh town in the light of new archival sources

It is noted in the article that the first written information about Podillya towns in Polish sources dates back to the end of the 14th - first half of the 15th century, and in the ancient Old Rus` chronicles there are mentions only of some towns, among which there is Mezhybizh town, located between rivers Pivdennyi Buh and Buzhok. It is stated that the location determined its name. However, it is established that the name Medzhybizh, which has survived to the present day, is fixed in the documents of the late Middle Ages. On the basis of the discovered materials, which are iconographic materials and archival documents of the Sieniawski family, an attempt was made to trace the transformation of the name of the town from the 12th to the 18th century. It is claimed that this name could have been established thanks to beekeeping. It is known that the production and sale of honey and wax played an important role in the economic and financial life of many cities, including Medzhybizh. During the analysis of archival sources, it was established that the document on construction and repair works in the Medzhybizh key for 1727 it is stated that in Nova Syniava a new winter house for beehives was built, which did not exist before, and peasants no longer spent much time and they didn`t drove apiaries to Medzhybozh in the autumn and back to Nova Syniava in the spring. The same clay stebniks were built in Khodkivtsi and Kopystyn, 30 km from Medzhybizh. However, for 10 years in the description of Novosinyavsky court in 1738, the stebnyk on two pillars is marked as old. Only in the document for 1759–1760 was the treasure stebnyk of Medzhybizh first mentioned, in which magnate apiaries were probably kept in winter. We assume that it could be located under the magnate's chambers and rooms in the south-eastern part of the castle of Medzhibizh or near the castle at the court of the Czartoryski, which was surrounded by a moat and an oak fence. Although such an assumption requires thorough research. Also on the map of the geometer Anthony Endrzejowski in 1772 in the explication we find mentions of three large apiaries, which were located near Medzhybizh, on the outskirts of the village Markivtsi. Key words: Medzhybizh, Sieniawski, Czartoryski, stebnyk (a building designed for wintering bees), honey.

Golden hoard from Bushtino (Ukraine)

The territory of the modern Transcarpathian region of Ukraine is rich in Bronze Age hoards (about 200 complexes are known). However, just a small part of them includes only gold objects. The gold items of the treasure were interpreted as Tarpa type earrings and dated to the Opaya horizon (BD). Re-analysis of the finding allowed reviewing the data of the statement. The article proposes to refer the complex to the period of the BC and, perhaps, even BB1, and to interpret gold implements as elements of a special hairstyle or headdress (crown?). The hoard from the village of Bushtino (Khust district), which is the focus of our article, also belongs to them. The hoard was discovered in 1911. It consisted of 13 jewellery items (11 gold pendants and 2 bracelets). To date, only 3 items have been saved. They are stored in Uzhgorod, in the Transcarpathian Museum of Local Lore named after Tyvodar Lehotsky. Jewellery items from Bushtino belong to two types: Tarpa type of earrings (1) and Bushtino type of pendants (2). All of them are ornamented in one technique and in one style, and also have common or close motives (paired zigzag lines, crosses, stars, etc. and their combinations) and compositions. The analysis of ornamental motifs of ornaments from Bushtino shows that most of them have analogies on products of earlier times, periods BB1 - BA2. Tarpa-type bronze earrings in the Pilin culture (Northern Hungary and Eastern Slovakia) mostly also date to an earlier time (BC period). The author of the article proposes to determine the chronology of the Bushtino hoard not later than the period of BC or even BB1. Based on archaeological and ethnographic data, as well as the number of ornaments in individual complexes, it is hypothesized that gold items from Bushtino could be either part of a special hairstyle (women?), or part of a special headdress (crown?) made of organic materials (fabric, leather). Rich headdresses (crowns) existed in the Bronze Age in Western Asia and Europe. Probably the implements from Bushtino belonged to someone from the elite unit of cultural bearers of Suciu de Sus (Stanovo). Key words: Superior Tisa Region, Bronze Age, gold hoard, chronology, interpretation.

Barrows with stone lining in Belarus and Ukraine

The range of Medieval burial structures on the territory of Belarus includes barrows with stone lining. Commonly, one layer of stones encircled a barrow, but two layers’ lining could also be met. Funeral rite can be described as inhumation at the horizon level or in a pit with western orientation of the dead. Individual burials are most characteristic though double burials were practiced too. Not every burial mound contains grave goods. The items are represented by ornaments, amulets and pots of mostly Slavic type. The finds date back to the 11th – early 12th or 12th – 13th century. The same burial ground could also contain barrows composed entirely of earth, ones including stones interspersed or in the form of thin pavement at the horizon. Barrows of this kind are spread both in central Belarus and farther to the north, covering partly the Dzvina Basin, or more often to the south-west – in the Middle Buh Basin including Polish and Belarusian parts. In Ukraine barrows with stone construction were studied in Zhytomyr Polissya Region where almost 20 burial grounds of this type are known. Such barrows can be found in some other places too: in the Ros’ Basin, in Bukovyna (two barrows with stone lining dated back to the 12th – mid 13th century have been excavated there), in Podilia (burial sites in Zhnyborody I, Sokilets’, Hlybochok). In archaeological studies, there’s a tendency to assign all the barrows with stone constructions to the range of so called stone barrows which are considered to be burial sites of the Jaćviahi. Though in the eastern part of Mazur Lake region and in the basin of the Chornaya Hancha river where the Jatvingians have been located according to the evidence from chronicles there’s no barrows dated back to the 10th – 13th centuries at all. At the same time, in the first millennium AD barrows with stone lining were spread in the range of the Eastern Balts tribes: on the territory of Latvia (tribal areas of Latgaly, Siely, Ziemgaly) and Lithuania (the area of the Eastern Lithuanian Barrows Culture) where they dominated between the 4th and 7th centuries and still could be met in the 7th – 10th centuries. However, we know Eastern Balts’ barrows with stone lining of the eleventh century in the south of Lithuania and bordering part of Belarus, which are chronologically close to the barrows with stone constructions in the rest part of Belarus and in the Middle Dnipro region. The emergence of these kind sites in Bukovyna and Podillia became possible in the result of the union of Volhynian and Galician principalities, i.e. after 1199. Key words: barrows with stone lining, grave goods, Middle Buh region, Zhytomyr Polissya region, Bukovyna, Podillia, Jatvingians, the Eastern Lithuanian Barrows Culture.

In Austrian, Polish and Soviet Lviv: prosopographical portrait of Markiyan-Orest Smishko

This article is dedicated to famous Lviv archaeologist Markian-Orest Smishko, whose 120-th anniversary is celebrated by the scientific community on November 7, 2020. The life and scientific activity of archaeologists during periods of different political regimes are displayed on the basis of a large source base. Lion’s share of the researcher’s archives is preserved in Lviv. However, most of them, in particular, materials from the family archive, were introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. M. Smishko was born, lived and worked all his life in Lviv. His formation as an archaeologist can be dated back to the interwar period and is associated with the Polish University of Lviv. Till 1939, he discovered, researched, and put into scientific circulation a large number of archaeological sites that made his name well-known. Special place in his scientific research of this time belongs to sites of the Early Roman period. Simultaneously, M. Smishko conducted classes for students, took part on scientific grants, organized archaeological collection of the University and restored archaeological finds. He was one of L. Kozłowski’s favorite pupils. The next stage of M. Smishko’s life is connected with academic archeology of Lviv. From 1940 to 1961, M. Smishko headed the Department of Archeology, which was a leading academic institution in western Ukraine. Initially, it was Lviv Department of the Institute of Archeology of Academy of Sciences of USSR, and since February 1951 – Department of Archeology of the Institute of Social Sciences of Academy of Sciences of USSR. Here M. Smishko showed himself best as a scientist and organizer of academic activity, carried out his most resonant field research, published most important scientific works, including «Карпатські кургани І тисячоліття нашої ери» («Carpathian barrows of the first millennium AD») (1960) in which he distinguished a separate archaeological culture of Carpathian Tumuli, defended his doctoral dissertation (1965), raised a whole constellation of his pupils and followers. Key words: Markian Smishko, barrows, cemeteries, burial sites, Early Slavic archeology, Roman period, Carpathian Tumuli culture, glass workshop, Komariv.

Preliminary archaeological studies (surveys) on the project of the bypass road around Berezhany town

The article offers results of preliminary archaeological investigations, conducted by Scientific Research Center «Rescue Archaeological Service» (Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) in 2007 and 2017, prior to the construction project of the bypass road around Berezhany town in Ternopil region. It provides information concerning the newly discovered archeological sites as well as the elaboration of the obtainable data on formerly revealed sites in the surroundings of villages Lisnyky, Lapshyn, Hayok and Hlynovychi. According to archival and bibliographic data, archaeological surveys were previously conducted in 2006 by the expeditions of Mykhailo Filipchuk and Mykola Bandrivsky nearby villages Lapshyn and Hynovychi. However, the summaries of these surveys are insufficiently published and besides presenting the incoherent results, which cause some confusion in the number of sites. In 2007, expedition of Rescue Archaeological Service has re-examined the multi-layered settlement Hynovychi I, collecting the items from the Late Paleolithic to the Early Iron Age. Subsequent rescue archeological excavations were carried out in 2008 by the expedition led by Bohdan Salo. Ancient Rus settlement Hlynovychi III was discovered adjacent to the previous site. Around the village Lapshyn, additional archeological sites were discovered, namely Lapshyn III, IV, V, and VI, which behold several phases of the region’s inhabitants starting from the Paleolithic and until the Age of Principalities. Materials of Vysotsko and Chernyakhiv cultures are predominant on these sites. Four groups of barrows were located on the forested hills near village Lisnyky, named therefore Lisnyky I, II, III, and IV. They contain a total of 20 barrows, which could be dated to the Bronze Age. Altogether, the explorations of 2007 and 2017 has newly discovered or identified ten archaeological sites, including settlements and burrow necropolises. Seven previously known settlement were localized due to the updated information. As a result, the archeological map of the region was significantly supplemented, with the names and numbers of archaeological sites well-coordinated. Some of the ancient settlements and the barrow groups are located along the route of future bypass road, thus making it necessary to conduct preventive archaeological excavations. The results of intended studies will definitely clarify cultural and chronological identity of these sites. Key words: archeological surveys, preventive archeological studies, assessments of the impact on the archeological heritage, bypass road around Berezhany town, settlement, barrow group, Paleolithic, Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Late Antiquity, Vysotsko culture, Chernyakhiv culture, Age of Principalities.

Semantics of images of funeral vessels from Rovantsi cemetery of the Final Bronze Age

The study of the semantics of images on archaeological artifacts is a matter of great interest, because the content of ornamental compositions, ideograms, symbolic signs can be interpreted in the context of the sphere of contemporary religious doctrines. This also applies to the ornamentation of ceramic ware found in burials. During the research of bi-ritual cemetery of Ulvivets-Rovantsi cultural group in Rovantsi (Volhyn region), dated back to the second half of IX–VIII centuries B.C., cinerary vase-urn with the remains of cremation was found. The vessel is decorated by images of four «trees» that stand on a wavy line and have raised branches and round tops. One of them differs by presence of broken branches. Comparative analysis of archaeological materials with using of ethnographic and folklore sources and examples from mythology allows us to explain the semantics of these symbolic signs, which form a holistic ideogram with figurative and symbolic meaning. It is confirmed that such an ideogram, which also occurs in the burial vessels of Corded Ware culture, Komarivska, Bilozerska, Pomeranian and especially Vysotska and Lusatian cultures, can be considered a universal sign system aimed at the figurative expression of one of the oldest religious doctrines. Image of a tree on a funerary vessel can be associated with image of the «world tree (tree of life)», a universal mythological archetype, a symbolic embodiment of the idea of rebirth, although it can also be a «tree of death» or a «tree of the underworld». It is also noted that it is possible to anthropomorphically interpret the image of a tree as a symbol of souls of the dead who stand on the banks of the river – boundaries of the worlds or float by the «river of death» to the afterlife, as evidenced by the image of water (river) under the tree. It is claimed that the images on the cinerary urn from Rovantsi represent magical signs-symbols used by ancient people, applied to the burial vessels to ensure «transition» of the dead to the afterlife and subsequent revival, possibly an encoded story about dead whose remains were buried in this vessel. After all, at the base of such beliefs is the ancient cult of ancestors known in wide areas in many cultures, which belong to different historical periods and ethnic groups. Key words: Late Bronze Age, Rovantsi cemetery, cremation, funerary vessels, semantics of images, magical signs-symbols, cult of ancestors, idea of revival.

Reconstruction of the burial № 2 destruction process at the Chernyakhiv culture cemetery Komariv-1

The article is devoted to the analysis of burial 2 from the Chernyakhiv culture cemetery Komariv-1 (Kelmentsy district, Chernivtsi region). The northern burial, destroyed in ancient time, belonged to a woman. The text provides a description of the archaeological complex, the reconstruction of the original appearance and the gradual reconstruction of the destruction process. Based on the known data about the costume of the bearers of the Chernyakhiv culture, the peculiarities of the funeral rite, the peculiarities of the placement of the grave goods, it was possible to reconstruct the original appearance of the completely destroyed burial. Thanks to anthropological determinations of the position of individual human bones in the burial, it was possible to determine the sequence of destruction of the skeleton and grave goods. After entering the grave pit, the skull was separated. The skull was then placed face down in the center of the grave. After that, the chest was destroyed. The bones of the legs were inserted in a certain sequence (crossed bones, inverted bones, mirror-embedded bones). The last stage of the destruction of the burial was the destruction of the skeleton of the sheep (food-offering) and turning over and breaking the utensils in the burial. After the burial was destroyed, the burial pit remained open. According to the information received, the burial was destroyed after the decomposition of the soft tissues of the body, but before the decomposition of the leather elements of the suit. According to the results of the study, the following conclusions were made: • Even a completely destroyed burial can be reconstructed to its original appearance. • Different areas of the skeleton were subjected to different manipulations. The thorax is destroyed, the skull and bones of the legs are re-inserted in a certain (non-anatomical) order. • Part of the inventory (at least one silver fibula) was removed from the burial, but the main purpose was not looting but the destruction of the burial. • Burial occurred between the decomposition of the soft tissues of the body and the leather elements of the suit. Key words: Chernyakhiv culture, funeral rite, destroyed burials, reconstruction of funeral rite, post-funeral rite.

«Pseudo-chambers» from the excavations of Kateryna Melnyk as a transitional link in development of the burial rite of Volyn population in the Early Middle ages

The article is devoted to a specific category of ancient Rus burial monuments of X–XI centuries. They combine the features of both elite chamber tombs of the Viking Age and ordinary Christian burials of the beginning of the II millennium AD. The author considered to combine such burials under the term «pseudo-chambers» or «imitation chambers». There are four types of them: 1) chambers with coffins; 2) ground chambers; 3) «earthen» chambers with wooden flooring, but without wall coverings; 4) «large burial pits» without wooden structures. In the article there is first analysis of the structural and ceremonial features of each of these chamber types. Moreover, the author identifies their peculiarities. The basis of the sample is taken from the materials of excavations headed by K. Melnyk in 1897–1898, which was the source of the greatest number of such monuments. Obviously, the erection of classical chamber tombs in the southern Rus territories ceased with the beginning of Christianization. However, the ancient Rus elite could not abandon this tradition completely, which was reflected in the appearance of imitation cameras. The vast majority of them inside permanent wooden structures contain a movablecoffin. This fact contradicts the basic idea of the classical chamber tombs as «houses of the dead» and indicates at least a significant influence of the Christian doctrine. The spread of pseudo-chambers in the territory of Volyn should undoubtedly be linked to the governmental activity of Volodymyr Sviatoslavych that may have been accompanied by an influx of people («greater men») from the Middle Dnieper. According to the composition of the funerary inventory and analogies from the adjacent territories, they can be dated from the end of X – the first half of XI centuries. Comprehensive analysis of construction features and funerary inventory of imitation chambers from the territory of Volyn does not allow us uniquely associate them with representatives of the ancient Rus elite. Within the region, mentioned monuments are not a direct line of development of classical chamber tombs, but merely imitate socially prestigious ceremonial elements of the latter. Key words: Ancient Rus, Volyn, funeral rite, imitation cameras, Christianization.

Cult objects from burials of the castle church in Uzhhorod: iconography, symbols, origin

Analysis was performed on the basis of research carried out in cooperation with the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Uzhhorod National University. During the archaeological excavations conducted in 2018–2019 on the territory of Uzhhorod Castle, the remains of burials within the ruins of the church were studied. It is noted that plundered remains were destroyed in the crypts and beyond their borders. Among the fragmentarily preserved funeral equipment were found personal items of Christian worship, which lay mostly in a redeposited state. It is determined that the artifacts represent several categories: scattered rosary beads, crosses and medallions. The article is devoted to the characteristics of six medallions. The main attention is focused on the iconography of images, deciphering inscriptions and clarifying the content and ideological value of plots. In the process of characterizing the images on the medallions, individual figures were identified, placed in pairs – Saints Sebastian and Roch, Paul the Hermit and Anthony of Egypt. It was found that a fragment of one medallion is dedicated to Saints Benedict and Zechariah, whose figures are missing, but their images symbolize the texts of the prayers they concluded. It has been established that two medallions on the obverse and reverse contain images of Jesus Christ and Mary, respectively. The features of the compositions presented on the medallions are identified with the corresponding plots related to the lives of the saints. The features of the compositions presented on the medallions are identified with the corresponding plots related to the lives of the saints. It is stated that the content of these stories reflects certain aspects of Christian ideology, which professed various spiritual communities. It is noted that the analysis of technical and technological features of medallions producing made it possible to link their production with professional Western European workshops and to date within the XVII – first quarter of the XVIII century. On the other hand, on the basis of a broad characterization of the content of iconography, connection with monastic orders, process of the formation of the cult of these saints, the emergence of their reliquaries in Europe, endowing the saints with certain guardian properties are revealed. Anti-epidemic significance of the cult of saints is noted. At the same time, it is stated that the considered medallions represent reflection of religious and funeral culture in the aristocratic environment of early modern Hungary. Key words: monastic orders, burials, medallions, iconography, Christian symbols, anti-epidemic guardians.