On the results of archeological excavations in Sophia of Kyiv in 2019 – 2020

Employees of the National Conservation Area “St. Sophia of Kyiv” completed a two-year archaeological study of the area of the reserve, located between St. Sophia Cathedral and the Metropolitan’s Residence. During 2019 and 2020, cultural layers up to 2.5 m from the modern surface were studied here on an area of about 100 m², and a number of archeological sites related to the history of the estate of St. Sophia Cathedral from the 11^th to the 18^th century were excavated.

The most interesting of the studied objects in this area are the remains of a monumental building of the late twelfth – early thirteenth century, from which the foundations composed of large boulders have been preserved, as well as the socle part and the lower parts of the walls, built of plinth on a cement mortar. The building was 8×6 m in size and was a rectangular structure, at the corners of which were four massive round pillars. The pillars of the western pair had separate foundations, not connected with other parts of the building, and the eastern pair of pillars was made on a solid platform with a characteristic semicircular apse protruding towards the cathedral. Given the considerable thickness of the foundations, laid to a depth of 1.2 m from the ancient surface, as well as numerous finds of molten lead, the building probably had a lead-covered cupola with a diameter of about 3.5 m, instead, the small size suggests that it played the role of a chapel.

The technique of masonry and the composition of building materials allows to date the building within the end of the 12^th – beginning of the 13^th century, and certain technological features indicate the involvement of Smolensk or Chernihiv masters in its construction. Probably, the chapel was a part of a large architectural complex, as evidenced by the unexplored remains of similar masonry, which are located a few meters to the south. Excavations have shown that the building did not last long, because at the end of the 14^th century it was in a ruined state.

In addition to the mentioned chapel, other archeological objects of earlier and later times were also studied within the excavations: the Christian burial of the first half – the middle of the 11^th century; a stone pavement and a platform covered with burnt clay of the second half of the 11^th century; the pit of a wooden farm building of the end of the 11^th – beginning of the 12^th century, which probably perished in a fire and was covered with construction debris related to some repair works in St. Sophia Cathedral. In the 14^th-15^th centuries an economic complex with several garbage pits developed in the studied area, and in the 17^th century two large wooden buildings emerged: one with a deep basement and the other on a brick foundation. Both buildings existed before the construction of the Baroque ensemble of Sophia of Kyiv in the first half – the middle of the 18^th century and probably were a part of the monastery buildings destroyed by fire in 1697. Finally, in the middle – the second half of the 18th century the territory of the studied area was crossed by a powerful brick wall, which separated the “graveyard” with burials around St. Sophia Cathedral from the estate of the Kyiv metropolitan.

During the archeological research of 2019 – 2020 a significant number of archeological artifacts of the 11^th – 18^th centuries were found, among which fragments of fresco painting and smalt mosaic of the 11^th century, plinths with building marks of the 12^th century, products from non-ferrous metals of the 11^th – 13^th centuries – are of special interest (copper book clasps, bronze and silver women’s jewelry, lead seals from the metropolitan archives, traces of jewelry production from the times of Kyivan Rus), fragments of medieval glazed and glassware, etc. Numerous finds are copper and silver coins of the 17^th – 18^th centuries from Sweden, Poland, Lithuania and Russia.

All finds obtained during the excavations in 2019-2020, after their appropriate study, will be transferred for permanent storage to the repository of the National Conservation Area “St. Sophia of Kyiv”. After the completion of the research, the most interesting archeological objects of the excavation, in particular the remains of the chapel of the 12^th-13^th centuries, were temporarily preserved until the issue of their perspective museumification will be resolved.

Head of archeological excavations, candidate of historical sciences T. A. Bobrovskyi

 

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Illustrations:

Fig. 1. Aerial photograph of the excavation with the most interesting archeological objects marked:

1) burial of the first half – the middle of the 11^th century; 2) stone paving of the second half of the 11^th century; 3) the remains of a chapel of the end of the 12^th – beginning of the 13^th century; 4) brick foundation of a wooden building of the 17^th century; 5) the pit of a wooden building of the 17^th century; 6) burial of the 18^th century.

Fig. 2. Some findings from the 2020 excavation:

1) bronze ring of the 11^th-13^th centuries; 2) bronze buckle of the 12^th-13^th centuries; 3) copper “kopoushka” (medieval ear stick) of the 12^th – 13^th centuries; 4) copper book clasp of medieval times; 5) lead seal of Kyiv metropolitan Ioann (90s of the 11^th century); 6) brand on the plinth of the 12^th-13^th centuries in the form of a cross; 7 – 10) copper and silver coins of the 17^th – 18^th centuries; 11) lead sinker 11^th – 13^th centuries.