Olena ONOHDA
(Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine)

Outline: Summarizing and introducing results of recent archaeological investigations of Late Middle Ages Kyiv layers, which form the key source for studying city patterns continuity, including districts and streets.

  • Summarizing key results of recent archaeological investigations of 13th-15th cent. cultural layers in Kyiv;
  • Tracing the main directions of city historical topography development after Mongol invasion, including districts structure and streets pattern development.

The results of recent archaeological investigations add evidence to the city life continuity after Mongol invasion. Those facts enable tracing the main city structures development, including streets system during the period.

Abstract: Second half of 13th – 15th centuries are a very special period in the history of Kyiv for all the aspects of city life, including its historical topography. The importance of its studies is actualized due to further reasons: almost total absence of written and cartography sources for the mentioned period which highlights the role of archaeological data, and the fact of quite late including of those layers into the sphere of scientific interest (central city districts previously has been regarded as almost totally ruined by Mongol invasion of 1240). The level of city history knowledge is low for this period, especially comparing to earlier and later periods, while lots of city structures have survived periods of historical transformations.

Thus, studying the archaeological evidence opens the way to deeper investigation of Kyiv historical topography development. It includes the quantity of objects and materials found, the capacity of cultural layers, quality parameters of archaeological objects, the level of artifacts collections representativeness, and all the possible remains of districts’ and streets’ existence.

First full data summarizing of 13th-15th cent. materials has been published by Prof. G. Ivakin in 1996. Since that, lots of archaeological excavations have been conducted. They included findings of various housing, utility objects, cultural layers and district structures in all the main Kyiv districts: the Upper City, Podil and Pechersk.

Topographical concentration of the mentioned period objects is different for various parts of the city and concerns the streets structure investigation. Main archaeological data comes from the monastery areas which formed ‘cores’ of city patterns. One of the most interesting facts is development of Pechersk – formerly a peripheral district which, during Late Middle ages, started transforming into one of the important urbanization centers of Kyiv. The main communications between the city parts are also studied.

Keywords: Kyiv, Late Middle ages, archaeological object