Достовірність літописних даних про похід Володимира Мономаха проти половців у 1111 р. (хронологічний, географічний та музейно-культурологічний аспекти)

Abstract

Study of the Polovсians history in the end of the 11th – the beginning of the 13th century AD was traditionally based on data from Old Rus’ian chronicles. In some cases, discrepancies were observed between different lists of these chronicles. Therefore, there was sometimes distrust in the teaching of the sequence of events by Old Rus’ian chroniclers. It especially applies to the information about Volodymyr Monomakh’s military campaign against the Polovcians on the “Don” in 1111. The most detailed information about this military campaign is contained in the Ipatievska and Voskresenska chronicles. Therefore, it became the object of research. The main goal of the proposed research is to determine the degree of reliability of the information about Volodymyr Monomakh’s campaign against the Polovtsy in 1111, which is contained in these chronicles. It required solving certain issues. So, these chronicles contain the information about the very early date of Easter in 1111 – April 2 (Sunday). All these questions forced the authors of this article to study the history of the Easter tradition and mathematical verification of the data of the chronicle texts. It gave a positive result. However, the date of the arrival of Volodymyr Monomakh’s troops on the “Don” (Siverskyi Donets) differs in both lists of chronicles: according to the Ipatievska chronicle, it happened “in the sixth ‘nedelya’ of fasting”; according to the Voskresenska chronicle – “in the fifth ‘nedelya’ of fasting”. The analysis of the texts shows that the compilers of these two chronicles followed different chronological approaches, but, in accordance with it, they gave one date – March 19. There are still lively disputes regarding the localization of the Polovtsian centers – Sharukan (Cheshuyev) and Sugrov. Today it is possible to localize only one Polovtsian center – Sharukan near the modern Zmiyiv town, because, in the language of the Polovcians, the name of their Khan Sharukan meant “Dragon, Snake” (Ukrainian Dragon is Zmiy). Analysis of chronicles shows that the population of these Polovtsian towns was mixed: there were not only the Polovcians, but also representatives of the agricultural Christian world. Exhibits from the archaeological collections of the Zmiyiv Museum of Local Lore show this diversity of the population in the Polovcian period. The authors of this article used these unpublished museum collections to solve the problem. Thus, the data of the Ipatievska Chronicle about Volodymyr Monomakh’s campaign against the Polovtsians in 1111 can be fully trusted.