ARCHITECTURAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION AT THE STAROSTA CASTLE IN GALICIA

Abstract

The article introduces the materials of the architectural and archaeological cross-section of the defensive ditch of the Starostyn castle of the 14th - 18th centuries in the town of Halych, Ivano-Frankivsk region. The stratigraphy of the exploration trench is described in detail. Among the discovered immovable objects are a rampart embankment, a two-row palisade, the remains of an internal paving, the foundations of the defensive walls of a log-frame wooden and earthen structure, a stone wall with a drainage hole. The chronology of the archaeological complexes is based on relatively narrowly dated movable artefacts: sleeved crossbow arrowheads of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; bowl- and pot-shaped tiles of the fifteenth century; fragments of household ceramics, box tiles, and Gothic block bricks of the sixteenth century. Architectural details, building ceramics, iron and glass products of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; as well as materials of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Finds from the princely period of the eleventh and first half of the fourteenth century and the early Iron Age of the sixteenth century BC were found in a redeposited state. The study of Starostynskyi Castle in the historical aspect makes it possible to identify seven specific construction periods of late medieval and early modern fortifications in the stratigraphic column. On the basis of the results of architectural and archaeological research, a number of hypothetical reconstructions of the development of wooden, earthwork and stone fortifications of the southern spine of Starostyn castle were made. The analysis of stratigraphic sections and the general urban situation prompts the author to put forward a hypothesis about the possible location of the entrance to the castle in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The archaeological reconnaissance crossing of the fortification line demonstrates a complex and still poorly understood history of the development of the Galician castle fortifications on the Dniester. It shows a promising prospect for both further thorough archaeological research and thoughtful preservation and use of the architectural and archaeological heritage of the unique complex in the future.