GLASS ADORNMENTS FROM THE HODOSIVKA- ROSLAVSKE SETTLEMENT (discoveries of 2007-2011)

Abstract

Large-scale studies of medieval non-fortified points of Southern Rus conducted mainly during the last quarter of XX century within the framework of the targeted program developed by O. P. Motsya, demonstrated quite convincingly the high level of development of Old Russian settlement structures and fully parity relations in the mentioned period between the cities and their outskirts. Somewhat later, when the respective excavations were being deployed, similar conclusions were drawn by experts studying the settlements of Northern Rus. One of the components of this parity is the things in the cultural layers of the settlements which had been previously considered as the elements of urban culture, and some even as representing the feudal lifestyles. Glass bracelets were also attributed to the components of the wealthy town costume: despite the considerable excavations there were found in rural cemeteries and, because of lack of wide scale excavations on settlement structures, were not found on the latter. The data obtained from the mentioned researches of the end of XX — beginning of XXI centuries led to a decisive rejection of this approach and thinking of the «urban» nature of these garnishes in our time publications, if at all mentioned, either due to inertia or as a tribute to the historiographic tradition.
 Substantially, that before the XII century there were pieces of work of Byzantine craftsmen in Rus affordable mainly to the representatives of the wealthy society group. With the proliferation of mass handi-works of glass-makers in Kiev and other towns of Rus this category of garnishes found its consumer and in locations rather remote from where they were made. At the same time, at some points, the number of the said findings per area unit exceeds even the figures from capitals and it is not always possible to find an explanation for this phenomenon.
 Khodosivka-Roslavske settlement in the southern suburbs of the capital is one of the archeological sites where the number of fragments of these garnishes is much higher than other items. The settlement was opened by the Northern Expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2007 and is studied annually within the framework of the relevant scientific planning topics. From the first season of excavations, the location has attracted the attention with a rather high level of material culture of its population (precious garnishes, expensive tableware, weapons, items of military equipment, etc.). For five years of work on the site 1041 m2 area was opened, which collected 566 fragments of glass bracelets, although the number of other traditional glass garnishes, i.e. beads, reaches only 8. It is noticeable that the named categories of things by characteristics correspond to the pieces of work traced at other points in Kyivan Rus. At the same time, the features of the bracelets from the settlement are quite substantially different from those of the Kyiv pieces of works, although certain aspects of the high level of development of this point were explained by the inclusion in the structure of the capital metropolis.
 As a result, neither the chronology of the point, the prosperity of which attributes to the peak of the bracelets making by Old Rus and, first of all, Kyiv craftsmen (though for quite a long time continues after the end of glass making in Rus as a result of the Batyi invasion), nor the neighborhood to the capital, nor significant amount of glazed tableware (the manufacturing technology of which is close to the processes associated with glass making, but the evidence of local development of this industry in the settlement is lacking) does provide an exhaustive explanation of the causes of the said phenomenon.
 Accordingly, at this stage of research, the traced feature of the point remains one of its specific features, but it testifies for the need of further research of both the Khodosian settlement and the medieval settlements in general, since the excavations of the said category of sites have potential of revealing so far unknown pages of the national Medieval studies.