INVESTIGATION OF THE POROSSYA ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION IA NAS OF UKRAINE (2011—2016)

Abstract

The Porossya archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (PorAE) is part of the research project about the Old Rus Porossay. The project is realizing in the Department of Old Rus and Medieval Archeology of the IA NAS of Ukraine. First Porossya archaeological expedition started on August 9, 1945. In 2011 it was renewed. Investigations are carried out on the territory of the South of Medieval Kyiv Region. Special attention in research activity is focused on surveys of archeological monuments and their documentation.
 The basis of the expedition is the annual work within the framework of the research topic of the Department of Old Rus and Medieval Archeology of the IA NAS of Ukraine. The head of the expedition is Artem Borysov, the junior research fellow of the department. The model for the expedition is the organizational structure of multi-year survey expeditions, in particular, the Ovruch / East-Volyn archaeological expedition of the IA NAS of Ukraine (leaded by A. Tomashevsky and S. Pavlenko) and Cherkassy Forest-steppe archaeological expedition (leaded by M. Syvolap). Field route planning and tasks are related to the program for collecting and analyzing the source base and for recording and mapping of the archaeological sites of Porossay.
 By 2017, the expedition surveyed 160 archeological monuments of different chronological periodss. The work of the expedition is aimed at a systematic, full-scale survey of Old Rus monuments in river Ros basin and adjacent territories. An important direction of the expedition is the multy-season study of certain micro-regions (the Nehvoroshch basin, the vicinity of chronicle Torchskye). Such areas are gradually approaching the level of continuous inspection of the territory. In total, during the 10 seasons, participents of the Porossya archaeological expedition surveyed 267 archaeological sites (including 22 settlements), 118 mounds in 20 burial groups and 9 separate burial mounds.
 The tradition of archeological exploration in Porossya is related to the names of V. Dovzhenko, M. Kuchera, L. Ivanchenko. The work of the expeditions on the study of the settlements of the Kyiv region and the Zmiyiv shaft (leaded by M. Kuchera) and the detachments of the Dnieper Ancient Expedition (leaded by O. Mitsev, L. Ivanchenko) allowed to create a basic map of monuments for this territory in the time of Old Rus.