Seljuk’s Material Culture in Ukraine According to the Results of Historical and Archaeological Research

Abstract

As a result of massive historical and archaeological investigations of the last decades of the 20th and 21st centuries, numerous samples of the material cultural heritage of the Seljuks were discovered in Ukraine. The researchers identified the stages of its development, main spheres of influence and features of manifestations. The first stage covers the period from the appearance of Oghuz on the territory of the Southern principalities from the middle of the 11th century to the first half of the 13th century. At this time, Seljuk influence can be traced in the applied art and decorative style of monumental architecture of Kyiv Rus. At the next stage - from the second half of the 13th century to the end of the 15th century, the influence of the Seljuks affected a wide range of material culture in the Black Sea region of the Mongol Empire, the Crimean Khanate, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rus. Bright examples of this time are artifacts from the cemetery of Mamay Surok (Zaporizhzhia region), examples of monumental architecture in cities and fortresses of Eastern Podillya, Southern Ukraine and the Crimea (Torhovytsia, Yurkivka, Solkhat). The last discovery of Seljuk architectural style is a stone carving that adorned the wall of the entrance gate of the Tiahyn fortress in the 14th-16th centuries (Kherson region). From the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century Seljuk heritage became a part of the material culture in the Northern Provinces of the Ottoman Empire and was widespread in the monuments of the Northern Black Sea Coast. The material culture of the Seljuks became a kind of cultural bridge that combined the achievements of Eurasia, the civilizations of the Middle Ages and early modernism.