THE NEW-FOUND OLD RUS SITES ON THE LOWER TETERIV RIVER BASIN

Abstract

The paper is the brief description of the Old Rus sites situated on the Lower Teteriv River banks. Still recently that area was one of the poor studied regions of the Kyiv Polissia area. According to the 19th century sources there were 2 medieval hill-forts here. 13 settlements of the 10th—13th centuries were found on the territory of Ivankiv region in the 20th century. During the last decade the authors and other researchers have inspected 15 of the 22 settlements known in that area. The most of them were discovered first. The ceramics of the 10th—13th centuries, iron slag, domestic and production artifacts (iron knife, stone spindle whorl and millstone) were found on these settlements. More than half of them (12 ones) have been found on the uplands of the Teteriv and Zdvizh floodplains that hold the promise of the medieval sites at other locations of the river valleys. The researchers of the second half of 20th century considered that settlements on the river’s valleys were seasonal sites of the metallurgists and herders. The square of the found floodplain settlements and the number and characteristics of the finds indicate the different conditions of their functioning and purposes. They can be preliminarily divided into 3 groups. The traditional settlements with permanent inhabitants belong to the first group. They are of largest sizes compared to other floodplain settlements. Another group includes so-called seasonal settlements. The population of these sites (or their part) occupied the site after high water and lived until autumnal cold weather. The both groups probably could be of production character. The sites occupying small areas (mainly about 1000 m2) with a little number of ceramics represent the third group. Perhaps they were associated with production activity on floodplains. People who were given temporary employment of shepherds or fishermen could live there. The proposed classification of the Old Rus floodplain settlements is pretty conditional because it is based on such indications and characteristics as sizes, quantity of ceramics found etc., obtained during archaeological survey. Ceramics of these sites dated both to the 10th—11th and the 12th—13th centuries that testifies to further floodplain development and appearance of the new settlements.