THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL MONUMENTS OF THE OLD RUSSIAN PERIOD IN THE BELGOROD REGION

Abstract. The article tells about the monuments of ancient Russian time on the territory of the Belgorod region. A description of the objects of the archaeological heritage, as well as the archaeological material found on them, is given.

Keywords: ancient Russian monuments, settlement, settlement, exploration, excavations

The territory of the modern Belgorod region in the XII–early XIII centuries was the outskirts of the Old Russian state, which left its mark on the nature of the population and archaeological study of the region. A brief sketch of the latter is the subject of this article.

Some ancient Russian settlements have been known to Moscow people since the XVII century . (Papkov, 2006. pp. 173-178), however, the scientific study of these antiquities began in the middle of the XX century.

In 1948, I.I. Lyapushkin recorded the Khotmyzhskoye settlement and the village of the Vorskla river (Lyapushkin, 1961. p. 312). A little later, in Soviet times, he was examined by A.V. Kashkin, A.A. Uzyanov, A.F. Evminova (Dyachenko, 2016a. p. 188).

In 1958, B.A. Shramko discovered a settlement with deposits of the Bronze Age and Old Russian time near the village of Dalniye Peski (now part of Belgorod)(Shramko, 1958. l. 3). It is located on the sand dunes of the first floodplain terrace on the left bank of the Seversky Donets River.

In 1958 S.A. Pletneva discovers the hillfort of Withers (Pletneva, 1958. l. 4, 5), and in 1962 – the settlement of Nettle (Dyachenko, 1998. P. 19). Both settlements, in her opinion, were border fortresses of the Chernigov Principality, located in the southeastern corner of the Kursk lot (Pletneva, 1964. p. 29).

In 1981-82, A.G. Nikolaenko discovered three loose multi-layered settlements in the valley of the Oskol on its left bank (Nikolaenko, 1982. l. 3, 5, 17). Two of them occupy sand dunes in the floodplain (Kuznetsovka 2) or the slope of the first above–floodplain terrace (Koloskovo 2), another one – Perch 2 - is located on the first above-floodplain terrace.

In 1983, 1990-92. The Slavic-Russian archaeological expedition led by A.G. Dyachenko conducted research of the Khotmyzhsky settlement. On the territory of the detinets (877 sq. m. opened) and the roundabout city (216 sq. m. m) deposits of the Bronze Age, Roman and Old Russian cultures, and Modern times have been identified. The materials of the XII – early XIII centuries were recorded by two stratigraphically inseparable cultural layers containing circular ceramics and archaeological objects. The Romensky shaft of the detinets was filled up in ancient Russian times, no traces of wooden structures were found on the shaft, which, according to the author of the excavations, is due to the active redevelopment of the territory in the XVII century. (Dyachenko, 2008. pp. 78-82).

In 1985, A.M. Oblomskim In the course of exploration in the valleys of the Koren and Koroch rivers, a number of multilayer monuments containing ancient Russian strata were examined: the villages of Shebekino-1, Churaevo-6, Nikolskoye-2. The villages are located on the first above-floodplain terrace of the left (Shebekino-1, Churaevo-6) and right (Nikolskoye-2) banks of the Koren River. In addition, on a number of monuments (Nettle-1, Churaevo-1 in the valley of the Koren River, Dobroye-1 in the valley of the Koroch River), circular dishes with linear and wavy ornaments were collected, attributed to the Saltovo-Mayak or Old Russian culture (Oblomsky, 1985. l. 1-3, 6, 7, 10, 20, 21). In 1985, during the excavations of the settlement of Shishino-5 (a dune in the floodplain of the left bank of the Seversky Donets River), an outbuilding of the Old Russian period was recorded in excavation "B" (Oblomsky, 1991. p. 154; Oblomsky, 1985. l. 77, 78).

In 1983, G.E. Afanasyev, and in 1985, 1987 and 1996, A.Z. Vinnikov excavated the hillfort of Withers (Vinnikov, Kudryavtseva, 1997, p. 291). Excavations have revealed that in ancient Russian times the settlement was fortified on the floor side with powerful wooden log cabins and a deep moat, and on the slopes side with wooden walls. The cultural layer containing various objects and archaeological objects (2 household and 7 residential buildings, 9 burials) was investigated.

The settlement in the Middle Ages functioned both in the pre–Mongol time (XI–early XIII centuries), as well as in the post-Mongol (the second half of the XIII - XIV centuries). According to the author of the excavations, it represented a strong point in the fight against the Polovtsians (Vinnikov, Kudryavtseva, 1998. pp. 50-71).

In 1995 and 2003, A.G. Dyachenko conducted excavations at the Krapivenskoye settlement. 210 sq . m . opened . the area of the roundabout city and the cultural layer of the R.zh.v., the Romensk and Old Russian periods, the New Time were studied. Three semi-dugouts, 30 utility pits, numerous ceramic and clothing materials are attributed to the Old Russian time (Dyachenko, 2012. pp. 102-105).

In addition, A.G. Dyachenko, during the exploration work of the 1990s – 2000s, discovered 7 villages, dirt and burial mounds of the Middle Ages near the Krapivensky settlement (Dyachenko, 2016b. pp. 63-65).

A number of settlements with materials of ancient Russian time were discovered during work on land acquisition in the XXI century . Thus, A.G. Dyachenko in 2002-2003 during archaeological observations in Belgorod on the left bank of the river. Veselka recorded ancient Russian deposits (Dyachenko, 2003). T.V. Sarapulkina in 2004 revealed a Nettle settlement-2 in the floodplain of the left bank of the Koren River (Sarapulkina, 2005. L. 12, 13). In 2005, T.V. Sarapulkina discovered two settlements (Terekhovo-5, Terekhovo-6) on the first floodplain terrace the left bank of the stream is a tributary of the Oskol (Sarapulkina, 2006. l. 29-30). In 2010, T.V. Sarapulkina discovered a settlement in the floodplain of the left bank of the Koren River (Pentsevo-3) (Sarapulkina, 2011. l. 41, 42). In 2012, A.A. Ostapenko identified an ancient Russian settlement on the slope of the first floodplain terrace of the left bank of the Razumnaya River (Yastrebovo-1) (Ostapenko, 2013. L. 11). In 2018. T.M.Aliyev examined the village of Shebekino-1, identified by A.M. Oblomsky in 1985 (Aliyev, 2019. l. 36-40).

In addition, several settlements of the XI-XIII centuries were discovered during the survey of the river valleys of the region. In 2016, A.A. Bozhko, on the first above-floodplain terrace and high floodplain of the left bank of the Razumnaya River, identified the settlement of Razumnoye-4 (Bozhko, 2017. l. 16-19). In 2017, V.V. Skrebtsova discovered the village of Russian Halan-2 on the first above-floodplain terrace of the left bank of the Halan River (Skrebtsova, 2018a. p. 18; Skrebtsova, 2018b. L. 10-12). In 2020, V.S. Pugach found materials of ancient Russian time south of the Boulders on the first above-floodplain terrace of the right bank of the Oskol River at the confluence of the Kazinka river (Pugach, 2021.L. 26-55).

The main finds on the above-mentioned settlements studied by the methods of archaeological exploration are circular pottery typical of ancient Russian times. In addition, fragments of a clay sinker, stone millstones (?) and a whetstone (?) were found on Nettle-2.

Thus, at present, about 30 sites with finds of ancient Russian time are known in the region.

Most of them are represented by loose settlements and poorly studied by archaeological methods.

Only three settlements of the XII-XIII centuries, studied to varying degrees by excavations, allow us to trace the material culture of the pre-Mongol time in the south-east of the Ancient Russian state.