Статтю присвячено розгляду мікротопографії
могильника Х ст. на місці садиби пізнішої Десятинної церкви. Проаналізовані результати досліджень ХХ — початку ХХ І ст. дозволили з’ясувати місця розташування і розміри кількох курганних насипів, простежити зв’язок між інгумаціями і
горілими плямами над ними в складі поховальних комплексів.
The paper considers the issue of microtopography of
the 10th century pagan burial ground under the later
Desyatynna Church courtyard. At least 75 inhumation
burials of the pagan period have been discovered here
to the present. Also, several sections of barrow ditches
belonging to 7 barrows were discovered during excavations
in 2005—2011. These ditches made it possible
to determine the approximate diameter of the ancient
mounds, which ranged from 3.5 to 12 m.
Analysis of the results of the burial ground evcavations
of the 20th — early 21st century provided examples
of a combination of inhumation pit graves with
charcoal spots and soil layers of mounds above them in
single burial complex.
Sections of cultural layer belonging the object of
the size of 14 × 6 m over, studied in the central dome
square of the church of the late 10th century on an area
of 9 m². Four cultural horizons containing embers, ashes,
animal bones (with traces of fire and without it),
fragments of pots of the 10th century, and individual
objects, were discovered here. These layers alternated
with soil additions 0.2—0.4 m thick. According to the
location, construction, features of filling, this object can
be considered as a ritual site that served the cemetery
during funeral and post funeral rites.
Microtopographic and stratigraphic observations allow
us to assume the event of re-planning of part of
the pagan burial ground in front of the Starokyivske
hillfort fortification ditch.
The ditch was deepened and widened up to 6 m during
the modernization of the fortifications of the hillfort,
which happened probably after the Pechenegs’ attack on
Kyiv in 968. As a result, the mounds of barrows which
were the closest to the ditch were desroyed, and the entire
site was leveled and turned into an wide esplanade.
New ordinary graves without mounds appeared here
again at the final stage of the burial ground’s existence,
in the 970—990 AD. The construction of the Desyatynna
Church in 989 (991) put an end to the functioning of
the pagan cemetery in this area and totally destroyed
its outward signs.
