У процесі дослідження чернігівського кургану Чорна Могила у ХІХ ст. Д. Я. Самоквасовим на його верхівці була виявлена давня цегляна конструкція. Окремі сучасні
дослідники У процесі дослідження чернігівського кургану Чорна Могила у ХІХ ст. Д. Я. Самоквасовим на його верхівці була виявлена давня цегляна конструкція. Окремі сучасні
дослідники пов'язують її з язичницьким обрядом поховання чи датують часом утвердження християнства у Київській Русі. У даній статті ці твердження автором спростовуються.
її з язичницьким обрядом поховання чи датують часом утвердження християнства у Київській Русі. У даній статті ці твердження автором спростовуються.
The Black Grave Mound (“Chorna Mohyla”) has long been recognized by researchers
as a unique burial monument of pre-Christian times. It is located on the modern territory of
Chernihiv town near the Yelets Monastery. The size of this mound is impressive. Its height
reaches 11 m, length in a circle – 125 m, and the diameter at the base is about 40 m. In its
time mound also girdled the moat up to 7 m wide. For the Middle Ages in Eastern Europe,
such sizes are record high.
For a long time, all knowledge about the Black Grave was limited to local legends, according
to which, in the XIX century this mound was called “the grave of Black Prince”. In 1872-
1873 the archeological researches of the Black Grave were carried out by D. Ya. Samokvasov.
Excavations have revealed that this mound is the burial place of several people buried in a
burnt-out ceremony at the place. D. Ya. Samokvasov also discovered and collected a large
collection of various finds here.
Since archaeological research Black Grave’s been almost one hundred and fifty years
that this monument has repeatedly drawn the attention of scientists. During this period, the
researchers considered a range of issues related to the Black Grave, some of which remain
controversial to this day. For the most part, the views of scientists coincide only in the date of
this burial in the second half of the tenth century and interpreting it as princely.
How to confirm the latest revision of researchers has become debatable and the issue of
dating the brick structures discovered D. Y. Samokvasov at the top of the mound Black Grave.
To this day, the brick from it has not been preserved, but the author of the excavations left a
detailed description of the building itself and the construction material of which it consisted.
In the middle of the twentieth century A. B. Rybakov, having considered this issue, dated the construction at the end of the seventeenth century. Nowadays, some researchers have attempted to revise the thesis of A. B. Rybakov. For example, Yu. Yu. Shevchenko assumes that the construction of this facility is an element of the pagan burial rite, and A. S. Shchiavelev
attributes it to the time of adoption of Christianity in Chernigov. In this article, the author, based on the analogy of building materials from other masonry structures of the city, refutes such claims and, including also written and cartographic sources, substantiates the conclusion that the brick structure found on the mound dates from the beginning of the eighteenth century.
