News from the Excavations at Baturyn
By Volodymyr Mezentsev
From
1669 to 1708, Baturyn, located in Chernihiv province, was the capital of the
Cossack Hetman state in central
In August 2006, a Canada-Ukraine archaeological
expedition continued its annual excavations in this town. The Canadian
Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), the Shevchenko Scientific Society of
America, and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (PIMS) in
The Baturyn archaeological expedition is being led by
Dr. Volodymyr Kovalenko from the
In 2006, the team took aerial photographs of the
Baturyn terrain to facilitate studies of the historical topography and urban
planning of the medieval and modern town. Excavations of the remnants of the
citadel’s defences showed that they consisted of two dry moats, a rampart with
inner timber structures, bastions, and a fence with towers made of oak
frameworks filled in with clay. Such traditional Cossack fortifications
withstood cannon bombardment better than stone or brick walls.
Within the former fortress, archaeologists discovered
a section of the foundations of Baturyn’s main cathedral dedicated to the Holy
Trinity. The edifice was endowed by Mazepa before 1692 and ruined during the
Muscovite attack in 1708. It was probably a spacious, cruciform (shaped like a
cross), centrally planned masonry church with five or seven domes. This design
was widespread in central
Researchers, this past summer, also resumed their
excavations of the remnants of the palace in the citadel site and graphically
restored its architecture and external decorations. The palace, which was
erected during the reign of Hetman Dem’ian Mnohohrishnyi (1669-72), was burnt
to the ground by the Petrine army. The palace was a relatively large, 25- by
21-metre, one-floor brick structure typical of administrative or chancellery
offices of the Cossack state and built in the distinctive Cossack Baroque style.
A corridor divided this edifice into the larger hetman’s private quarters with
an audience hall and a smaller compartment, containing a kitchen and storage
rooms.
The archaeological expedition also continued
investigating the footings and wall debris of Mazepa’s residence (1700) in the
Honcharivka suburb. Recent analysis reveals that this masonry palace (including
its appendix) was 20 by 14.5 metres in size and three storeys high with a
mansard and double-slope roof. Unlike most Ukrainian Baroque civil structures,
it had a deep square basement with four rooms and no central corridor or
vestibule dividing the interior into two sections. The main facade was
articulated by semi-columns of the Corinthian or Composite orders. It is the
earliest known secular edifice in central
Initial graphic reconstructions of the Honcharivka
palace prepared by archaeologists from Chernihiv erroneously depicted it with a
pure Italian Baroque exterior. These ignored important archaeological evidence
regarding the application of regional Ukrainian Baroque features, such as the
adornment of entablature friezes with multicoloured glazed ceramic rosettes.
Thus, Mazepa’s villa near his capital is the first example of combined Italian
(Roman) and Ukrainian Baroque decorative elements in civil architecture of the
Cossack state. The 1708 destruction of Baturyn, however, halted the development
of this hybrid palatial style in
In the settlement adjacent to the fortress, remnants
of a sizeable timber dwelling belonging to a wealthy Cossack officer were
unearthed. It also perished in the fire of 1708. An ornate 17th-century Polish
military belt of silvered bronze with a realistic relief of a mounted knight on
its clasp as well as a carved bone die and locally produced costly earthenware
with bright polychrome glazing featuring plant and geometric folk motifs were
found there.
In the fortress’ bailey and suburbs, investigators
discovered the following items: 13 silver and copper Polish and Russian coins;
a silver thaler (coin) struck at Basel in 1622; a 1669 lead trade seal from
Breslau (Wrocaw); a bronze finger-ring with an engraved coat of arms; three copper
neck crosses; a baton and belt-buckle; a tiny cast vessel or candlestick likely
from a church-plate; and an imported ceramic revetment tile with Latin letters
of the 17-18th centuries. These finds testify to the economic and cultural
vitality of the hetman capital and its extensive commercial relations with
Western and
In 2006, the team excavated 46 graves of the town’s
inhabitants, dating to the 17-18th centuries, on the grounds of the
citadel and fortress. Among them were the remains of 17 children buried in
shallow pits without coffins – casualties of the 1708 onslaught. This brought
the total number of early modern graves uncovered in Baturyn between 1996 and
2006 to 138. Approximately half of them, at least 65 graves, contained children,
women, and elderly people, who were slain by the tsar’s army together with the
town’s military personnel.
Excavations last summer have helped to advance our
knowledge of Baturyn’s urban planning, lost fortifications, the high standard
of Ukrainian and Western Baroque ecclesiastical and of palatine masonry
architecture and decorative techniques. They also shed light on native wooden
residences of the Cossack elite, international trade, artistic folk ceramics,
and the other local crafts. New archaeological evidence has corroborated and
supplemented both the oral tradition and historical records on the massive
punitive action taken against the hetman capital in 1708.
The Canada-Ukraine
archeological expedition plans to continue its excavations in Baturyn in 2007.
This field research and publication of its results depend on donors’ support.
The Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in
For
further information about the Baturyn archeological project, please contact Dr.
Volodymyr Mezentsev (