Ancient Rus Building at Vypovziv Hill-fort

Abstract

 Published are the materials of recent excavations at Vypovziv hill-fort where five dwellings and a series of economic objects were studied.

Dwellings can be divided into building horizons because they are situated quite compactly, overlap each other, and were rebuilt in the same foundation pits, which means they were built in different times.

The 10th century early building up includes two houses (structures 9 and 10) which were cut through by two more houses (structures 7 and 8). There are conflagration traces in the early dwellings synchronous to the traces of destruction at the hill-fort’s defensive structures. It is important to note that the structure 7 had two periods of existence: the first as a 10th century house and the second as a husbandry building for swamp ore stock storage. The same situation is in the structure 11. The second stage of building up (structures 7, 8, and 11) is also finishes with a local conflagration which is evidenced by six houses studied at posad.

The second stage includes husbandry buildings 7 and 11 with accumulations of swamp ore concretions. Swamp ore was stored in them for further iron smelting in metallurgical furnaces which remains were discovered in 2011 in the hill-fort’s western part. These structures and layers of metallurgic slag overlap the layers of the second conflagration at the hill-fort. This fact evidences that an industrial space existed here in the second half of the 10th century after a local conflagration.

Recent research elucidates the system and chronology of the hill-fort’s building up which can be compared with the building up situation at the hill-fort’s posad. The new information will allow to better understand the ethnic, social, and historic situation in the Desna River region.