Update on the 2005 Canada-Ukraine excavations in Baturyn (01/08/06)

Update on the 2005 Canada-Ukraine excavations in Baturyn

by Volodymyr Mezentsev

The Canada-Ukraine archeological expedition has conducted its fifth annual excavations of Baturyn in Chernihiv province, Ukraine.

In 2005, the Baturyn expedition team grew to nearly 150 students and scholars from the universities of Chernihiv and Nizhyn, and the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Dr. Volodymyr Kovalenko of the University of Chernihiv was the expedition leader; his assistant was Yurii Sytyi. Dr. Volodymyr Mezentsev of the University of Toronto acted as the CIUS research fellow responsible for the Baturyn project. Yurij Kovalenko of the Hlukhiv Historical Preserve particpated in field research. Prof. Martin Dimnik of PIMS has overseen the funding and helps to publish the findings of the excavations in the Canadian press.

Between 1669 and 1708, Baturyn was the capital of the hetman state and one of the most significant and prosperous towns in Ukraine. In 1708, it became the center of an insurrection led by Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1687-1709). In an alliance with Sweden, Mazepa attempted to liberate Left-Bank Ukraine from the overlordship of Muscovy. That same year, by order of Tsar Peter I, the Russian army seized Baturyn and burned it to the ground and also slaughtered the town's military garrison together with the civilian population of some 14,000 in total. This was a punitive measure designed to suppress the rebellion with the terror.

Baturyn recovered during the reign of Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovskyi (1750-1764) who moved his residence there from Hlukhiv. Although the Russian empire abolished the Hetmanate in 1764, Rozumovskyi continued to support the construction of monumental churches, schools, hospitals and the famous palace in Baturyn until his death in 1803. From this time, the town declined and became a semi-agrarian settlement. Since 2005, the Ukrainian government began to promote the development of Baturyn, restoration of its outstanding 17th-19th century architectural monuments, as well as expansion of the Baturyn National Historical Preserve with the regional-studies museum.

Last summer, in the town's citadel, two semi-subterranean dwellings with clay ovens from the Kyivan Rus' era were uncovered. These archeological finds strengthen the view that Baturyn raised from an 11th century fortress, outpost of the medieval Chernihiv principality.

The expedition unearthed remnants of the gallery or porch of the hetman's central palace in the citadel's bailey. A layer of charcoal and ash from the conflagration of 1708 that destroyed this state edifice has been revealed. In 2001-2004, archeologists excavated the entire site of this palace and reconstructed its ground plan and architectural type. This residence of Hetmans Demian Mnohohrishnyi (1669-1672) and Ivan Samoilovych (1672-1687) was a comparatively sizeable, rectangular, one-story, vaulted brick structure. It is likely represented the traditional type of masonry mansions of the Kozak officers' class, which originated from wooden Ukrainian peasant dwellings (khata).

On the ground of the former fortress, the team discovered a cemetery surrounding the hetman capital's main church, Holy Trinity Cathedral, commissioned by Mazepa ca. 1692. It, too, was ravaged in 1708. Next season, the expedition intends to locate and excavate the foundations of the lost Trinity Cathedral along with its tall belfry known as the "Mazepine tower."

Nearby, researchers unearthed the remnants of several burnt ordinary timber dwellings belonging to the fortress' residents. In one of the storage pits, the skeleton of a slain youth was revealed, while next to it, the burnt skull of another casualty of 1708. In the fortress, archaeologists found 15 silver and copper Polish, Czech and Russian coins, three neck crosses, pieces of the engraved copper setting from an icon or a book, two silver finger-rings, a copper seal-ring with carved images of Adam and Eve, two fabric fragments and a strip of brocade, artistic glazed ceramic tobacco pipes in the shapes of a flower and a boot, numerous pieces of broken fine ceramic tiles, or "kakhli," with relief patterns used for decorating the stoves in houses of the elite, fragmented costly painted table-plates and various glassware of the 17th-18th centuries, as well as musket or pistol bullets, a cannon ball and grapeshot, and a spearhead - relics of the heroic defense of Baturyn.

The discovery of a glass vessel's piece with the Cyrillic inscription in the fortress is of special interest. Together with finds such as fragments of a glass ink-pot and a seal-ring (used for letters and the other written documents), it provides evidence of literacy among the Kozak elite residing in the hetman capital.

In 2005 the expedition extended its archeological research of the remnants of Mazepa palace, erected by the hetman in the Baturyn suburb of Honcharivka before 1700. This rich villa was looted by the marauders in 1708 and then stood abandoned, falling gradually into ruins.

Archeologists unearthed new portions of foundations of the palace and its annex. They established that the structure's spacious basement (15 by 15 meters) had four storage rooms separated by two inner walls, crossing at right angles. Remnants of stairs were uncovered in the annex. Laboratory examinations of the bricks and lime mortar from wall debris conducted at the Institute of Geology of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv showed that they are 1.3 to 1.5 times stronger than the average contemporary brick.

According to the 1744 drawing of the Mazepa palace and archeological evidences the main part of this building (without the annex) had an approximately squared outline, three floors, a mansard, wooden ceilings and a vertical symmetrical composition of its front elevation. In general, this edifice was designed and adorned in the Western European or, more precisely, Italian Baroque style. However, its elaborated exterior embellishment included elements borrowed from Ukrainian Baroque architecture - a semi-cylindrical band made of figured bricks (possibly running along the socle); recessed whitewashed ceramic details on the cornices or portals; and circular tiles with multi-colored glazed rosettes nailed to the cornices.

The floor was paved with terra-cotta and blue glazed ceramic tiles. Conceivably, the Baturyn ceramists, inhabiting the Honcharivka quarter, fashioned these high-quality construction and decorative materials for the palace. Thus, recent archeological investigations indicate that Mazepa's largest, principal residence located near his capital was a remarkable structure with no known direct analogies in Ukrainian or Western architecture, while displaying some local decorative elements.

In the summer of 2005, within the citadel and fortress, the expedition uncovered 33 graves of Baturyn townsfolk from the late 17th to early 18th centuries (Mazepa's time). Seventeen of them, containing the skeletons of children and women buried in shallow pits without coffins, as well as some human remains devoid of any traces of a Christian burial, have been identified as victims of the massacre of 1708. For the first time, archeologists unearthed the two family graves with the skeletons of women together with their children or grandchildren who lost their lives simultaneously. In total, between 1996 and 2005, researchers excavated 92 graves of the 17th and early 18th centuries in Baturyn. Most of them - 48 graves - belonged primarily to the civilian population, which perished at the hands of the tsarist troops during the fall of the hetman capital.

Among the pre-1708 graves investigated in Baturyn, particular attention should be paid to one containing the skeleton of elderly Kozak who was buried with a wine goblet left near his skull. This deviates from standard Orthodox burial custom and represents a vestige of pagan rites, which was heretofore unseen in the study of Baturyn.

Thus, new archeological findings have reinforced the view that during the Hetman period Baturyn was one of the leading centres of development of Ukrainian Baroque culture. The town's total destruction in 1708 abruptly disrupted its intensive growth. While Baturyn recovered under Rozumovskyi, it failed to revive its broad-reaching Western economic and cultural contacts, as well as the high level of urban craft and distinctive folk art, which flourished there during the illustrious Mazepa era.

The Canada-Ukraine archeological expedition plans to continue its excavations in Baturyn in 2006. This field research, laboratory analysis of the archeological finds, and publication of its results depend on donors' support. The Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto administers the Canadian and American funds for the Baturyn project.

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To support this project, kindly send your donations to: Prof. Martin Dimnik, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 59 Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C4. Please make your check payable to: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Re: Baturyn project.

This institute will issue receipts for tax-deductible purposes. Organizations, institutions and private donors supporting the Baturyn excavations and dissemination of its findings will be gratefully acknowledged in the publications and public lectures related to this project.

For further information or any questions about the Baturyn archeological project, readers may contact: Dr. Volodymyr Mezentsev (100 High Park Ave., Apt. 808, Toronto, Ontario, M6P 2S2; telephone, (416) 766-1408; e-mail, v.mezentsev@utoronto.ca.

Supporters of the Baturyn project

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