KYIV – If the fictitious archaeologist Indiana Jones were to descend several meters underground at the Dnipro riverside Poshtova Ploshcha (Postal Square), he would discover an ancient 1,500-square-meter living quarter with two bisecting streets dating to the 11th-12th centuries of the Kyivan Rus’ era. 

Unearthed in 2015 when an opaque construction firm started digging to build a two-tier underground shopping center, the magnificent site features an ancient street aligned with deteriorated wooden gates that leads to the historic Podil district and southward, parallel to Ukraine’s main waterway.