WHO OWNED VASYLYTSIA HOARD?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37445/adiu.2025.03.14Keywords:
Cherkasy, Vasylytsia, deposit of coins and other artifacts, Grand Lithuanian Duchy, Moscow Duchy, the Golden Horde Uluses, Middle Dnipro region, 14th century.Abstract
The author analyses the deposit of coins and other artifacts found in the village of Vasylytsia (currently a part of Cherkasy city) in 1921 and dated to the 14th century. The deposit included silver dirhams of the Golden Horde and their imitations and the women’s jewellery attributed to the Bulgar-Mokhshy type. For a long time this deposit was associated with a rich Tatar person, a Golden Horde administrative staff or a merchant. However, the specification of the chronology of deposition to the interval of 1376—1380 postdates the deposit to the time, when the region was governed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (more specifically, a vassal Podillia Duchy of Koriatovychi). Aiming to understand how the jewelry, which were typical for the Golden Horde Uluses (Volga Bulgaria in the Middle Volga and Mokhshy in Right bank of the Oka), occurred in the Middle Dnipro region, it is important to consider military and political situation between Dnipro and Volga of that time. It is well known that the Northeastern Duchies of Rus’ (mainly the Moscow principality) used a political weakness of the Horde resulting from the «Great Troubles» and organized military campaigns to the borderland Tatar Uluses in Volga and Oka regions. During this time (before 1380) at least three (!) representatives of the Lithuanian aristocracy served as Moscow voivodes (military governors). Those were Dmytro Mykhailovych (Koriatovych) or Bobrok-Volynsky, Andrii Olherdovych, Duke of Polotsk, and Dmytro Olherdovych, Duke of Briansk. This fact makes it possible to understand the Vasylytska jewellery as trophies obtained by somebody from Lithuanians or Rusins who served in the military units or retinue of the Dukes during the military campaigns to the Volga-Oka region.
References
Beliaeva, S. A. 1982. Iuzhnorusskie zemli vo vtoroi polovine XIII — XIV vv. (po materialam arkheologicheskikh issledovanii). Kiev: Naukova dumka.
Vasylytskyi… 1926. Vasylytskyi skarb. Korotke zvidomlennia VUAK za arkheolohichni doslidy roku 1925, s. 103-104.
Voitovych, L. 1996. Udilni kniazivstva Riurykovychiv i Hedyminovychiv u XII—XVI st. Istoryko-henealohichne doslidzhennia. Lviv: Instytut ukrainoznavstva im. I. Kryp’iakevycha NAN Ukrainy.
Elnikov, M. 2005—2009. Obraz drakona-zmiia na sergakh zolotoordynskogo perioda: kulturno-khronologicheskii aspekt. Stratum plus, 6: Prichernomorskie etiudy, s. 410-420.
Zraziuk, Z. A., Strokova, L. V., Khromov, K. K. 2007. Monetno-veshchevoi klad tretei chetverti XIV veka iz s. Vasilitsy, Cherkasskogo raiona Cherkasskoi oblasti (monetnaia chast). In: Khromov, K. K. (red.). Vostochnaia numizmatika v Ukraine. ІІ: Monety dzhuchidov i sopredelnykh gosudarstv v XIII—XV vv. Kiev: Kupola, s. 118-127.
Korzukhina, G. F. 1954. Russkie klady IX—XIII vv. Moskva; Leningrad: AN SSSR.
Kotliar, M. F. 1971. Hroshovyi obih na terytorii Ukrainy doby feodalizmu. Kyiv: Naukova dumka.
Kushtan, D. P. 2022. Arkheolohichni doslidzhennia v Cherkasakh u konteksti dyskusii pro chas zasnuvannia mista. Arkheolohiia i davnia istoriia Ukrainy, 3 (44), s. 517-533.
Kushtan, D., Lastovskyi, V. 2016. Arkheolohiia ta rannia istoriia Cherkas. Kyiv; Cherkasy: IA NAN Ukrainy; Yu. A. Chabanenko.
Litskevich, O. V. 2019. «Letopisets velikikh kniazei litovskikh» i «Povest o Podole»: opyt kompleksnogo kriticheskogo razbora. Studiorum slavicorum orbis, 16. Sankt-Peterburg: Dmitrii Bulanin.
Madurov, D. F. 2013. Predmety Vasilitskogo klada. Interpretatsiia. In: Klochko, L. S. (red.). Muzeini chytannia. Materialy naukovoi konferentsii «Iuvelirne mystetstvo — pohliad kriz viky». Kyiv, Ukraina, 12—14 lystopada 2012 r. Kyiv: NMIU, s. 183-193.
Masnenko, V. V., Polishchuk, V. T. (red.). 2017. Cherkashchyna: istoriia kraiu ta yoho liudnosti. Cherkasy: Yu. A. Chabanenko.
Mykhailovskyi, V. 2016. Na marhinesi dokumenta podilskoho kniazia Fedora Koriatovycha vid 1392 r. Ruthenica, 13, s. 188-197.
Mykhailovskyi, V. M. 2017. Formuvannia terytorii istorychnoho Podillia u druhii polovyni ХIV st. Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zhurnal, 3, s. 67-82.
Mykhailiuk, Yu. M. 2011. Pivdenna Kyivshchyna v 60-kh rr. XIV — 60-kh rr. XVI st. Cherkasy: Vertykal.
Nauchnaia… 1985. Nauchnaia zapiska o vremeni vozniknoveniia goroda Cherkassy. Derzhavnii arkhіv Cherkaskoї oblastі, f. R-4313, op. 5, spr. 1287, ark. 8-11.
Oleksandriv, O. 1925. Vasylytskyi klad. NA IA NAN Ukrainy, f. 59 (VUAK), spr. 46/23, ark. 25-27.
PSRL 1897. Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei. 11: Letopisnyi sbornik, imenuemyi Patriarshei ili Nikonovskoi letopisiu. Sankt-Peterburg: I. N. Skorokhodov.
Rudenko, K. A. 2015. Bulgarskoe serebro. Drevnosti Biliara. ІІ. Kazan: Zaman.
Sagdeeva, R. Z. 2005. Serebrianye monety khanov Zolotoi Ordy: katalog-opredelitel. Moskva: Goriachaia liniia — Telekom.
Strokova, L. 1999. Vasylytskyi skarb z Cherkashchyny iz zibrannia Natsionalnoho muzeiu istorii Ukrainy ta yoho filialu — Muzeiu istorychnykh koshtovnostei Ukrainy. In: Kovtaniuk, N. H. (red.). Muzei na rubezhi epokh: mynule, sohodennia, perspektyvy. Materialy yuvileinoi mizhnarodnoi naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii, prysviachenoi 100-richchiu muzeiu. Kyiv: NMIU, s. 75.
Strokova, L. 2001. Vasilitskii klad XIV v. In: Zakharova, N. (red.). Iuvelirnoe iskusstvo i materialnaia kultura. Sankt-Peterburg: Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh, s. 126-128.
Strokova, L. 2006. Zolotoordynskyi skarb z Vasylytsiv. Pam’iatky Ukrainy: istoriia ta kultura, spetsvypusk, s. 34-43.
Tikhomirov, M. N. (red.). 1959. Povesti o Kulikovskoi bitve. Literaturnye pamiatniki. Moskva: AN SSSR.
Shabuldo, F. M. 1987. Zemli Iugo-Zapadnoi Rusi v sostave Velikogo kniazhestva Litovskogo. Kiev: Naukova dumka.
Shcherbina, V. I. (red.). 1905. Liustratsii starostv Kievskogo voevodstva 1765 i 1789 gg. Arkhiv Iugo-Zapadnoi Rossii. VII, III: Akty o zaselenii Iuzhnoi Rossii XVI—XVII vv. Kiev: Imperatorskii universitet sv. Vladimira; G. T. Korchak-Novitskii.
