RESEARCH ON MOTTE-TYPE FORTIFICATIONS IN RUS’ (Summary of Thirty Years of Experience in Identifying and Interpreting Archaeological Sites)

Abstract

The modern Ukrainian idea, an integral part of which has become the return to Europe, urgently needs historical symbols of this process. This applies especially to the state period of Ukraine’s history. In this regard, the 13th century is of particular interest — a period when the southwestern lands of Rus were increasingly moving away from Byzantine influences and entering the sphere of European civilization. This also affected the local material culture, which increasingly oriented itself toward Western models. Particularly compelling evidence of this process is provided by immovable sites, as their creation is reliably localized in space. Three decades ago, the first conical hillforts (stizhkovi horodyshcha) were identified in the territory of Volhynia, forming a territorial group within a broader category of the European tradition’s motte sites. Such objects convey information not only about purely defensive (architectural) aspects, but also about the socio-political history of Rus’. The main morphological feature of the sites under study is a solid earthen mound in the form of a truncated cone — a motte. In ancient times, such a mound was supplemented by a wooden or stone tower — a donjon, and a courtyard — a bailey. This motte-and-bailey fortification with a tower served as the owner’s residence and was a classic early feudal knight’s castle. Thousands of such sites are known in Europe. In the western and northern regions of Poland, these sites, known as osady stożkowe (conical hillforts), have been recognized for a long time, but they were studied with particular activity in the late 20th century. In Ukraine, the beginning of the study of sites belonging to the motte circle is associated with the identification of the so-called Volyn towers. Subsequently, when excavating hillforts with elevations in the form of a truncated cone, researchers did not pay attention to the internal structure of the mound. Sometimes they merely noted the absence of visually identifiable ramparts on it. Motte-type sites were first identified by the author in Volhynia as conical hillforts in 1997, based on their own research at the hillforts in Kamin-Kashyrskyi, Liuboml, Turiisk, and Vetly. Subsequently, the range of such sites expanded both through the inclusion of newly discovered objects and long-known ones that were reinterpreted. At the same time, the main challenges in the research process were the lack of large-scale excavations of mottes and delays in publishing the materials of their interpretation. In the southeastern regions of Poland, which were once part of Rus, similar sites were also not identified as a separate group for a long time. The situation changed in the early 21st century when several research projects were implemented here. A special place among them was occupied by the excavations of Danylo Romanovych’s residence on Vysokб Hнrka in Chełm. T. Dzieńkowski proved its affiliation to the motte type. The number of such sites gradually increased, reaching two dozen. Almost all of them are concentrated in Volhynia, including the left bank of the middle reaches of the Western Bug (the Chełm region). Based on external morphological features, the Plaskyi (Kopanyi) kurgan in Sedniv can hypothetically be included in this group as well. The validity of the author’s theoretical developments regarding the informativeness of external morphological features in attributing sites to the motte circle has been confirmed by practice. The predicted motte status of the mounds was confirmed during excavations at the hillforts of Horodyshche 1 near Lutsk, Khotyn near Rivne, Malyi Horodyshche in Busk, and, finally, on Vysokб Hнrka in Chełm.