Slavic tribes and their settlement. Brief description of the Drevlyans

The Drevlyans are one of the tribal associations of the Eastern Slavs, in the VI-X centuries. occupying the forest strip of the Dnieper right bank and the basin of the Teterev, Pripyat, Uzh, Ubort, Stviga (Sviga) rivers, in Polesie and on the right bank of the Dnieper.

The Drevlyans are one of the tribal associations of the Eastern Slavs, in the VI-X centuries. occupying the forest strip of the Dnieper right bank and the basin of the Teterev, Pripyat, Uzh, Ubort, Stviga (Sviga) rivers, in Polesie and on the right bank of the Dnieper. In the west they reached the Sluch River and the river. Goryn, northern and northwestern Pripyat, where they bordered the Volynians and Buzhans, in the north - with the Dregovichi, to the south, some researchers settled the Drevlyans all the way to Kyiv.

However, the decisive role in determining the boundaries of settlement of the Drevlyans belongs to the kurgan archaeological material.

The analysis of the burial mound materials was carried out in 1960 by I.P. Rusanova, who identified mounds with a purely Drevlyan feature - a thin layer of ash and coals above the burial. From here the disputed border lay along the Teterev River and in the interfluve of Teterev and its tributary Rostavitsa.

Probably, in the 6th-8th centuries, the kurgan burial rite was the main one. Here the burnt bones along with the ashes were placed in clay urns belonging to the Prague-Korchak type of ceramics. But there are some burials in burial grounds without mounds. Later burials of the 8th-10th centuries. characterized by urnless burial of burnt ashes.

Burials, as a rule, do not contain any grave goods. Rare finds of ceramics were molded vessels of the Luka-Raikovetsky type and early pottery pots. Signet-shaped temple rings with converging ends were also found.

In the 10th century, the ritual of burning was replaced by the ritual of placing a corpse on the horizon with the pouring of a mound with a layer of ashes from the funeral pyre. The direction of the head is most often western, only in 2 cases the head is directed to the east. Quite often there are coffins made of two long longitudinal boards and 2 short transverse ones; there were burials covered with birch bark. The poor inventory is in many ways similar to the Volynian one.

The Kurgan burial rite finally disappeared in the 13th century, like among the rest of the Slavs.

The Drevlyans, who lived in dense forests, got their name from the word “tree” - tree.

The Drevlyans had many cities, the largest of which were Iskorosten (modern Korosten, Zhitomir region, Ukraine) on the Uzh River, which played the role of the capital, Vruchy (modern Ovruch). In addition, there were other cities - Gorodsk near modern. Korostyshev, several others, whose names we do not know, but traces of them remained in the form of ancient settlements.

“The Tale of Bygone Years” reports that the Drevlyans “greyed in the woods... I lived in a bestial manner, living bestially: I killed each other, I ate everything uncleanly, and they never had a marriage, but I snatched a girl from the water.” The Drevlyans had a developed tribal organization - their own reign and squad.

The archaeological monuments of the Drevlyans are the remains of numerous agricultural settlements with semi-dugout dwellings, moundless burial grounds, burial mounds and fortified “hails” - the mentioned Vruchiy (modern Ovruch), a settlement near the city of Malina and many others.

At the end of the 1st millennium AD. e. The Drevlyans had developed agriculture, but less developed crafts. The Drevlyans for a long time resisted their inclusion in Kievan Rus and Christianization. According to chronicle legends, during the times of Kiy, Shchek and Horiv, ​​“the Drevlyans” had their own reign, the Drevlyans fought with the glades.

The Drevlyans were the most hostile East Slavic tribe towards the Polans and their allies, who formed the ancient Russian state centered in Kyiv.

In 883, the Kiev prince Oleg the Prophet imposed tribute on the Drevlyans, and in 907 they participated as part of the Kyiv army in a campaign against Byzantium. After Oleg's death, they stopped paying tribute. According to the chronicle, the widow of the Kyiv prince Igor, whom they killed, Olga destroyed the Drevlyan nobility, took several cities by storm, including the capital of the Drevlyans, Iskorosten, and turned their lands into a Kyiv appanage centered in the city of Vruchiy.

The name of the Drevlyans appears for the last time in the chronicle (1136), when their land was donated by the Grand Duke of Kyiv Yaropolk Vladimirovich to the Tithe Church.

Russian Civilization

The eastern neighbors of the Volhynians were the Drevlyans (Derevlyans), who received their name from the wooded area: “... zane sedosh in leseh.” The territory of the Drevlyans is not defined by the chronicle. It is only known that this tribe lived in the vicinity of the glades, northwest of Kyiv, and its center was Iskorosten.

The Drevlyans apparently had a developed tribal (semi-state) organization. The Tale of Bygone Years already reports on the first pages that they had their own reign. The chronicles contain information about the Drevlyan princes, tribal nobility (“the best men”) and the squad. Between the Drevlyansky and Kyiv princes until the middle of the 10th century. There were repeated clashes. Apparently, this is connected with the judgment of the author of the historical introduction to the Tale of Bygone Years, undoubtedly a Kiev resident, that “... the Drevlyans live in a bestial manner, they live bestially: they kill each other, eat everything uncleanly, and they never had a marriage, but they snatched a girl from the water.” (PVL, I, p. 15).

Until 946, the Drevlyans' dependence on Kyiv was limited to paying tribute and participating in military campaigns. In 945, during the collection of tribute by the Drevlyans, the Kiev prince Igor was killed. The following year, Olga and Igor’s young son Svyatoslav undertook a military campaign against the Drevlyan land, as a result of which the Drevlyan army was defeated and their city of Iskorosten was burned (PVL, I, pp. 40-43). The Drevlyans finally lost their independence and became part of the Kyiv state. The Drevlyansky land was now ruled by proteges of Kyiv. So, going to Bulgaria in 970, Svyatoslav planted one of his sons in the Drevlyan land (PVL, I, p. 49).

Attempts to restore the territory of settlement of the Drevlyans on the basis of chronicle evidence have been made repeatedly, but none of them can be considered successful. The brevity of the chronicle data about the Drevlyan land gave rise to very contradictory judgments regarding its borders. Thus, N.P. Barsov and L. Niederle believed that the Drevlyans belonged to the region south of Pripyat, between Goryn and Teterev, beyond which there was already the land of glades (Barsov N./7., 1885, pp. 127-129; Niederle L., 1956, p. 156). S. M. Seredonin allocated a wider space to the Drevlyans, limited by Goryn in the west, Pripyat in the north and the Kyiv Dnieper region in the east (Seredonin S. M., 1916, p. 146, 147).

A.L. Shakhmatov, using indirect data from Russian chronicles, assumed that the area of ​​Drevlyan settlement extended to the left bank of the Dnieper (Shakhmatov A. A., 1916, p. 100). Message from the chronicle: “And Volga walked through the wilds of the land with his son and his retinue, instructing regulations and lessons; and the essence of her camp and the catcher... and along the Dnieper the outweigher and along the Desna...” (PVL, I, p. 43) - meant, in the opinion of this researcher, that the area of ​​the Drevlyans included the Dnieper river with the mouth of the Desna. A. A. Shakhmatov identified Malk Lyubechanin with Mal Drevlyansky, which allowed him to attribute Lyubech to the Drevlyan land (Shakhmatov A. A., 1908, p. 340-378).

However, it is more plausible to interpret the chronicle report about Olga’s activities in such a way that the regions along the Dnieper and Desna were not part of the land of the Drevlyans, otherwise their mention would have been unnecessary. B. A. Rybakov revealed that A. A. Shakhmatov was mistaken in determining the identity of Mal Drevlyansky (Rybakov B. A., 1956, p. 46-59).

V. A. Parkhomenko agreed with A. A. Shakhmatov’s assumption about the spread of the Drevlyans to the Dnieper left bank (Parhomenko V. A., 1924, p. 46-50). In his opinion, Kyiv, mainly associated with the left bank, was originally a city of the Drevlyans and only in the 10th century. was conquered by the glades.

The decisive role in determining the boundaries of settlement of the Drevlyans belongs to the burial mound material. The first attempt to outline the area of ​​this tribe was made by the researcher of the Drevlyan burial mounds V.B. Antonovich. Before the field research of this archaeologist, scientific excavations in the Drevlyan land were not significant. Interesting studies of the mounds on Teterev in the vicinity of Zhitomir were carried out by S. S. Gamchenko (Gamchenko S.S., 1888). Very brief information was published on excavations in Annopol and Nemovichi (Volynskie Gazette, 1879; Kyiv Starina, 1888, pp. 34, 35). V. 3. Zavitnevich, who carried out excavations in the Pripyat River and in more northern regions, tried to outline the border between the Dregovichi and Drevlyan mounds (Zavitnevich V. 3., 1890a, p. 22). Since in the areas he studied, burial mounds on the horizon predominated, he considered them Dregovichi, and attributed burials in pits to the Drevlyans. On this basis, he drew the border between the Dregovichi and the Drevlyans south of Pripyat, and attributed individual burial grounds along Teterev (for example, Zhitomirsky) to the Dregovichi.

V. B. Antonovich’s burial mound excavations were concentrated in the southern and south-eastern parts of the Drevlyansky land and in neighboring areas of the glades (Antonovich V.B., 18936). According to this researcher, the clearings contained mounds with corpses, accompanied by horse burials. As a result, all mounds without horse burials were attributed to the Drevlyans. Since the mounds in the river basin Since in the upper reaches of Uborti and Stvigi had not been explored by excavations by that time, and the mounds of the Volynians had not yet been identified, the boundaries of the Drevlyansky land were delineated by V.B. Antonovich very subjectively.

V.B. Antonovich included mounds near Kiev, as well as embankments in the basins of the rivers Teterev, Uzh, and Irpin and Rostavitsa. Thus, the Drevlyan land was defined within the range from the middle point of the Slucha (Gorynskaya) in the west to the right bank of the Dnieper in the east and from the Uzha basin in the north to the left tributaries of the upper Ros in the south. V.B. Antonovich calculated that mounds with pit corpses noticeably predominate in this territory (58%). Mounds with burials on the horizon account for 25% of those studied, and with burials above the horizon - 17%. On this basis, the researcher considered mounds with burials in ground pits to be characteristic of the Drevlyaps.

V. B. Antonovich’s conclusions attracted the attention of researchers and were repeatedly used in the scientific literature (A. A. Spitsyn, V. A. Parkhomenko and others).

Excavations of the Drevlyan burial mounds continued at the end of the 19th and in the first decades of the 20th century. S. S. Gamchenko explored the mounds to the Sluchi basin (Gamchenko S. From 1., 1901, p. 350-403). Very significant were the excavations of F.R. Steingel in the Ovruch and Zhitomir districts of the Barashi, Veselovka, Korosten, Katsovshchina, Kovali, Norinsk, Rudnya Borovaya and Tatarinovichi burial grounds (Steingel F.R., 1904, p. 153-167). In the northern half of the Drevlyansky land, in the Ubort and Uzha basins, significant surveys of mounds were carried out by Ya. V. Yarotsky. He examined about 50 mounds located at 11 points (Yarotsky Ya. V., 1903, p. 173-192; Excavations of Kurga-pov, 1903, p. 329-332). The mounds of the Uzha basin in the vicinity of Ovruch in 1911 attracted the attention of the famous archaeologist V.V. Khvoyka (Viezzhev R./., 19546, p. 145-152).

Map 13. Mounds of the Drevlyans

A - burial grounds, including burial mounds; b - burial mounds exclusively with corpses; c - mounds with specifically Drevlyanian features; d - mounds with Dregovichi beads; d - mounds with Polyansky features; e - findings of seven-radiate temporal rings; and- burial mounds of Turkic nomads; a- forest areas; And - marshy areas 1 - Rakitino; 2 - Olevsk; 3 - Tepenitsa; 4 - Lopatici; 5 - Zubkovichi; 6 - Glumcha; 7 - Sublubs; 8 - Gorbashi; 9 - Andreevichi; 10 - Hluplyany; 11 - Dovginichi; 12 - Haich; IS- Rechitsa; 14 - Norinsk; 15 - Ovruch; 16 - Leplyanshchina; 17 - Yažberen; 18 - Katsovshchina; 19 - Mezhirichki; 20 - Wolverines; 21 - Tatarinovichi; 22 - Korosten; 23 - Veselovka; 24 - Barashi; 25 - Novoselki; 26 - Kovali; 27 - Rudnya Borovaya; 28 - Heads; 29 - Gorodishchi; 30 - Beeches; 31 - Denesh; 32 - Zhytomyr; 33 - Studenica; 34 - Sliplick Forest; 35 - Slip faces; 36 - Torchin; 37 - Minina; 38 - Gorodsk; 39 - Korostyshev; 40 - Stryzhavka; 41 - Miropol and its surroundings; 12 - Boiler room.

After the Great October Revolution, significant work on the study of mounds in Zhitomir was carried out by S. S. Gamchenko. He was the first to discover and excavate mounds from the third quarter of the 1st millennium. e. (Petrov V.P., 1963a, p. 16-38). In 1924, over 20 mounds in different points of the Drevlyan area (the vicinity of Korostepya and Ovruch, Norinsk, Babipichi, Leplyanshchina, Rosohi, Narodich, Yazhberen) were excavated by an expedition of the Volyn Museum, and in 1926 the Drevlyan mounds were explored by I. F. Levitsky (Vikgorovsky V., 1925, p. 19, 20).

In recent decades, relatively small studies of mounds have been carried out, but they are very significant, since the perfection of the methodology has made it possible to pay attention to some details that were not noticed before. In the 50s of the XX century. 10. V. Kukharenko explored the Drevlyan burial mounds in two locations - Rakitno and Miropol (Kukharenko Yu. V., 1969, p. 111-115). In those same years, small studies of mounds near Dovginichy, Khaycha and Novoseloki were carried out by I. S. Vinokur and V. A. Mesyats (Vinokur I.S., 1960, p. 151-153). In the 60s, excavations of mounds (Buki, Mezhirichki, Miropol Gorbashi) were carried out by I. P. Rusanova (Rusanova I.P., 1961, p. 70, 71; 1967, p. 42-47; 1970, p. 278; 1973, p. 26-30).

The analysis of mound materials from the annalistic area of ​​the Drevlyans belongs to I. P. Rusanova (Rusanova I.P., 1960, p. 63-69). Having critically examined the conclusions of V.B. Antonovich, the researcher showed that it is impossible to delineate the Drevlyan territory based on the distribution of mounds with corpses in ground pits. It turned out that such mounds are known only on the outskirts of the Drevlyan land and are more typical for the neighboring tribes - the Polyans and Volynians. In the main territory of the Drevlyans, i.e. in the areas of Korosten and Ovruch, there are almost no burial pits under the burial mounds. Burials on the horizon are more typical for this territory; corpses in mounds are less common.

I.P. Rusanova managed to notice a very characteristic feature of the mounds of the Drevlyan region - accumulations of ash and coals in the mounds, always above the trench positions. Usually this is a thin ash-coal layer located in the center of the mound. Its formation is associated with a certain ritual - the legacy of the rite of cremation of the dead. Apparently, initially, during the construction of the mound, a small fire was lit in its upper part, which had a cleansing and ritual meaning. Later, instead of a fire, they began to bring ash and coal from outside to the upper part of the mound.

This detail of the Drevlyan funeral rite allows us to outline the area of ​​this tribe (Map 13). The border between the Drevlyans and the glades in the 11th-12th centuries, when mounds with a noted feature were built, passed through the forests between the Teterev and Rostavitsa rivers and through the swampy course of the river. Zdvizh. Further, the eastern border of the Drevlyan settlement went north, crossing the rivers Teterev (approximately at the mouth of the Irsha), Uzh (below the confluence of Norini) and Slovechna (at the mouth of Yasenets).

In the north, the Drevlyans neighbored the Dregovichi. I.P. Rusanova, noting mounds with a coal layer above the burials in the Turov region, drew the northern border of the Drevlyans along Pripyat (from the mouth of the Goryn to the mouth of the Stviga). However, in the Turov burial mounds, typically Dregovichi features clearly predominate, including ethnically defining grained beads. On the contrary, mounds with ash-coal accumulations at the top are relatively rare here.

Taking this into account, the border between the Drevlyans and Dregovichs must be drawn south of Pripyat. The right bank of this river was undoubtedly Dregovichi. The dividing line between the Drevlyap and Dregovichi areas was the wide swampy spaces south of Turov, where, judging by the absence of ancient Russian mounds, there was no population or it was extremely rare. Only individual mounds of the Drevlyan type (with the remains of fire pits in the embankment above the burial) penetrate north of this strip, into their own Dregovichi territory. Such mounds were studied in the burial grounds of the lower reaches of Stviga and Goryn (Otverzhichi and Rychevo). On the contrary, several mounds with Dregovichi grained beads were excavated in the northwestern regions of the Drevlyan territory. These are the burial grounds of Andreevichi and Olevsk in the upper reaches of the Ubort. This picture of interpenetration is common for the border regions of all East Slavic tribes.

The western border of the distribution of the Drevlyanian mounds passed along the Sluch, where wooded areas separated the Drevlyanian region from the Volynian one.

The oldest burial mounds in the Drevlya area are burial mounds and urns of the Prague-Korchak type. They usually have a small (0.3-0.9 m) height, are somewhat vague and form burial grounds consisting of 10-30 mounds.

The calcined bones collected from the funeral pyre were placed mainly in urns in the upper part of the mound or at its base. Mounds with burials in the upper part of the mound predominate. As an exception, there are burials placed in holes in the mainland. Such mounds were excavated in the Teterev basin in the vicinity of Zhitomir (near the villages of Korchak, Styrty, Yankovtsy, etc.), in the upper reaches of Slucha (Miropol), Uzha (near the villages of Selets, Gutki, Loznitsa) and Uborti. The number of burials in the mounds revealed by excavations is from one to three, but there were probably more. Some of the burials located in the upper layers of the embankments apparently have not survived.

Probably in the VI-VIII centuries. The kurgan burial rite was predominant in the region of the Drevlyans. Part of the population, adhering to the old tradition, buried the dead in burial grounds without burial mounds. The burial ritual in them is the same as in barrow burials. Here, too, the burnt bones along with the ashes were placed in clay urns belonging to the Prague-Korchak type of ceramics. Such moundless burial grounds are known in the Drevlyan area only from superficial, often random, examinations.

Late-time burial mounds (8th-10th centuries) each contain one burial (Table XXV). Unlike earlier ones, burials without urns are common in these pa-rashes. The burning of the dead was still carried out on the side, but corpses were also burned on the site of the mound. There have been cases of incomplete burning - the remains of charred bones form an elongated spot oriented in the west-east direction. Sometimes traces of burnt boards or wooden blocks are observed under the remains of burning.

Calcined bones with ash and small coal-pumps are often placed in the upper part of the mound. Perhaps in this regard, the custom appears to place ashes with coals in the upper part of mounds with corpses.

Drevlyansky mounds with corpses, as a rule, are devoid of material material. Funeral urns are of two types: molded vessels of the Luka-Raikovetskaya type and, occasionally, early pottery pots. Wire ring-shaped temple rings with converging ends were also found in isolated mounds.

Mounds with trun-burnings of the 8th-10th centuries. never form independent groups, but are part of burial grounds, where there are mounds with corpses from the Kievan Rus era, and sometimes mounds with ceramics of the Prague-Korchak type.

In the 10th century The cremation of the dead is replaced by the rite of burial of unburnt corpses. The deceased was laid on the horizon and a mound was built above him. As already noted, the ritual of placing ash and coal in the upper part of the mound was almost obligatory for Drevlyan burials.

Mounds with corpses in the Drevlyan area are quite uniform. The orientation of the deceased, as a rule, is pan-Slavic, Western. The opposite position - with the head to the east - was recorded in two burial grounds - the Knyazhe tract near the village. Andreevichi and in Tepenice. Quite often there are coffins made of thick boards (two long longitudinal and two transverse), and sometimes wooden logs. In the burial grounds near the villages of Andreevichi and Rechitsa, cases of covering the dead with birch bark were noted.

During excavations of mounds near the village. Beeches traced ring grooves with remains of a palisade around the burial (Rusanova I. Ya., 1967, p. 42-47). The diameters of such rings are 4-5.7 m, the width of the grooves is 0.2-0.4 m, the depth is 0.1-0.2 m. Such grooves were dug in the mainland, and vertical stakes were driven into their bottom (to a depth of 0. 1-0.15 m).

The burial ritual of the Drevlyans in the burial mounds near the village. Beeches are reconstructed in the following form. The deceased was placed on a horizontal platform or in a small depression dug in the mainland (length 2.2-3.2 m, width 1.1-1.2 m, depth 0.1-0.2 m). A ritual fire was immediately lit on the mainland, from which a small layer of ash and coal was preserved in the mounds. Sometimes small fragments of clay vessels are found in this layer. At the same time, the burial was surrounded by a ditch with a palisade. All this was covered with earth, constructing a mound-like embankment. Sometimes fires were also lit on the outside of the fence.

Ring grooves with a palisade, which sometimes burned down and in other cases remained unburned, cannot be considered a feature of the Buk or exclusively Drevlyansky mounds. In previous excavations, such a detail often went unnoticed by researchers. And in recent decades, ring-shaped grooves have been discovered over a wide area - in the mounds of the Vyatichi, glades, Dregovichi, Smolensk Krivichi, and the Volga-Oka interfluve. Even earlier, ring fences were recorded in mounds on the upper Don.

Among the Drevlyansky mounds, the embankments along the river are somewhat unique. Clean up. They have structures made of stones inside. Thus, many mounds near Zubkovichi, Olevsk and Tenenitsa were lined with stones, some mounds in the burial grounds near Zubkovichi, Lopatichi and Andreevichi (Knyazhe tract) were covered with pavements of stones. Stonework has also been discovered in one of the Tenenets mounds. Stones in the embankment were also found in one of the Andreevich mounds. In another mound of this burial ground, which contained a burial according to the burning ritual, the “core” of the mound was made of stone. In the Zubkovichi mounds, stones covered grave pits with corpses.

These stone structures have no analogues in the kurgan antiquities of the southwestern group of Eastern Slavs. Stone covers and stone "cores" are common in the burial mounds of the Yotvingians or their Slavicized descendants. In this regard, it can be assumed that the burial grounds along the river. The Ubort were left by a mixed population of different tribes. Here settlers from the Yatvingian regions coexisted with the Drevlyans. This is also supported by corpses with an eastern orientation, known in the Drevlyan land only in two burial grounds on Ubort. The inventory of the Ubort embankments is identical to the materials from the Drevlyansky mounds.

Mounds with corpses on the horizon dominated the area of ​​the Drevlyans for quite a long time, until the disappearance of the custom of building mound mounds over burials. Pit burial mounds of corpses are known mainly on the southeastern outskirts of the Drevlyansky land, as well as in the Uborti basin (Andreevichi, Zubkovichi, Lopatichi and Tenenitsa). Several mounds with corpses in pits were discovered nearby - in the Rechitsa burial ground.

The inventory of the Drevlyan burial mounds is not rich. The most common temple decorations were ring-shaped rings of two types - with closed ends and one and a half turn (Table XXVII, 1, 3-8). In the burial mounds near Korosten and in the Zhitomir burial ground, ring-shaped rings with an S-shaped end were found. Occasionally, one bead, paste or glass (Korosten, Olevsk, Zubkovichi), and sometimes metal grained (Buki) is placed on wire rings. Three-beaded temporal rings (Pl. XXVII, 2) found in four burial grounds - Velikaya Fospya, Korosten Lopatichi, Olevsk (the “Under the Eagles” tract). In one of the mounds of the Ovruch burial ground and in one mound of the Rechitsa burial ground, earrings of the so-called Volyn type were found. From the Zhitomir burial ground (mound 37) comes an earring in the form of a ring with six rosettes fixedly attached to it. The rosettes are made of six balls strung on wire rings. A decoration of a similar appearance was found in the Polyansky burial mounds of Grubsk. Such earrings are not typical for East Slavic territories; there are analogies for them in the Slavic antiquities of Czechoslovakia.

Neck necklaces were discovered in many Drevlyan burial mounds, but they usually consist of two to four beads. Very rarely, necklaces have a larger number of beads and have additional pendants. The most common gilded glass beads are cylindrical, barrel-shaped, and bi-truncated-conical (Table XXVII, 13) and trapezoidal shape, as well as similar single and double pierced ones (Table XXVII, 12). Occasionally you come across blue and yellow glass beads, and somewhat more often - white, yellow and red glass beads. Beads made of carnelian were found in one and a half dozen mounds (Table XXVII; 17). Their shape is different - tiled, six- and octagonal, multifaceted and prismatic. Crystal and amber beads were found in three burial grounds (Zhitomir, Korosten and Rechitsa). Finally, silver beads are represented by isolated finds: in the mounds near Zhitomir and Korosten, lobed beads were found, decorated with fine grain and filigree, and in one of the Zhytomyr mounds, rosette-shaped beads were found, made of three or four rows of beads welded together.

Among the pendants for the necklace are moonlites (Rechitsa and Podluby), bells (Podluby), and sea shells (Ovruch). Bronze and iron mushroom-shaped buttons are rare in burials (Table XXVII, 15), sometimes slate whorls apparently served as buttons.

Rings are relatively common in female burials of the Drevlyans (Table XXVTI, 9-11, 16). The most common among them are simple wire ones. In addition, twisted, false-twisted, woven, closed lamellar and knitted lamellar rings were found. A thin-wire twisted bracelet was found only once (Rakitno).

Bronze and iron belt rings and lyre-shaped buckles are occasionally found in the male burials of the Drevlyan burial mounds. Horseshoe-shaped fasteners were found in the burial mounds of Korostensky and Iskrinsky burial grounds (Table XXVII, 14). Sometimes men were buried with iron knives, swords, sharpening stones and wooden buckets, from which iron hoops and bows usually remain in the mounds. From Korosten Kurgan 5 come a battle ax dating back to the 11th century and a sickle.

The burial mound ritual in the land of the Drevlyans, as in other Middle Dnieper regions, disappeared at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. The history of the Drevlyan tribe is short-lived. Originally, the Drevlyans were one of the regional groups of the Eastern Slavs. The territorial isolation of the Drevlyans led to the creation of their own tribal organization with their own princes and army. Gradually, its own ethnographic features appear. However, these features have only just emerged - the Drevlyan women's costume is no different from the attire of women of neighboring tribes. The early loss of tribal independence led to the erasure of ethnographic features. Modern dialectology and ethnography have not yet revealed any features remaining from the tribal period of the Drevlyans.

The chronicle names the Dnieper as the main guideline in determining the territory of the clearings: “Likewise, the Slovenians came and sat down along the Dnieper and disturbed the clearing...” (PVL, I, p. 11). Elsewhere in the chronicle it is specified that the glades belonged to the Kiev Dnieper region. Talking about the emergence of Kiev, the chronicler reports that the glades lived in Kyiv: “...byahu men are wise and sensible, I called the glades, from them there are glades in Kiev to this day” (PVL, I,

With. 13). In addition to Kyiv, the glades belonged to the cities of Vyshgorod, Vasilev, Belgorod. The etymology of the name of the clearing is transparent (Fasmer M., 1971, p. 322). The ethnonym is derived from the word “field,” which in ancient times meant an open, treeless place. There is an entry about this in the chronicle: “When you were called by the fields, you were married to the fields by your gray hair...” (PVL, I, p. 23). The Kiev Dnieper region largely lay in a forest-steppe zone with a predominance of fertile chernozem soils. Even in Scythian times, this area was widely developed by the agricultural population. During the period of the Slavic development of this territory, it must be assumed that there were many treeless areas, which were interspersed with groves and oak forests. This area was noticeably different from the continuous forest areas inhabited by the western neighbors of the glades - the Drevlyans.

For a long time, the prevailing opinion in historical works was that the glades were allocated a small right-bank section from Kyiv to the river. Ros. Only near Kyiv did the Polyana land cover a narrow strip of the left bank from the mouth of the Desna to the river. Kordnya (Barsov N.P., 1885; Grushevsky M. S., 1911; Seredonin S. M., 1916; Andriyashev O., 1926; Mavrodin V.V., 1946).

Excavations of Slavic mounds in the Kiev Dnieper region began in the middle of the last century. One of the first serious researchers of these mounds was Ya. Ya. Voloshinsky, who excavated more than fifty mounds on the territory of Kyiv in the 60s (Voloshinsky Ya. Ya., 1876, p. 16; Karger M.K., 1958, p. 127-230) and several - near the surrounding villages of Markhalevka and Sovki (Voloshinsky Ya. Ya., 1876, p. 59, 60). In the 70s and 80s of the XIX century. excavations of the mounds were carried out by T. V. Kibalchich, E. K. Vitkovsky, A. P. Bogdanov (Vitkovsky E.K., 1878, p. 24, 25; Kibalchich T.V., 1879, p. 98; Bogdanov A.P., 1880, p. 308).

In those same years, V.B. Antonovich began his field work. Particularly large excavations of mounds were carried out by this researcher in the last decade of the 19th and early 20th centuries. (Antonovich V.B., 1879, p. 256-259; 18936; 1895; 1901a; 1906, p. 29-32).

By the last years of the 19th century. also include small excavations of the burial mounds of V.V. Khvoika and M.K. Yakimovich (Khvoiko V.V., 1899, p. 80; 1901, p. 181, 182; Yakimovich M.K., 1900, p. 201-203).

Very large works on the study of Slavic mounds on the left bank of the Middle Dnieper region were carried out at the end of the last century and at the beginning of the 20th century. D. Ya. Samokvasov. He also owns smaller excavations of mounds in the southern part of the glades. (Samokvasov D. Ya., 1892, p. 30, 73-76, 86; 1906, p. 121; 1908a, p. 188-226; 19086, p. 188-206; 1916, p. 51-91).

On the southern outskirts of the Polyansky region and beyond, where Slavic burial mounds alternate with nomadic ones, significant excavations were carried out by N. E. Brandenburg (Brandenburg N. E., 1908).

In the subsequent decades of the 20th century. excavations of burial mounds were less significant, since by that time most of the burial mounds in the area of ​​settlement of the glades had already been destroyed by arable land or destroyed, as, for example, in Kyiv, as a result of construction activities. By 1913-19/5. include small excavations by A. Ertel near the village. Scoops (Samoilovsky I. M., 1954, p. 154-156). In the 20s, V. E. Kozlovskaya, M. Ya. Rudinsky and P. I. Smolichev were hired to excavate mounds in the clearing area (Kozlovska V. E., 1925, p. 25, 26; 1930, p. 42, 43; Smolichev P./., 1926, p. 178-180; 1931, p. 56-64; Rudinsky M., 1928, p. 56, 57).

After the Great Patriotic War, excavations of mounds in the area of ​​the glades were carried out by Y. V. Stankevich (Stankevich Ya. 5., 1947, p. 100; 1949, p. 50-57; 19626, p. 6-30), D. I. Blifeld (BlifeldD.I., 1952, p. 128-130; Blifeld D.I., 1954, p. 31-37; BliffelbdD./., 1955, p. 14-18; 1977), R. I. Vyezzhev (Having left R.I., 1954a, p. 33-36). Interesting materials were provided by studies of glade mounds in the vicinity of Lyubech and Chernigov, carried out by S. S. Shirinsky (Shirinsky S.S., 1967, p. 241; 1969, p. 100-106). In total, about 2 thousand mounds, located in several dozen burial grounds, have been excavated to date on the territory allocated to the glades.

Until recently, attempts to identify the territory of clearings based on mound materials did not lead to positive results. Apparently, the mentioned opinion of historians about the insignificance of the Polyansky land influenced the conclusions of archaeologists. V.B. Antonovich suggested that the glades belonged to mounds with a mine burial. In this regard, he attributed the mounds that he excavated to the west of Kyiv, in the Teterev, Uzh and Irpen basins, and did not contain horse burials, to the Drevlyans (Antonovich V.B., 18936; 1897, p. 69). Similar mounds on the territory of Kpev were also considered Drevlyan.

On the other hand, the idea that the Dnieper forest-steppe left bank entirely belonged to the northerners has taken root in historical and archaeological literature (Samokvasov D. Ya., 19086). D. Ya. Samokvasov justified the belonging of all left-bank mounds to the northerners with historical and archaeological arguments. The researcher believed that, based on indirect data from Russian chronicles, such large cities on the left bank as Chernigov and Pereyaslavl should be considered the political centers of the northerners. The mounds near Chernigov and Pereyaslav are completely similar to the mounds of Sednev, Starodub and Lyubech. Consequently, this entire territory, according to D. Ya. Samokvasov, belonged to one tribe - the northerners. The method of burial in the mounds of the Dnieper forest-steppe left bank is pagan and, as he believed, corresponds to the funeral ritual of the northerners described by Nestor.

The conclusions of V.B. Antonovich and D.Ya. Samokvasov were recognized by some other researchers. The glades were left with a small territory adjacent to the Dnieper in a relatively small section of it. A. A. Spitsyn, having described the variety of funeral rites in the mounds in the vicinity of Kyiv, was unable to establish any typical Polyansky tribal characteristics. The researcher came to the conclusion that “the burial ritual and things point to a complete analogy of the Polyansky mounds with the simultaneous Volyn and Drevlyan ones” (Spitsyn A. A., 1809c, p. 323).

An attempt to identify specifically Polyana features in the mounds of the Kyiv Sub-Pepper region was made by Yu. V. Gauthier (Gautier Yu. V., 1930, p. 239, 240). The researcher believed that for the funeral rite of the glades in the 9th-10th centuries. Only corpse burning was typical. In the mounds under the fireplace there are dense clay platforms (as Yu. V. Gauthier called them, dense clay currents), arranged slightly above the base of the embankment. The burnt bones were placed in clay vessels, next to which there were earrings and plaques similar to items from the Kyiv treasures. Such mounds were found in a small area limited to the east by the Dnieper, to the south by Porosie, and to the northwest by Irpin. This small area was considered by Yu. V. Gauthier as the area of ​​glades.

B. A. Rybakov was the first to draw attention to the discrepancy between the small area allocated to the clearings and their important historical significance (Rybakov B. A., 1947, p. 95-105). Having reviewed the written evidence, B. A. Rybakov showed that the chronicles do not contain data to classify Chernigov, Pereyaslavl and Lyubech as Severyansk cities. On the contrary, Chernigov and Pereyaslavl unite with Kiev into one whole, called Russia (this name replaced the ethnonym Polyane). There is other evidence from the chronicle about the political proximity of both banks of the middle Dnieper, but there is no evidence that the Dnieper was the border between the glades and the northerners. Based on archaeological materials, B. A. Rybakov established that in the vast territory adjacent to the middle Dnieper both from the west and from the east and including Kyiv, Lyubech, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl and Starodub, corpses in burial pits predominate. Adjacent to this territory from the northeast is an area of ​​mounds with burials on the horizon and with spiral temple rings. This area corresponds to the Seversky principality of the 12th century. and the Seversk land of later times, and its population in the Kurgan era can be considered northerners in the chronicles. The area of ​​mounds with corpses in pits on both banks of the Dnieper - on the Kiev and Pereyaslavl - corresponds to the territory of settlement of the glades.

Thus, B. A. Rybakov managed to find the right direction in the search for characteristic features of the Polyansky mounds. Later archaeological research in this direction showed that mounds with burials in pits in the Kiev Dnieper region really serve as a significant indicator for the restoration of the territory of the glades.

In 1961, E.I. Timofeev, having mapped the mounds with the pit burial ritual, outlined the right bank part of the Polyansky area (Timofeev E.I., 1961a, pp. 67-72; 196ІВ, pp. 105-127). Then I. P. Rusanova explored the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bdistribution of burial mounds of the 10th-12th centuries with corpses in pits (Rusanova I.P., 1966a). The totality of historical and archaeological materials allowed I.P. Rusanova to assert that mounds with people buried in pits dug in the mainland can be considered a reliable tribal sign of the glades. Indeed, from the very beginning of the appearance of corpses, the Polyana land was characterized by burials in pits under the burial mounds. When taking into account the areas of neighboring tribes, determined by other data, it must be recognized that the distribution of burial mounds with pit corpses gives some idea of ​​the territory of the glades.

It is impossible to equate this feature of the burial mounds of the Polyansky area with the ethno-defining temple decorations of the Krivichi, Vyatichi, Radimichi and other tribes. Kurgan burials in ground pits, especially in the border Polyansko-Drevlyansky, Polyansko-Dregovichi and Polyansko-Severyansky regions, could have been left by the neighbors of the Polyans. The foreign population that moved to the Polyansk territory buried their dead, like the Polyans, in pits under the mounds. For example, Kyiv, like other large cities of ancient Rus', certainly accepted people from many lands. Meanwhile, all the corpses of the Kyiv necropolises were in ground pits.

I. P. Rusanova, like E. I. Timofeev, believes that the mounds with pit corpses in the forest zone of Eastern Europe were left by colonists from the Middle Dnieper region, mainly from the Polyana land. It is impossible to agree with this position. In the forest zone of Eastern Europe, the evolution of Slavic burial mound rituals proceeded independently and along completely different paths. The oldest corpses here are located at the base of the mounds. Later, shallow burial pits appear under the mounds. At the end of the XII-XIII centuries. the depth of the ground pits gradually increases, and the size of the mound embankments decreases.

To determine the boundaries of the clearing area, it is necessary to use other features of their mounds. Such a detail, characteristic exclusively of Polyansky burial mounds, is the clay base on which the fire was lit and the remains of the cremation were placed.

Mounds with clay platforms for cremation have been studied in Kyiv, Lyubech, Kitayev, Markhalevka, Sednev, Siberezh, Morovsk, Tabaevka, Khodosov. Based on the distribution of these mounds and taking into account all other observations, the area of ​​clearing settlement is outlined as follows (Map 14). As already noted, in the west, the border between the Drevlyans and the glades was a forest on the right bank of Teterev. Along the Dnieper to the north, the Polyana territory extended to the outskirts of Lyubech, and along the Desna - to the river. Mena. To the north, a barren strip is revealed, which was the border between the glades and the Radimichi. In the east, the Polyansky region was separated from the Severyansky region by areas characterized by solonetzic soils, where there were no settlements. In the south, the border of the Polyansky territory itself was obviously the watershed between the right tributaries of the Dnieper - the Irpin and Ros. In the southeast, the glades belonged to the outskirts of Pereyaslavl. The Rossi basin had a mixed population. Here, along with Slavic burial mounds, numerous burial grounds of the Turkic-speaking population are known. We have no reason to classify all the Slavic burial mounds of Porosie as Polyan monuments. It is possible that the Slavic population of this region was formed from various tribes.

Thus, the region of glades included the cities of Kyiv, Lyubech, Pereyaslavl, which is fully consistent with the data of Russian chronicles. Chernigov was located in the border, perhaps mixed, Polyansk-Severyansk strip. Settlements with pottery of the Prague-Korchak type

in this territory they are not numerous and are known only on the right bank part - in the Kyiv region and on Irpen. Settlements with ceramics of the Luka-Raikovetskaya type are more numerous (Map 10). In addition to the outskirts of Kyiv and the Irpen River, they spread much further south, to Ros. A significant portion of the monuments with ceramics of the Luka-Raikovetskaya type are concentrated in the right-bank part of the Middle Dnieper region, in connection with which it can be assumed that the formation of glades began in the right-bank Kiev region.

Kurgan burials of the 6th-8th centuries. There are no clearings in the area. Apparently, at that time the Slavic population of the Kyiv right bank buried their dead in mound-free burial grounds according to the rite of trune burning. True, such burial grounds have not been found here to date. But this, apparently, is explained solely by the difficulty of discovering ground burials that did not have any above-ground features.

The earliest mounds in the Polyansky area date back to the 9th century. (Table XXVIII). If among the Drevlyans and Dregovichi, mounds with burials according to the rite of cremation and with molded clay urns are quite numerous and scattered over a large area, then in the land of the glades such mounds were recorded only in two places - in the burial ground on Kirillovskaya Street in Kyiv and in one embankment near the village. Kha-lepye south of Kyiv, where a molded vessel was discovered along with a pottery one. This fact clearly indicates the relatively late appearance of burial mounds on the Polyana territory.

In the IX-X centuries. Among the glades, burial rites are common - cremation and inhumation. As in other ancient Russian regions, near the glades the burning of the dead took place either on the side or at the site of the construction of the mound. The burnt bones in the mounds were left on the fire pit or collected and placed at the top of the mound. There are both urn and non-urn burials. Mound burnings of corpses in glades are usually without inventory. In some mounds in Kyiv, Chernigov, Sednev, Lyubech and Shestovits, jewelry, metal clothing accessories, labor and household items, and occasionally weapons were found. All things belong to the types known from the Polyansky burial mounds with corpses. Temple decorations - ring-shaped rings - were found in the Lyubech and Sednevsky mounds, and in the mound near the village. Scoops - three-bead temple ring. The princely Chernigov mounds of Chernaya Mogila and Bezymianny are distinguished by their exceptional wealth (see below, in the section on druzhina mounds).

Mounds with corpse burnings are mainly concentrated around the ancient Russian cities - Kyiv, Chernigov, Lyubech, but are found in small numbers throughout the Polyana territory. Most of the Polyansky burial mounds with burning do not stand out in any way among the mounds of the southern part of the East Slavic territory. In terms of structure, details of the funeral rite and material material, they are identical to the mounds of the Drevlyans, Volynians and Dregovichi. But, as already emphasized, there is one feature, inherent only in a relatively small number of mounds, which distinguishes the Polyansky burial mounds. This is a clay base on which a fire was lit and the remains of a corpse were placed. The origin of this feature of the funeral rite of the Polyansky mounds is unclear. It is quite possible that its appearance was due to practical purposes - the desire to strengthen the surface with clay on which the burial was to take place.

Mounds with pit corpses were common in the glades from the 10th to the 12th centuries. The work of I. II is especially devoted to these mounds. Rusanova, in which their date is substantiated on the basis of clothing materials (Rusanova I.P., 1966a, p. 17-24). In appearance, the mounds of the glades do not differ from the burial mounds of other ancient Russian regions.

They form, as a rule, crowded burial grounds, numbering tens and hundreds of mounds. The depth of burial pits ranges from 0.2 to 2 m. Mounds with the deepest pits (over 1 m) are found in Kyiv and its environs, as well as in the vicinity of Chernigov and Lyubech. The rest of the territory is dominated by relatively shallow (0.5-1 m) burial pits, and the shallowest (0.2-0.3) are known only on the outskirts of the Polyansky area.

In Kyiv and in the vicinity of Chernigov, quite a lot of burial mounds with corpses in wooden frames (the so-called log tombs) have been explored. In other places of the Polyansky area, instead of log buildings, quadrangular frames made of beams are found everywhere. In both cases, grave pits were covered with a gable roof. Thus, wooden structures in the pits under the burial mounds can be considered characteristic of the Polyana territory.

Sometimes the walls of the pits are lined with boards. There is also a known custom of coating the bottom and walls of burial pits with clay, less often with lime, or covering them with birch bark.

The position and orientation of the dead in the Polyansky mounds are common Slavic. The eastern orientation was recorded in one of the mounds (94) of the Kyiv necropolis, in one mound (9) of the Vyshgorod burial ground and in three mounds of the Grub burial ground. In the Kiev necropolis there are also buried people with their heads facing south, southeast and northeast, which is associated with the mixed-tribal composition of the population of this city. Single burials with the dead with their heads turned to the southeast (Skvirka) and northeast (Vchorayshe) were recorded on the outskirts of the Polyansky territory. The different orientation of the buried undoubtedly reflects the multi-ethnic character of the Kurgan population. Those buried, with their heads turned to the east, in the Polyansky area could belong to people from among the Turkic nomads and the Slavic Upper Dnieper Balts. For both ethnic groups, the eastern orientation of the dead is common. The meridional orientation of the glades buried in the ground can be considered as a ritual introduced by settlers from the Finno-Ugric regions of the forest zone of Eastern Europe.

Polyana burials in pits under the burial mounds, as a rule, have no inventory. Only a third of the examined corpses contain artifacts, usually not numerous. In the complex of women's jewelry there are no such items that would be characteristic only of the Polyansky area. All things are very widespread and belong to common Slavic types (Table XXVII).

Temporal decorations are represented mainly by ring-shaped rings with converging ends or one-and-a-half turns (Pl. XXVII, 1.8- 21). The first of them are known in the mounds of all the Eastern Slavs, but only in the mounds of the tribes of the southwestern group are they very common; the latter belong to the specifically southwestern ones. In five burial grounds located in the western part of the Polyansky area (Grubsk, Pochtovaya Vita, Romashki, Buki and Yagnyatin), single ring-shaped temporal rings with an S-shaped curl at the end were found (Table XXVII, 22). Some signet rings had a curl at one end (Pl. XXVII, 23, 25), or one end, they were bent in a loop (Pl. XXVII, 26). Beads were placed on some ring-shaped rings (Pl. XXVII, 24).

Other types of temple decorations are represented by isolated finds. These are three-bead rings (Plate XXVII, 27, 33). They come from Kyiv, Pereyaslavl, Chernigov and Leplyava. In Kyiv, Pereyaslavl and Leplyava, ring-shaped tied temple rings were found (Table XXVII, 35); in the Kiev necropolis - earrings with a pendant in the form of a bunch of grapes (Table XXVII, 28).

Typically, temporal rings are found one or two at a time at the head of the deceased. As an exception, there are up to five to seven rings strung on a strap or woven mite surrounding the head. No other remains of headdress were found in the mounds.

Necklaces made of beads were found only in the Kyiv mounds (Table XXVII, 36) and in one of the burials in Grubsk. In other mounds, beads are found, but are represented by one or two specimens (Pl. XXVII, 38). The most common were glass beads - gilded, yellow, green, blue, ocellated, so-called lemons. In addition, there are small metal grained and carnelian beads. A fairly common find in the Polyansky mounds are small cast buttons of pear-shaped or biconical shape (Table XXVII, 29-31, 34, 40, 41, 43, 44). In both women's and men's clothing, they were sewn onto gusseted ribbons, which were an integral part of the collar. Among the breast decorations, in addition, lunellas were found in isolated mounds (Table XXVII, 39) and bells. Crosses were found in several burials in the Kiev necropolis, in the mounds of Pereyaslavl, Kitaev, Romashki and Staykov.

Map 14. Settlement of glades

a- burial mounds with a typical Polyana feature (mounds with clay platforms for corpse burning); b - burial grounds with mounds containing burials according to the rite of cremation of the dead; c - burial mounds exclusively with corpses; d - typical Drevlyan burial grounds; d - burial grounds with Dregovichi beads; e - burial grounds with Radimichi temple rings; and -- burial grounds with northern decorations; h - group burial grounds of the Slavs; And - Pecheneg burial mounds; To- swampy areas; l- Forest; m - alkaline soils

1 - Lyubech; 2 - Transplantation; 3 - Mokhnati; 4 - Galkov; 5 - Golubovka; 6 - Seaberezh; 7 - Veliko Listven; 8 - Tabaevka; ІІ - Kashovka; 9a - Zvenichev; 10 - Belous Novy; 11 - Sednev; 12 -Gushchino; 13 - Chernigov; 14 - Mishkin; 15 - Bormyki; 16 - Berezna; 17 - Shestovitsy; 18 - Morovsk; 19- Zhukino; 20 - Glebovna; 21 - Vyshgorod; 22 - Zhilany; 23 - Nezhilovichi; 24- Glevakha; 25 - Khodosovo; 26 - Kyiv; 27 - Scoops; 28 - Postal Vita; 29 - Markhalevka; 30 - Oleshpol; 31 - Vodokia; 32 - Grubsk; 33 - Tokovysko; 34 - Fasting; 35 - Barakhtyanskaya Olshanka; 36 - Bugaevka Velikaya; 37 - Kitaev; 38 - Bezradichi Old; 39 - Germanovskaya Sloboda; 40 - Trypillia; 41 - Khalepye; 42 - Vitachev; 43 - Pike; 44 - flocks; 44a - Combs; 45 - Khalcha; 46 - Chamomiles; 47 - Pereyaslavl; 48 - Voinitsa; 49 - Korytishche; 50 - Zelenki; 51 - Leplyava; 52 - Soon; 53 - Yagnyatin; 54 - Burkov-tsy; 55-Beech; 56 - Shamrayevskaya Stadnitsa; 57 -Squirka; 58 - Blackbirds; 59 - Chepelievka; 60 - Boring; 61 - Rossava; 62 - Karapysh; 63 - Kozin; 64 - Yemchikha; 65 - Mironovna; 66-- Pawns; 67 - Stepantsy; 68 - Kanev; 69 - Polovtsian; 70 - Nikolaevna

On the hands of women in burials, only rings are most often found - smooth or twisted wire, narrow-plate or wicker (Table XXVII, 45-48). Bracelets were found only in three burial grounds (Kyiv, Buki, Yemchikha). Belt accessories are represented by rectangular or lyre-shaped buckles and cast rings (Pl. XXVII, 42, 49). There are also horseshoe clasps (Pl. XXVII, 37). Iron knives are a common find. Slate whorls are occasionally found.

Polyana burials, as a rule, are accompanied by clay vessels. Pots were found only in ten burials of the Kyiv necropolis and one each in the burial mounds of Vyshgorod and Romashki. Quite a few burials with wooden buckets are known in the Polyanskaya land (Barakhtyanskaya Olshanka, Grubsk, Kyiv, Leplyava, Pereyaslavl, Sednev).

Of the weapons, only spearheads were found several times (Chernigov, Grubsk).

The chronology of the Polyansky mounds was developed in the mentioned work of I. P. Rusanova. In addition to the general dating of these mounds to the X-XII centuries. the researcher divided them into three chronological groups - X-XI centuries; XI century; XI-XII centuries Differences between these groups are found only in certain types of clothing material. The details of the funeral rite and the structure of the mounds have remained unchanged for three centuries. One can only note that in general the mounds of the 11th-12th centuries. smaller than the mounds of earlier times.

The glades were the first of the Slavic tribes to be called Russia: “... the glades, even now called Rus'” (PVL, I, p. 21). From here, from the land of Kyiv, this ethnonym gradually spread to all the East Slavic tribes that were part of the ancient Russian state.

Researchers have long noticed that in the chronicles the term “Rus” (“Russian land”) has a double meaning. On the one hand, all Eastern Slavs are called Rus, on the other, a small section of the Middle Dnieper region, mainly the Polian land. Back in the XI-XII centuries. The Kiev region under the name of Rus', the Russian land is opposed not only to the northern regions - Novgorod, Polotsk, Smolensk, Suzdal and Ryazan lands, but also to the southern ones - the Drevlyan land, Volyn and Galicia are excluded from Rus'. Obviously, Rus is the local name for the region of the Kyiv Dnieper region, mentioned in Arabic sources from the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. (Tikhomirov M. N., 1947, p. 60-80). This name first passed to the Polyans, and from the Kiev region to all Eastern Slavs.

According to chronicles, the original Rus' included both banks of the middle Dnieper with the cities of Kiev, Chernigov and Pereyaslavl. The territory of Rus' was determined in more detail by the research of A. N. Nasonov (Nasonov A. N., 19516, p. 28-46) and B. A. Rybakova (Rybakov V. A., 1953a, p. 23-104). A. N. Nasonov includes in ancient Rus' the Kiev Dnieper region with Teterev, Irpen and Ros on the right bank and the lower Desna, Seim and Sula on the left. In the west, the Russian land (according to A.N. Nasonov) reached the upper reaches of the Goryn. The time of this Rus' is determined by the researcher from the 9th to the 11th centuries.

The problem under consideration was studied more fundamentally by B. A. Rybakov. He rightly excludes the cities of Pogorynya from the original Rus' and outlines its territory mainly within the Dnieper left bank. The northern border of the Russian land, according to B. A. Rybakov, ran approximately through the cities of Belgorod, Vyshgorod, Chernigov, Starodub, Trubchevsk, Kursk. It is difficult to determine the southern limits of this land using written data, but in any case they included Porosye. The Rosi basin, according to B. A. Rybakov, was the main part of Rus'. The researcher dates the emergence of the Russian land to the 6th century, when an alliance of the Rus and Northern tribes was formed, which later included the Polyans.

B. A. Rybakov classified the antiquities of the Rus as serrated, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic brooches, bracelets, pendants, belt sets and temple rings, found mainly in treasures of the Martynovsky type. In this work, these antiquities have already been considered and, on the basis of their finds in the settlements of the Prague-Penkovo ​​culture, they were associated with one of the Slavic tribal groupings of the mid-1st millennium AD. e. - Antami.

P. N. Tretyakov, agreeing with B. A. Rybakov’s idea that the antiquities of the Martynov type belonged to the Rus, suggested that the population of the Penkovo ​​culture in the eastern, Dnieper, part of its area was called the Rus. This settlement included not only Slavs, but most likely also descendants of the tribes of the eastern Chernyakhov regions, which belonged to the Sarmatian Alans (Tretyakov II. N., 1968, p. 179-187).

The Rus tribe, or Ros, was known in the Middle Dnieper region or on its periphery even before the Slavs arrived there. The ethnonym “Rus” (hrus) was first mentioned in the Syrian chronicle of the 6th century. pseudo-Zachary of Mytilene (Pigulevskaya N.V., 1952, p. 42-48). It says that the Rus tribe - a tall and strong people - lived in the first half of the 6th century. north of the Sea of ​​Azov, somewhere along the Don or beyond the Don.

The origin of the ethnonym Ros-Rus remains unclear, but there is no doubt that it is not Slavic. All the names of the East Slavic tribes have Slavic formants: -ichi (krivichi, dregovichi, radimichi, vyatichi, ulich) or -ane -yane (glades, drevlyans, volynians). The initial “r” is not characteristic of the Turkic languages, so the Turkic origin of the ethnonym Ros-Rus is incredible (the ethnonym Russian in the Turkic languages ​​took the form Oros-Urus). It remains to assume the Iranian origin of the tribal name in question. Obviously, in the process of Slavicization of the local Iranian-speaking population, its ethnic name was adopted by the Slavs.

There is a large literature regarding the possible origin of the ethnonym Ros-Rus. Research of the 19th and early 20th centuries. are replete with Norman statements, according to which this ethnonym originates from the Varangians. It is often repeated that the Finnish ruotsi means Scandinavians, and this basis in the form of Rus was transferred to the East Slavs. In ancient Rus' there were squads of Scandinavian-Varangians. According to the entries in the Tale of Bygone Years, they organized the ancient Russian statehood: “Let us look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us rightfully.” And they went overseas to the Varangians, to Rus'. Varangian prose-Vasya Russian land...” (PVL, I, p. 18).

Scientific research has shown that the identification of the Varangians with Russia is not original, because it is absent in the most ancient chronicle texts and was inserted into the Tale of Bygone Years only by its compiler (PVL, II, pp. 234-246; Rybakov B. A., 1963, p. 169-171). The term Rus is clearly not Scandinavian; it is closely related to the southern geographical and ethnic nomenclature and has appeared in Byzantine sources since the beginning of the 9th century.

Recently, the Polish linguist S. Rospond cited new additional facts that testify against the Norman origin of the ethnonym Rus (Rospond S., 1979, p. 43-47). True, this researcher is trying to explain its origin from Slavic material itself, which does not look convincing. There are also hypotheses about the Balto-Slavic basis of the tribal name in question }