Язичницькі та християнські старожитності Верхнього Попруття і Середнього Подністров’я VІІІ – першої половини ХІІІ ст.

Ключевые слова: религиозные представления, языческие и христианские древности, культовый объект, синкретические религиозные верования.

Annotation

Mysko Y.V. Pagan and Christian artefacts of the Upper Popruttya and Middle Podnistrovya the VІІІth - first half of the ХІІІth century - Manuscript.

The thesis for the candidate's degree by speciality 07.00.04 - archaeology. - The Institute of Archaeology of National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kyiv, 2003.

The dissertation examines pagan and Christian artefacts of the Upper Popruttya and Middle Podnistrovya (religious objects and constructions, burial grounds, habitations, separate categories of findings etc.). It systematises known by today data on pagan and Christian archaeological findings in the region, characterises the stage of their examination. Pagan religious objects have been defined and classified; the time of penetration, as well as the degree of expansion of the Christian religion in the given area has been identified. Much attention is paid to the displays of syncretic religious beliefs in the material and spiritual culture of the old-Slavonic habitants of the region.

As a result of the multifaceted analysis of the sources at our disposal (archaeological ones are considered to be of primary importance), we can trace a complete picture of the evolutionary development of the set of the religious ideas of the Slav-Slavonic habitants of the examined area during the VІІІth - first half of the ХІІІth century. This development comprises of a number of chronological stages related to the domination of various perceptions of the world.

The first stage (at which common spiritual-ideological perception of the world was pagan) encompasses the period starting with the middle of the Ist century AD and ending with the 90s of the Xth century, the time when these lands joined the Kyiv state and baptised their population. A sequential world perception approach applied to analyse the materials of the habitations, namely village development and the methods of construction, lets us trace the displays of pagan beliefs of the Slav population of the region in this period. Analysing the data concerning the habitations we can study original ideas of their habitants during the early chronological stage of the VІth-VІІth centuries, even when there are no remains of the manual religious objects at our disposal. In the context of a pre-Christian world perception, we also develop an ornamental-sign system of ceramic products, pieces of which are the most wide-spread material of the habitation structures.

Funeral rites of the Slavonic population of the region which have been studied by analysing the materials obtained from separate graves, as well as burial grounds, constitute another evidence of the domination of the pagan world perception. The most vivid display of the pagan ideological ideas at this stage was the construction of special places for the rites related to their original religious beliefs by the Slavs of the Upper Popruttya and Middle Podnistrovya.

Despite above-mentioned facts, at the same time the Byzantine-produced objects with the Christian religious symbols penetrated into the culture of the local tribes, although their influence on the pagan world perception is insignificant.

The next, second stage - the end of the Xth century - the beginning of the ХІІth century is associated with the official baptising of the local population as a result of a policy of the nationalisation of the Croatian lands by the Kyiv princes and the measures taken aimed at propaganda and strengthening of the Christian religion as a state one. The evidence of this stage are the objects with transitional (pagan to Christian) elements of the rites left by the just arrived and local tribes, and which were found in the burial grounds. Obviously this is the period when the Christian pit burial grounds with the Western orientation and the objects of the Christian ideology started to expand. Simultaneously ideological principles of the new religion began to interact with the original polytheistic beliefs of the old population of the region, and this becomes a key factor in the formation of the syncretic world perception, excellent displays of which were traced at the next, third stage.

The third stage - middle of the ХІІth - first half of the ХІІІth centuries is a period of a massive expansion of the Christian religion. The materials based on the analysis of the old-Russian burial grounds confirm the existence at this time of a Christian burial rites. Along with this, we also trace there the elements of a syncretic world perception.

A good example of the establishment of a new religion is the pieces of village and town wooden structures, cave monastery constructions. Among the objects of the Christian ideology there are numerous religious plastic goods and the objects of the church interior.

In spite of a number of positive results achieved in the process of the official baptising, pagan religious objects continued to exist at this stage on the territory of the region. Among them are those which were found during the previous chronological period, as well as newly-created ones which could be an evidence of the preservation of pagan ideology principles as dominating among certain groups of the old population. On the other hand, the appearance of a new form of a sanctuary with a roof indicates that these religious objects could be considered a part of the syncretic world perception. More precisely we can trace the layer of pre-Christian perceptions through jewellery.

Key words: religious perceptions, pagan and Christian artefacts, a religious object, syncretic religious beliefs.

Підписано до друку 25.02.2003. Формат 60 х 84 1/16.

Папір офсетний. Гарнітура Таймс. Друк офсетний.

Обл.-вид. арк. Ум. друк. арк. 0,9. Зам. 11/2. Наклад 100 прим.

Поліграфія МПП “Діона”

м. Чернівці, вул. Університетська, 38.

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