Revival of Kyrylo Kozhumiaka’s village

We know from the chronicles how princes, their wives, boyars, bishops, and their servants and retinues lived, but we know little about how the ordinary Rusychi, people of ancient Rus’, lived; all those who were cooking, building homes, sewing clothes, and smithing things for the nobility. Three years ago the Northern Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology at Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences undertook this task. The expedition members not only studied the particulars of the daily life of these ancient villagers, but also proved that the countryside in Kyivan Rus’ had a high material and spiritual cultural standard, and that the rural populace was in no way inferior to urban inhabitants. These precious findings were made on the basis of archaeological discoveries on the site of an old Rus’ settlement, today part of the Khodosivka archaeological complex near Kyiv.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS’ LIPS WETTED BUT NOT THEIR TONGUES

The Northern Expedition’s main task was to reconstruct the special features of the daily life and culture of the ancient Rusychi, which would make it possible to reconstruct an entire ancient Rus’ settlement complete with homes and outbuildings. Archaeologists rely on hard facts, not assumptions; they check the value of every find by experimenting with it. For example, a tool is restored or a similar one is made; then it is put to use to test its effectiveness. If it is a home, a similar one is built using the Rusychi’s techniques, not modern technologies. The best way to test it after that is to live in it.

This is precisely what the Northern Expedition is aiming for in studying the Khodosivka settlement. Its members have already reconstructed and tested several kilns, potter’s wheels, and hives for wild bees. They have also restored the recipe for the famous old Rus’ alcoholic beverage, mead, of which it is said in folktales that it “wetted my lips but not my tongue.”

Says Ihor Hotun, head of the Northern Expedition: “When we were digging in a Khodosivka home, we unearthed fragments of clay pots, and suddenly we wanted to become Rus’ potters. To convince ourselves that we were no worse at the trade than our ancestors, we set up a potter’s wheel dating to the second half of the second century and made several vessels using local clay and admixtures. Since the local clay was rich, we added oxidizers: sand and ceramic material. As a result, we could cook pearl barley porridge in one of the pots. But we didn’t stop at pottery. Some members of the expedition used clay and sand to mold a forge. It was placed on the ground, and an oval opening was made through which we placed a layer of charcoal, a layer of ore and admixtures, making the whole thing dough- like. Then we used bellows to keep the fire going for a while. Eventually we had an amount of slag that could be shaped into iron. We estimate that such a forge could keep a small settlement supplied with a sufficient quantity of iron.”

The archaeologists say they have succeeded in copying old Rus’ borti - hives of wild bees, the forefathers of modern beehives. A bort’ is cylindrical with an oval window cut in the side. Bees would swarm through it and settle inside to form a hive. Honeycombs were also inserted through this window. After that the window would be closed with a hatch, and the beekeeper would not bother the hive until the end of the honey season. The productivity of such hives is high: several bucketfuls of honey per season. These borti could be placed on the ground or attached to tree trunks. These had to be protected from animals in the forest with a sweet tooth, namely bears, so our ancestors would attach logs with protruding nails to the tree trunk. Archaeologists also know how the Rusychi used honey to make the heady drink called mead. Historians found the recipe in ancient Rus’ records. It is quite simple: cones of hop were added to honey and water, then raisins to cause fermentation. The result was a tasty beverage somewhat like dry wine.

JEWELRY FOR VILLAGE MAIDENS

The settlement near Khodosivka covers an area of only a hundred square meters, although archaeologists are certain that they have made enough discoveries for a scholarly work. This will eventually appear, since the expedition includes students from Kyiv higher educational establishments, who will eventually have to work for their degrees. In this place topics for diploma papers are literally strewn beneath their feet. For example, a paper could be written on a number of items indicative of the ancient villagers’ literacy, including a jug with the inscription, “Oh Lord, help thy servant M,” as well as high-quality kitchen knives and slag.

“All this,” Hotun says, “indicates that our ancestors were rather well educated. In fact, they started modern metallurgy. Also, we found fishermen’s sinkers made of lead and ceramic material. This is incontrovertible evidence that the Rusychi clever fishermen. Dozens of glass bracelets discovered on the site are proof that our forefathers lived well. Like today, women in Kyivan Rus’ also wanted to look attractive, although only urban residents could afford glass bracelets, which attest to a high level of material culture. What is amazing is not that we found the bracelets but their numbers. We discovered more than 50 in a single ancient Rus’ house.

Where did people living in the countryside find the money for decorations? This is another mystery that must be solved. Solving it is made even more difficult by the discovery of a cylindrical lock spring. The archaeologists believe that it means that the Rusychi had something they wanted to hide from their neighbors and enemies. Besides fragments of a millstone, they found the rings of chain armor, an armor-piercing arrowhead, combat knives, nails, door braces. What struck us most was the discovery of a silver ring and a small silver cross, because these are elements of religious culture. Apparently our distant ancestors could afford a number of things apart from those to meet their basic needs, items that answered their spiritual requirements. It remains to be established how many pieces of jewelry and refined household items our ancestors possessd.

DRAGON WALLS: MANMADE?

No one knows for sure what was located near the Khodosivka settlement hundreds of thousands of years ago, although archaeologists are certain that it was part of a sizable Scythian horodyshche, or fortified town.

“It served as a shelter from enemy attack,” explains Hotun, “as the horodyshche was protected by an impenetrable mire and forest on one side, and on the other side by the semicircular Zmiivy Valy (Dragon Walls). The origins of these ramparts stretching for some eleven kilometers, reaching two, three, even four meters in height, and dating to the first millennium BC, remain a mystery.

Legend has it that the walls were formed when Zmiy Horynych [lit., Fire-spitting Dragon, a popular character in Eastern Slavic folktales] drew his plow before he was conquered by Kyrylo Kozhumiaka [also known as Kyrylo the Tanner]. Historians believe that these walls are manmade ramparts that served to protect homes and the whole country. They were built from the local loam and were a formidable obstacle against nomadic aggressors whose main strategy was the surprise attack. The ramparts invalidated this strategy. While the enemy forces were scaling the walls, the guards signaled the alarm and the residents counterattacked, hurling heavy stones, shooting arrows, finally making the enemy retreat.

Historians claim that these Dragon Walls were as important as the Great Wall of China. Prince Volodymyr the Great also used the Walls as a rational method of fortification (although they couldn’t stop the onslaught of the Golden Horde). In the Middle Ages people could not believe that the walls were manmade, so they composed a legend about Kozhumiaka.