Кургани Х – ХІ ст.

Kurgans of Х – ХІ-th century
Each ancient city was accompanied by "cities of the dead" - cemeteries or necropolis. There was no exception to the medieval Vyshgorod.
During the time of Kyivan Rus, most of the graves were carried out under the earth's mounds-burial mounds. By this time in Vyshgorod there are at least four burial mounds (some of which numbered more than a hundred burial grounds) and a number of individual burial grounds.
The study of Vyshgorod antiquities begins in the first half of the nineteenth century. together with the rise of the interest of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of the time to its own past. Almost simultaneously with the activities of well-known Kyiv historian-amateurs M. Berlinsky, M. Yefimov, K. Lokhvitsky, the attention of local enthusiasts attracted above all the objects that rose on the surface: the remains of the walls of the Borisoglebsky temple and the high burial mounds on the outskirts of Vyshgorod.
The first known excavations were carried out on the order of the local landowner Anna Turchaninova: in the summer of 1816, the remains of the church of St. Boris and Gleb were cleared, a review was conducted and a description of the characteristic features of the foundations was made; In 1819, a high burial mound was discovered, where human bones, coals and sword / sword arms were found, in the description it was stated that there were several smaller mounds next to it.
In 1845, the professor at the Kiev University of St. Vladimir Y. Stavrovskii studied so-called Khreshchatyi Kurgan, which is now impossible to localize. It is only known that he was located on the north-western outskirts of Vyshhorod, on the way to Mezhyhirya. From the materials that have come to our day, it can be established that the burial mound had a wooden log frame, the remains of coal (apparently trident), the bones of man and horse were found in the burial ground.
In 1847 in the newspaper "Kiev gubernya vedomosti" a description of the studies of the same Ya. Stavrovskogo appeared another burial mound "Voronova grave" near Vyshhorod. It recorded "thick trees, laid in the form of a parallelogram on the piles dug into the ground", between which there was a centered elongated shape and "several human skulls".
In 1874, V. Antonovich was investigated two more burial mounds in the tracts of "Kostina Nyvka" and "Batyshev's grave". The research was devoted to the 3rd Archaeological Congress in Kyiv. Participants of the congress visited Vyshhorod and under the guidance of Count O. Uvarov conducted a re-examination of the basements of the Church of St. Boris and Hlib.
Unfortunately, the standards of scientific work of the nineteenth century. were relatively low, especially in fixing, documenting and introducing into the scientific circulation the materials obtained during the research. Excavations were carried out at the amateur level. Field documentation was almost completely absent.
Unfortunately, the standards of scientific work of the nineteenth century. were relatively low, especially in fixing, documenting and introducing into the scientific circulation the materials obtained during the research. Excavations were carried out at the amateur level. Field documentation was almost completely absent. The professional level of the researchers themselves could not but raise doubts. The goals and objectives of these researchers during the excavations did not match even the level of many European studies of that time. This became the main reason that the overwhelming majority of the scientific achievements of Vyshhorod of the nineteenth century. was lost.
Almost all burial mounds were ruptured in the twentieth century. Probable placements of embankments are known from the descriptions of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Mounds in the form of embankments with rounded elevations were inflicted on the military card of 1848.
Among the graves of the tenth century a large part are burial with weapons, Scandinavian ornaments, and others like that.
According to the beliefs of our ancestors, the objects, that people used in their terrestrial life, had to use it in the Netherworld.

Dmytro Bibikov,
Head of the Department of Archeology of the Vyshgorod Historical and Cultural Reserve