Canada-Ukraine archeological expedition renews excavations at Baturyn
by Dr. Volodymyr Mezentsev
TORONTO - Located in the Chernihiv region north east of Kyiv, the town of Baturyn was the official capital of the Kozak Hetman state in eastern Ukraine in 1669-1708 and 1750-1764.
In 2001-2002, Ukrainian and Canadian archaeologists and historians renewed the excavations in this town after initial digs in 1995-1997. The expedition is sponsored by the Kowalsky Program for the Study of Eastern Ukraine of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and the Shevchenko Scientific Society of America. Valuable advice for the Baturyn project has been given by Dr. Zenon Kohut, director of the CIUS.
The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto has administered the funds that Ukrainian communities in Canada and the United States donated for the project. Prof. Martin Dimnik of this institute has overseen these funds and contributed to dissemination of the expedition findings in Canadian academic publications. The University of Chernihiv provided an archaeological team consisting of 70 students and scholars led by Dr. Volodymyr Kovalenko. This writer participated in this dig as the research fellow of CIUS responsible for the Baturyn archaeological project.
The researchers uncovered almost completely the foundations of the hetman's large brick palace in the citadel of Baturyn and established its approximate size (24 by 36 meters), ground plan and architectural design. The palace was constructed by hetmans Demian Mnohohrishnyi (1669-1672) and Ivan Samoilovych (1672-1687) in the Kozak Baroque style. The extant office of the Kozak regiment in Chernihiv and the building known as "Mazepa's Mansion" in Kyiv of the turn of 18th century represent the analogies to the hetman's palace in Baturyn.
Near this palace, the remains of the contemporaneous wooden Church of the Resurrection have been found; they will be fully excavated next year.
On the site of Baturyn's fortress, the remnants of the spacious luxurious house of a Kozak officer or "starshyna," possibly a colonel, was discovered. It was erected at the turn of 18th century and had an area of about100 square meters, four rooms and a vestibule. The expensive decorative glazed ceramic revetment and roofing tiles of this wealthy urban dwelling emulated those of the palaces, churches or colleges of the hetman state.
The expedition has also continued work on the country residence of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1687-1709) in the suburb of Honcharivka near Baturyn. At around 1700, a magnificent, three-story masonry palace, 30 by 15 meters was built there by Mazepa in a Western European Baroque style as well as a wooden private church.
The palatial foundations were excavated in 1995-1997. In 2002, the exploratory digs revealed the remnants of an unidentified structure at Mazepa's villa. Further excavations are needed, however, to determine the architecture and function of this building and to verify its intriguing hypothetical identification with the private church of Mazepa.
Archaeologists have found nearly 60 types of ceramic tiles, or "kakhli," of various shapes with relief patterns manufactured by local and Dutch artisans in the 17th and 18th centuries. The more sophisticated of them were covered with polychrome glazing. Their ornamental motifs were derived from Ukrainian folk art, church iconography and West European Baroque painting or relief sculpture. These ceramic tiles were used for the decoration of ovens or fireplaces in the hetman palaces and rich urban dwellings.
The excavations have also yielded various weapons and tools, gilded copper icons, bronze and silver ornaments for women, fragments of brocade embroidered with golden and silver threads, Kozak ceramic tobacco pipes, and many fragments of pottery and glassware of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Numerous finds of Polish, Dutch, Swiss and Russian silver and copper coins and German lead trade seals of this time testify to the lively international commercial contacts maintained by the hetman capital.
The excavated hetman palaces were burned in 1708 when Baturyn was devastated by Russian troops. Its Kozak garrison and the bulk of the town's civilian population of about 15,000 people were massacred as a punitive measure against the rebellious Mazepa and his followers who had joined the Swedes in the Northern War.
Researchers have found evidence of massive destruction of the hetman capital in 1708 - the remnants of many burned or ruined structures and 26 skeletal remains mainly of elderly men, women and children, some of which show signs of a violent death. Most were identified as victims of the attack on the town by the Russian army.
Thus, the excavations of Baturyn have brought to light much new archaeological evidence for the study of the hitherto little-known history and culture of the capital of Kozak Hetman Ukraine.
Volodymyr Mezentsev, Ph. D., is a visiting professor at the Slavic department of the University of Toronto and a research fellow of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 19, 2003, No. 3, Vol. LXXI
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