Preservation of the historical and cultural monuments is always closely connected with their thorough examination. The chronicle of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery is well-known and museum guides are pleased to tell tourists about the cloister life. Nevertheless, researches are going on. At present archeological digs are being carried out on several sites of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. Ilya Papin, head of the Scientific and Research Centre “Antiquities”, told about the goals of the work and interesting finds in the interview for kirmuseum.ru.
- Ilya Valerievich, what are the specialists of your centre doing in the museum now?
- We have two tasks that we are solving at the same time. The first one is control or better to say archeological supervision of the restoration. Large work on the site improvement is being carried out in the central square: grading and leveling. We are monitoring the earthwork. If they find objects that have archeological value, we must stop the construction, examine the site and make a decision whether it is necessary to make full-scale research or not. We already found several graves between the Monks’ Cells and the Church of St. Epiphanius in early summer. We determined their outlines and marked them on the map. Changes were made in the land improvement draft because of this find. They decided to zone the church-yard and not to build a path there as it had been planned initially.
- What is the second goal?
- Our second task is exactly excavations. The architects are preparing a new site plan of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Besides, specialists are elaborating a restoration draft of the 16th-century walls. That’s why we are carrying out preliminary exploration of the area. Its aim is to specify the location of the monastery structures that have not come down to us or only some fragments of them have survived. At present we are working near the Holy Gate of the Small Ivanovsky Monastery and we are also clearing away the remains of the Kruglaya (Round) Tower.
- Are the sites of excavations chosen intentionally?
- We work using plans, inventories, and various documents. Archeology is a rather labour-intensive and cost-intensive job to excavate the site at random. It is necessary to aim first. In case with the Ivanovsky Monastery, everything was simple: we could clearly see the embrasures that were bricked in. According to the inventory of 1601, there was a square two-storied gate tower on this site. We think that it was dismantled rather early.
Remains of brickwork of the Kruglaya Tower are also clearly visible. But it is difficult to localize the mill mentioned in the monastery inventories. It was supposedly situated at the corner of the Monks’ Cells. There is a bridge across the river there now. This area itself is interesting: the Kruglaya Tower, the mill, one more tower and walls of the Prison were located there in the 16th – 17th centuries. We will try to find out where the mill was built in particular.
- We can see some bricks near the site of the excavations in the Ivanovsky Monastery that were found in the ground. Are they of any interest?
- Bricks can be different. If we find small crushed bricks, we don’t study them. Stone construction in the monastery started quite long ago. We can see broken bricks of the dismantled or destroyed buildings almost everywhere. Therefore this layer itself means little. But when we discover intact or almost intact bricks or particularly regular brickwork, such a find is of certain interest. As is known, bricks of varios size were used for construction at different times. We can exactly date the buildings measuring them.
For example, when we started excavations near the wall of the Ivanovsky Monastery, we found curios pavement surrounding the remains of the tower. It consists of three layers of bricks laid without mortar or just using clay. The brick is clean and intact; it dates approximately from the 17th century.
- Can you suppose what it is?
- Probably, it is the pavement of the road or a kind of a “porch” of a rather unusual for the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery structure.
- What can you say about the Kruglaya Tower?
- Everything is simpler with it. The Kruglaya Tower existed for a long time and was marked on the plans of the monastery in the 18th century. The remains of brickwork can be also seen now. Our task is to clear away the site where it was located, to specify its size, to mark it on the map and that’s all. We don’t plan full-scale study.
- Ilya Valerievich, what else are you planning to do in the archaeological season of 2014?
- My scientific interest is focused here – in Kirillov, Ferapontovo and Tsypino. We are monitoring the land improvement in the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes. As for Tsypino, we are examining the area for an open air museum that is to be established there – we are looking for archeological monuments, try to find out the location of the initial Church of St. Prophet Elijah. Besides, we are carrying out conservative archeological researches in Vologda connected with construction of buildings in the historical part of the city. The employees of our centre are participating in the Onezhsko-Sukhonskaya expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the RAS now. It makes investigations of archeological monuments of the Old Russian period in the Vologda region every year. This cooperation was established long ago. During this expedition, students of Vologda State University undergo training under my direction.
