Archaeological Sights of Oleshnia District (Based on the Materials of Boris Baturyn’s Land Map of 1724)

Abstract

The purpose of the article. The article aims to analyse archeological monuments depicted on a little-known cartographic source – the land map of the Oleshnya district of the first half of the 18th century. Scientific novelty. A 1724 land map authored by geodesist Borys Baturyn is introduced into scientific circulation. It depicts the Oleshnya District as of the first third of the 18th century. The map contains images of administrative boundaries and settlements. However, in our opinion, the image of two hillforts of the Ancient Rus era and an ancient rampart is the most interesting. On the map, it runs from the Kukuyeve hillfort to the village of Stanova in the upper reaches of the Buimer. Conclusions. The studied map is one of the series of “Partied el’Ukraine”, which were compiled by geodetic surveyors from 1721 to 1725. The map is a little-known but quite informative source for the location and names of settlements in the district, as well as archaeological monuments. It is the result of several years of work by two cartographers – Borys Baturyn and Ivan Khrushchev, who worked in several districts located in the territory of the modern Sumy region. The two hillforts pictured on the map were well-known landmarks at the time, mentioned in administrative documents of the second half of the 17th century. The greatest attention was paid to the localization and definition of the third archaeological object, which was drawn during the compilation of the map. This is an ancient rampart that has not been discovered so far and is mentioned only in this source. The authors assume its emergence on the map.

Keywords

• land map, hillfort, human settlements, city, urbanization, ancient rampart, oleshnya district, 18th century