The initial stage of research of the Dnieper’s the Left Bank monuments of the 5-7 centuries (middle courses of the Psel and Vorskla rivers)

Abstract

This article continues a series of publications devoted to the formation of a source base for studying the monuments of the 1^st millennium AD in the Bilsk microregion and the adjacent forest-steppe and steppe territories of the Dnieper Left Bank (antiquities of the Zarubintsi line of development). At the initial stage of studying the monuments of the Penkivka culture on the left bank of the Dnieper (1900s – mid-1960s), random finds of individual items and treasures of the «antiquities of the Ants» were recorded. In the Vorskla basin, only one complex comes from excavations – this is an inhumation burial near the village of Berezivka, researched by V.Yu. Danilevich. Part of the treasures of the 6^th-8^th centuries was published at the beginning of the 20^th century by M.O. Makarenko and O.S. Fedorovsky. The most complete catalogue of artifacts, prepared in the pre-war and post-war years by G.F. Korzukhina, was published at the end of the 20^th century.

The interpretation of materials obtained at the initial stage of studying the antiquities of Penkivka was made possible during the first (1960-1990) and second stages (from the turn of the 20^th-21^st centuries to the present). A distinctive feature of the second, ongoing stage is a significant reduction in the scale of stationary research of monuments. This is only partially compensated for by the active publication of materials from excavations and surveys, mainly obtained during the first stage of work. The publication of materials obtained during the second stage continues, but a significant part of them introduces artifacts obtained during illegal work into scientific circulation. The latter have become widespread and practically uncontrolled. The reliability of data on the composition of material complexes (?) and the locations where artifacts were found is questionable.

It is possible that the occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, the years of the pandemic, and Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine are already part of a new, third stage in the study of Penkivka culture and other Slavic and neighboring cultures (horizons), as identified in the 1940-60-s and at the beginning of the 20^th century.