Archeological excavations in the historic center of the city – Castle Hill are still in progress. A series of events took place before archeologists started their work at the site.
In 1990 Holy Trinity Church, which later became known as Khrestovozdvyzhenska, was built on this hill. Since the 1930s the temple was used for not religious purposes. In 1970 the church was transferred to the museum of regional ethnography and the Museum of Nature was placed there. A corner of Polissia nature was recreated in the place of the former altar with stuffed animals and birds; a skeleton of mammoth and collection of minerals of Zhytomyr region were put in the place of the lower church. Only in September of 2011 Oblast Council transferred the church to Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. A year later the reconstruction works were completed.
It is obvious that after the authorities returned the holy place back for the use of the Christian community they began thinking about a new place for the museum of nature. After all, they decided to build a new building for the museum near the Khrestovozdvyzhensky Cathedral. On September 21, shortly before the festivities dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the oblast formation, the top officials laid the capsule to mark the beginning of the construction works. During the excavation of the pit on the Castle Hill bulldozer drivers found human skeletons and remains of ancient foundation walls. After such discovery was made, the site manager called archeologists.
“At a depth from 1.5 meters and almost to 3.5 meters there were recorded cultural layers of Kyivan Rus’, the late Middle Ages, there were also found artifacts of that time among which there were: fragments of pottery, bone tools, slate spinning wheels that were made in Ovruch, in the famous workshops, metal tools, coins of the late Middle Ages and the 19th-20th century, as well as other findings, including the foundation of yet unknown building,” said Oleksandr Karabukin, employee of the Oblast Museum of Regional Ethnography.
Ethnographer from Zhytomyr Heorhii Mokrytsky told us: “As the excavation work progresses the chronology goes down and, obviously, the foundation was discovered at the place of the deepest excavations up to four meters, which suggests that we have here a building of the 15th, possibly even 14th century. Generally archeological artifacts that have been found during excavations on this site are dated starting from the 12th century. This suggests that in this place at that time there already existed a settlement, the so-called okolny (outer) town.”
Mokrytsky also said that this archeological find is the largest in the history of archeological research in Zhytomyr and it can change our views on the history of Zhytomyr, on the time of its foundations, location, and development, on historical events that took place on the Castle Hill. “I think that we have to thoroughly examine this important archeological site and then preserve it and include as a part of the future museum building and make an exposition in the basement. The second option is to make a separate museum object, under glass cap for free access for visitors and tours outside the future museum of nature,” suggested the ethnographer.
While experts are working at the site of accidental historical discovery, people in the city recall the last year’s conclusion of the Institute of Archeology, which says that scientists do not object to building of a museum in the historic part of the city. They argued that they conducted their own research and found remains of pottery and Christian burials. However, in their opinion, these artifacts have no value.
