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with less steep walls, was probably the entrance. In 1952 a fragmentary outline of another ditch was discovered to the south-west of the explored circle. It surrounded a yard of 23-metre-long diameter, whose centre lay exactly at the south-west - north-east axis going through the post-hole in the first circle. Its bottom was covered with ash and burnt stones. The second circle has not been fully explored. Two buildings were erected at this place: the earlier one probably of wattle, the later of wood; in V.V. Sedov’s opin-ion they should be dated to the 12th-15th c. Sedov reinterpreted mysterious remains discovered in 1948 in the lowest layer under the stone ruins of the church under the invocation of the Birth of the Mother of God, located to the north-east of the first circle, as traces of a third cult circle. At this point, however, we should remain skeptical, as the sanctuaries in Khodosoviche and Trzebiatów had only two circles each. The excavations proved that at the end of the lOth c. the Perynia shrine was literally ploughed, just like in the chronicle’s relation. The yard, which had been several dozen cen-timetres higher than the surrounding ground, was levelled, and the soil taken from it was used to fili up the ditch.

Thus, the excavations revealed the remains of the sanctuary of Perun, ravaged in 988 or 991, which had consisted of two - or less probably three - cult circles. The main circle, situated at the then top of the hilł, is exceptional because of its special shape. It probably surrounded the statuę of Perun mentioned by chronicles. The centres of the remaining circles (or circle) may have been occupied by other idols. Primary Chronicie confirms the custom of sacrifices, while the Third Noygorod Chronicie characterizes them in greater detail as offerings of food and drinks. The ditches around the circles served for buming flres. It is worth attention that the whole sanctuary was arranged along the south-west - north-east linę and that the main circle was geometrically orientated to the main geographical directions of the world, with the intermediate ones included.

No sources - except of late texts - mention any priests connected with the sanctuary. They appear, however, in relations conceming the later his-tory of Novgorod. Primary Chronicie, in the fragment devoted to the activ-ity of magicians and their liquidation under the year 1071, mentions the following event: “In the time of Gleb [Sviatoslavovich] a magician came to Novgorod; he claimed (...) that he knew everything in advance and criticised Christianity, and he said: ‘I shall walk across [the river] Volkhov in front of everyone.’ And there was a rebellion in the town and they wanted to kill the bishop.” The prince and his warriors supported the bishop, while the people followed the magician. Gleb disposed of him in quite a non-chivalrous way. “Having taken an axe under his cape, he went to the magician and spoke to him: ‘Do you know what is is going to happen tomorrow and today before the evening?’ And he answered: ‘I know everything in advance.’ And Gleb said: ‘Do you know then, what is going to happen to you today?’ ‘I shall make great miracles’ he said. And Gleb took out his axe and cut him in

halves, and he fell dead, and the people dispersed” (PSRL, vol. 1, 1926, p. 180-181). This episode is shown in one of the miniatures from RadiviIIov-skaya letopis (1902, 106r, cf. Khrenetsov, 1981, p, 99-112).

The chronicles indicate that the sanctuary on Perynia was the main cult centre of Novgorod, despite sotne distance between the two places. In the town proper no sanctuary has been discovered so far. It had, however, a Street called Volosova, at which allegedly in the 14th c. there was a churćh devoted to St Blase (Vlasiy), one of the saints who replaced Volos (Veles) in the Christian cult of Ruthenia (Rybakov, 1987, p. 252). Novgorod has also supplied some examples of founding offerings and sacrificial deposits (e.g. a hole with two buli heads), interpreted by V.V. Sedov (1956; 1957) as traces of the existence of pagan cult associations.

If we were to treat the chronicie texts literally, we should conclude that Perun’s statuę survived only eight, or at the most eleven years upon the Volkhov. The sources, however, do not exclude the possibility that the sanctuary had been created much earlier. This thesis is supported both by archaeological flnds and by the iong-lasting tradition of the płace’s cult function. The beginnings of Novgorod go back to the 9th/10thc., which provokes a question about the gods that had been worshiped there before Dobrynia erected the statuę of Perun. B.A. Rybakov (1987, p. 265, 270) assumes that Perun’s cult was a religion of the prince and his suitę, enforced on the subjects, and claims that the cult place had been devoted to Jesse--Yashchur (big reptile, the crocodile from Tsretnik), Lada and Leli. No reliable source contains even a slightest tracę of evidence for that construct. The worship of Perun did not have to be completely new and alien to the inhabitants of Novgorod and the Slovens living around the town. The Balts, dwelling close to Novgorod, may have easily identified the old Slavonic

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