image075

ditch. We should, however, remember that the smaller circle was accom-panied only by two ditches. The C-shaped fire-places discovered in Khodosoviche resemble Daksinagni fire-places, which in the Vedic ritual guarded sacriflcial places from demons (Gonda, 1978, p. 138).

Another object was reveaied in Pskov. It consisted of a cult circle measuring about 11 metres in diameter, with two substantiał post-holes (one still filled with remains of a pole), and a regular arrangement of several smaller post-holes at the western edge of the circle near the presumed entrance. According to the discoverer (Labutina, 1989), the shrine was contemporary with the barrows found around it. There are also claims about cult character of the circle of holes in the site Gorodishche in the village Babka near Rovne (Gusakov, Kulakov, 1991, p. 178)

I.P. Rusanova (1966; 1966a) discovered another interesting sanctuary in the village Shumsk, 7 km from Zhytomir. She found a welł-visible outline of a 14.2-metre-long and 11-metre-wide object shaped like a cross, orientated towards the four directions. It was situated on a hillock at the eastem bank

395

r*EG 1 EEE]2G]3iBl

20 0 20 ^Ocm

Fig. 61. Pskov. The hole with remains of an oak pole. 1 - rock-bed, 2 - sand,

3 - clay, 4 - the pole. After Labutina 1989, p. 104.

of the Khnylopiat. Its centre was occupied by a large post-hole paved with Stones. The tracę of the idol was surrounded from the east by several hollows left by smaller poles. Between them there was a large fireplace in which the layer of ash reached 50 cm. Another fireplace was found in the Southern arm of the cross, together with numerous fragments of pottery, classified by Rusanova as typical for the 9th c., iron knives and buli bones. A third, smali, fire-place was discoveted to the east from the great pole. Near a big stone, situated to the north-east of the smaller post-holes, cock bones and a thunderbolt (belemnit) were lying. Belemnit was commonly called “thunderbolt” (Pol. strzałka piorunowa, Ukr. hromova strilka) by Slavs, and regarded as a result of god Perun striking with thunders (Gieysztor, 1982, p. 65). No traces of a fence were revealed, but the sanctu-ary might have been entered from the south by a broad, dual gate, which is indicated by regular traces of pales at the Southern edge of the object. The large central post-hole lies exactly at the axis going through the middle of the presumed gate.

To the south-east of the shrine an enormous fire-place (7.8 m in diam-eter) containing pottery from the 8th/9th c. was found. To the north of the sanctuary there is a burial ground. The finds from that area include twenty smali holes, eleven of them containing fragments of vessels and burnt hu-man bones. At a neighbouring hillock near the river an outline of a hut, sized 3.6 m x 3.9 m, was discovered. It had been situated 60 metres from the sanctuary and may have been a priesfs house. Interpreting the aocompany-ing large (7.2 m x 7.6 m) object with a stove in the middle and an enclosed dugout in the comer as a farm building is Less convincing (Rusanova, 1973, p. 36, 93). Probably it was a cult house (Szymański, 1973, p. 84).

Rusanova (1966a, p. 237) claims that the shrine upon the Khnylopiat was devoted to Perun, pointing to the thunderbolt accompanying the cock bones and to certain similarities between its pian and the plan of the

153