BATURYN ARCHAEOLOGICAL UPDATE. RECONSTRUCTING THE INTERIOR OF MAZEPA’S PALACE
Volodymyr Mezentsev, Ph. D.
CIUS, Toronto
Despite the challenges of conducting excavations in Baturyn, Chernihiv Oblast, at a time of war, Ukrainian and Canadian archaeologists and historians have steadfastly proceeded with researching the town and the publication of their findings.
In 2015, about 45 students and scholars from the universities of Chernihiv and Hlukhiv, as well as the National University of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy took part in the annual Baturyn excavations. Last summer, the expedition grew to some 70 members from these institutions and Sumy State University. It was led by archaeologist Yurii Sytyi of Chernihiv National University. Archaeologist Dr. Volodymyr Mezentsev of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta is the Canadian executive director of the Baturyn archaeological project. Prof. Zenon Kohut, the eminent historian of the Hetmanate and former director of CIUS, is the academic adviser of this undertaking. The noted historian of Ukraine-Rus’, Prof. Martin Dimnik of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (PIMS) at the University of Toronto, has also participated in the investigation of Baturyn and the publication of excavation reports.
Baturyn was the capital of the Cossack state in 1669-1708. French Enlighteners and Swedish historians of the 18th century referred to it as the main city of the Cossack realm and the prosperous residence of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1687-1709), who was widely known in the West. During his reign, Baturyn reached the pinnacle of its economic, demographic, and cultural development.
The fortunes of the town were shattered when Tsar Peter I quelled Mazepa’s rebellion against the absolutist rule of Moscow over central Ukraine. In 1708, the Russian army stormed the rebellious hetman capital, and pillaged and burned it to the ground. Tsarist troops massacred the defenders, the Cossacks and hetman’s guard, as well as the entire civilian population. No mercy was given to women, children, the elderly, and the clergy. Up to 14,000 in total perished. The tsar wished to obliterate Mazepa’s stronghold forever, to wreak vengeance on the unruly hetman and his supporters, and to crush all armed resistance to Moscow with ruthless terror.
For 42 years, the ruined town lay devastated and deserted. The last hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine, Kyrylo Rozumovsky (1750-64), rebuilt and repopulated Baturyn and appointed it as the capital of the Cossack state again, though not too long before its abolition by the Russian Empire in 1764. While Ukraine was stateless, the former hetman capital declined, becoming an insignificant agrarian settlement in the Soviet era. In independent Ukraine, Baturyn has begun to revive. In 2008, it was granted the administrative status of a town in recognition of its prominent role in the history of Ukraine and the formation of its statehood.
In 2015-16, archaeologists discovered the foundations of two sizeable brick dwellings, both located outside the former Baturyn fortress. Yu. Sytyi has attributed them to Rozumovsky’s renovation of the town in the second half of the 18th century.
The expedition has continued excavating the remnants of Mazepa’s villa in the Baturyn suburb of Honcharivka. Prior to 1700, he commissioned there a richly embellished masonry palace consisting of three stories and a mansard. This principal residence of the hetman was looted and burned by Russian troops when they destroyed the Cossack capital in 1708.
Archaeological and architectural investigations of the palace foundations and debris, together with a review of the 1744 drawing of its ruins, have enabled researchers to determine the dimensions, layout, design, and decoration of the structure. I have examined numerous fragments of ceramic floor tiles from the Honcharivka palace found in the course of its excavations in 2009-14. This led me to conclude that nine constructive and ornamental types of floor pavements were employed in the palace. Floors were made of hexagonal, octagonal, square, rectangular, and triangular tiles of various sizes. Many of them were glazed flask-green and sky-blue, while others were just plain terracotta. The author and Serhii Dmytriienko (Chernihiv), the Baturyn archaeological expedition’s graphic artist, using a computer photo collage technique, have prepared hypothetical reconstructions of these nine patterns or inlays for floor pavements in Mazepa’s palace.
I have also revealed, through comparative analysis, that they have extensive analogies in tile’s shapes and adornments and methods of flooring of early modern basilicas, abbeys, palaces, castles, university campuses, and town halls in Poland as well as Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna regions of Italy. This allows me to believe that most of the recreated floor designs of the Honcharivka palace were derived from northern Italy. By the time of its construction in the late 1690s, skilled craftsmen of architectural majolica in Kyiv most likely had assimilated and adapted some Italian, Polish, and Western European floor settings and paving techniques. Yu. Sytyi has convincingly argued that all the eye-catching ceramic floor and stove tiles, rosettes and slabs featuring Mazepa’s heraldic emblem that embellished the faҫades of this palace were produced by the best Kyivan tile-makers (kakhliari).
The hetman could instruct his architects and decorators not only to borrow Western baroque architecture for his residence, but to include fashionable floor pavements and inlays from 17th-century aristocratic palaces, villas, and mansions in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or Western Europe. Analysis of the 1744 drawing of the palace’s ruins suggests that its architectural design and ornamentation belonged to the style of the mature Central European baroque. At the same time, archaeological sources have indicated that the palace frieze of entablature was adorned with glazed ceramic rosettes which was a hallmark of 17th-18th-century ecclesiastical edifices in Kyiv. These details could well have been introduced by the Kyivan masters. Thus, the impressive exterior and interior embellishments of the Honcharivka palace represented a mixture of Western and Ukrainian (more precisely, Kyivan) baroque decorative techniques.
The application of nine ceramic floor patterns, many of which were finished with green and rare blue enamel, of nearly 30 types of glazed multicoloured stove tiles, five kinds of faҫade rosettes, and two versions of heraldic plaques testify to the exceptionally rich and imposing adornment of Mazepa’s main residence in Baturyn. It was unrivalled among all the known houses of other hetmans, high-ranking officers, and officials of the Cossack polity.
Using a computer photo collage method, this writer and S. Dmytriienko have completed unprecedented hypothetical reconstructions of two residential rooms and the gala hall of the ruined Honcharivka palace. These have been executed on the basis of: computer reconstructions of the palace floors; graphic reconstructions and constructed replicas of several late 17th- and early 18th-century tiled heating stoves in Baturyn; architectural or decorative elements depicted in the 1744 drawing of Mazepa’s residence; written descriptions of the palatial hall; information about furniture, portraits, icons, and silver tableware, which scholars have attributed to the hetman; as well as data from our extensive excavations of this structure’s debris. Photos of artifacts from museum collections in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Baturyn, the town of Putyvl (Sumy Oblast), Dnipro in Ukraine, and Cracow in Poland, as well as Internet resources have been employed.
I surmise that the hall for official audiences, council meetings, and grand banquets was located on the ground level of the Honcharivka palace. Its floor was paved by elongated hexagonal ceramic tiles in combination with square tiles, all glazed green.
The envoy of King Louis XIV of France, Jean de Baluze, who visited Mazepa’s residence at Baturyn in 1704, noted that the palace hall was adorned with fine portraits of several foreign monarchs. I have identified them as: Louis XIV of France, Kaiser Leopold I of the Habsburg Empire, King Jan II Casimir Vasa of Poland (as a youth, Mazepa served at his court), and Sultan Ahmed III of the Ottoman Empire. Their portraits have been incorporated into our reconstruction of the hall.
There, assemblies of the ruler of Ukraine with the Cossack elite, dignitaries, and foreign diplomats took place. Samiilo Velychko’s Chronicle tells us about council meetings and meals of Mazepa with colonels and civil servants, formal appointments to government posts, as well as traditional Easter celebrations held at his residence in Honcharivka. Baluze also wrote of the hetman’s lavish receptions for the Cossack officers (starshyna) there. The proposed reconstructions of the gala hall and two living chambers of Mazepa’s private quarters help us to visualize the design, ornamentation, and furnishing of the interiors of his ravaged palace in Baturyn.
Last year, archaeologists finished excavating the site of a wooden church at Mazepa’s manor. Certainly, the hetman built it at the same time as his palace, before 1700. The church stood nearby and was of medium size, approximately 11 by 19 meters. Investigators believe that the initial tripartite Assumption Church (1709) in the village of Svarychivka, Ichnia Region, Chernihiv Oblast, is a close counterpart to the Honcharivka church. This well-preserved specimen of monumental timber folk architecture in Chernihiv land of Mazepa’s era provides some insight into the design and ground plan of the lost church at the hetman court.
In 2015-16, the expedition continued excavating the remnants of the household of Judge General Vasyl Kochubei in the western end of Baturyn. His late 17th-century brick house was restored in 2003-06.
The researcher of this edifice, Yu. Sytyi, has maintained that in the judge’s office stood a heating stove, which was revetted with ornate ceramic tiles or kakhli covered by an unusual turquoise glazing. He discovered many tile fragments there bearing the relief motif of stylized grape bunches as well as one unique relief of a nobleman or officer armed with a sword and dressed in European fashion of the late 17th or early 18th centuries. This human image was probably created by a local tile-maker in a naïve realistic manner under the influence of some Western baroque sculpture, painting, or engraving. The stove has been reconstructed on its original site and is on display at the Kochubei residence, presently a museum.
In 2015, archaeologists found many shards of terracotta tiles featuring relief floral patterns. Some of them are faced with azure green enamel. Yu. Sytyi has proposed that these tiles adorned a heating stove in the room of Kochubei’s daughter, the beautiful Motria. She was in love with Mazepa after he became a widower.
Last year, near Kochubei’s house, were unearthed: five silver and copper Polish and Russian coins, two lead musket bullets and a cannon canister-shot, four copper buttons, a costly bronze women’s wedding ring with a semi-precious stone, two iron belt clasps, a bronze oval clasp and four figured decorative appliqués for belts of the 17th-18th centuries. One of the appliqués was gilded. These metal artifacts could have belonged to members of the wealthy Kochubei family, or to his well-to-do court Cossacks, chancery scribes, and other functionaries of the Court General. Such bronze and gilt ornaments, accessories of clothing and accoutrement were conceivably manufactured by local artisans for the consumption of the Cossack elite and gentry (shliakhta) at the hetman capital.
I presume that the expensive leather belts with bronze clasps and flower-like appliqués, uncovered at Mazepa’s and Kochubei’s estates in 2011-16, were produced in Baturyn for the local market. During Mazepa’s time, they were commonplace among the Cossack officers, members of the hetman’s bodyguard or serdiuky, his courtiers, and state officials. The author and S. Dmytriienko have prepared a hypothetical computer reconstruction of one such leather belt with a bronze oval plain clasp and figured appliqués found at Kochubei’s manor in 2015.
Last year, archaeological explorations determined the site of the 17th-19th-century Kerbutivskyi Convent near Baturyn. It was destroyed along with the neighbouring Krupytskyi Monastery by Muscovite troops when they razed Mazepa’s capital and surrounding villages. Nevertheless, these monastic communities recovered soon. In 1827, the Imperial Russian authorities abolished the Kerbutivskyi Convent, and Soviet officials shut down and plundered the Krupytskyi Monastery in 1922. Since 1999, the latter has been restored and rebuilt as a women’s convent.
In 2015, the expedition excavated 80 graves of 17th-18th-century ordinary burghers at the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Cathedral (1692) in the fortress. Russian troops pillaged and burned this church in 1708. The chief investigator of the Baturyn burial grounds, Yu. Sytyi, has identified the specific horizon of graves in this cemetery with the victims of the destruction of the hetman capital.
Examinations of exhumed bones by a specialist in physical anthropology have shown that two skulls of middle-aged men have respectively a bullet hole and a fracture inflicted by a blow to the head (Graves Nos. 243, 279). The skeletons of a young woman, a five-year-old child, and an elderly man were burned by fire (Graves Nos. 239, 245, 280). Most likely, these represent the remains of those who perished from the Muscovite onslaught and related conflagration of the town in 1708. A vivid account of the sheer destruction of Mazepa’s stronghold and the slaughter of its inhabitants by the forces of Tsar Peter I is found in the 18th-century Belarusian Mahiliou Chronicle. It details the brutal massacre of townsfolk, including women and children, who sought refuge in vain within the walls of the masonry Trinity Cathedral.
The 2015 excavations in Baturyn enabled us to locate the site of the lost Kerbutivskyi Convent and to study the culture and lifestyle of residents of the wealthy Kochubei household as well as the chancery officials of the Court General there. On the basis of the latest historical, archaeological, architectural, and artistic research of the remnants of Mazepa’s palace, the first computer reconstructions of its interiors have been prepared. Also, the hitherto unknown Italian and Polish influences on their design and embellishment have been revealed. New archaeological and physical anthropological evidence of the annihilation of Baturyn’s population by fire and sword has been brought to light. The findings of the last summer’s excavations of the hetman capital will be analysed and disseminated in academic and newspaper articles and public lectures in 2017.
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From 2001, the Kowalsky Program for the Study of Eastern Ukraine at CIUS, PIMS, and the Ucrainica Research Institute in Toronto have sponsored the Baturyn project. Prof. Volodymyr Kravchenko, Director of CIUS, heads the Kowalsky Program. I wish to acknowledge the W. K. Lypynsky East European Research Institute, Inc. in Philadelphia for a generous grant awarded for my historical and archaeological investigations of Mazepa’s capital during this academic year.
In 2005-16, the Chernihiv Oblast State Administration contributed annual subsidies for the excavations at Baturyn. The late poetess Volodymyra Wasylyszyn and her husband, artist Roman Wasylyszyn of Philadelphia, the late Dr. Maria Fischer-Slysh of Toronto, and Alexandra Zolobecky-Misiong of Livonia, Michigan, have been the most generous patrons of the study of Baturyn.
In 2015-16, research on the hetman capital and the preparation of publications was supported with donations from the National Executive of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (Orest Steciw, president), the League of Ukrainian Canadians – Toronto Branch (Borys Mykhaylets, president), the League of Ukrainian Women in Canada – Toronto Branch (Halyna Vynnyk, president), the Kniahynia Olha Branch of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada (Natalia Jemetz, president), the Buduchnist Credit Union Foundation (Bob Leshchyshen, president; Oksana Prociuk, CEO; and Chrystyna Bidiak, personnel manager), the Prometheus Foundation (Maria Szkambara, president), the Ukrainian Credit Union (Taras Pidzamecky, CEO), the Golden Lion Restaurant (Anna Kisil, owner), the Healing Source Integrative Pharmacy (Omelan and Zenia Chabursky, owners) in Toronto, the Canadian benefactors of the Ukrainian Studies Fund at Harvard University, and the Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center of New Jersey (Natalia Honcharenko, director) at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.
Next summer, the Canada-Ukraine archaeological expedition will resume its systematic excavations in Baturyn. Meanwhile, because of the war and economic situation, the funding of our scholarly project has become increasingly burdensome for the Ukrainian government. This undertaking will be unfeasible without the beneficent support of Ukrainian donors in Canada and the United States.
Continued support for archaeological explorations in Baturyn and the publication of its materials by Ukrainian organizations, foundations, companies, and private benefactors in North America will be essential in 2016-2017. Canadian citizens are kindly invited to send their cheques with donations to: Orest Steciw, M.A., President, Ucrainica Research Institute, 9 Plastics Ave., Toronto, ON, Canada M8Z 4B6. Please make your cheques payable to: Ucrainica Research Institute (memo: Baturyn Project).
American residents are advised to send their donations to: Mr. Stan Kamski, Treasurer, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 59 Queen’s Park Cr. E., Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 2C4. Please make your cheques payable to: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (memo: Baturyn Project). These institutes will issue official tax receipts to all donors in Canada and the USA, and they will be gratefully acknowledged in related publications and public lectures.
For additional information or questions about the Baturyn project, readers may contact this author in Toronto (tel.: 416-766-1408; email: v.mezentsev@utoron to.ca). The researchers of Baturyn kindly thank the Ukrainian communities in North America for their generous ongoing support of this project and appreciation of its scholarly, cultural, and patriotic importance.
