Description

This booklet continues the series of annual reports on the archaeological and historical research of Baturyn, the capital of the Cossack state. It is illustrated with 79 colour figures. CIUS sponsors this Canada-Ukraine project. The publication surveys the history of the town during Polish-Lithuanian rule over Left-Bank Ukraine, the Khmelnytskyi revolution, and the Hetman era, primarily under Mazepa’s reign. The total destruction of Baturyn and the slaughter of its entire population by Russian troops in 1708 is described on the basis of the Belarusian Mohyliv (Mahiliou) Chronicle, which provides a unique and most vivid account of this event.

The authors examine the findings of the 2015 excavations of the remnants of Mazepa’s and General Judge Kochubei’s manors, court churches, and a convent site, as well as discuss the material culture and lifestyle of the hetmans and dignitaries of the Cossack state, along with their families. They have published several ground-breaking innovatory computer reconstructions of the interiors of Mazepa’s principal residence and revealed hitherto unknown Italian and Polish influences on its floor pavement patterns and imposing ornamentation. Some new archaeological and physical anthropological evidence about the annihilation of Baturyn’s inhabitants in 1708 is also brought to light.