Archaeologists want digging to stop near one of Kyiv's historical monuments
Twenty years ago during a city center reconstruction project, archaeologists discovered a section of an 11th?century gate and went to great lengths to preserve it.
Today, the historical relic is again threatened with destruction, this time from bulldozers that are tearing into the earth under Maidan Nezalezhnosti to make way for an underground shopping mall.
The project is part of a major renovation commemorating the 10th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence in August. Backhoes and bulldozers, which have turned the city’s central square into a huge construction site, are gradually nearing Mala Zhytomyrska, where the Lyadsky Gate, one of three entrances to 11th?century Kyiv, lies under the concrete.
“The [gate’s] supplemental fortifications added in the 17th century have already been destroyed. … The construction is encroaching the most ancient part of the gate,” said Mykhailo Sahaidak, an archaeologist at the Archaeology Institute in Kyiv.
Incidentally, it was Sahaidak and his team who discovered the gate during the 1981 construction project. That year, Maidan underwent a hasty reconstruction in preparation for the anniversary of an important war victory and a visit from Leonid Brezhnev, general secretary of the Communist Party.
When ruins were discovered during the digging, authorities were unimpressed. The plan was to destroy the relics in order to erect a giant fountain that was to be the centerpiece of Maidan Nezalezhnosti for 20 years.
But when officials in charge of the project were called away to Moscow, archaeologists were allowed on the site. They had only one week to study the artifact. What they found was the exact location of the Lyadsky Gate, later known as the Pecherska Brama.
The wooden gate was built on a 35?meter bank. The wall and moat encircling ancient Kyiv stretched along what today is Hrynchenka and Kostyolna, with the entrance facing Mala Zhytomyrska.
It was a significant find. Prince Yaroslav the Wise ordered the gate built after an attack by nomad tribes in 1036. Several Kyiv architectural monuments, including St. Sofia’s Cathedral and another city entrance, the Golden Gate, date from that period.
“[The gate] is a vast area for research and of great interest to archaeologists,” Sahaidak said. “The whole front is the site of famous battles, including the 1240 Tatar invasion of Kyiv.”
The gate itself is a testimony to the high craftsmanship of the wooden engineering of Kyivan Rus, as its wooden structures have been preserved undamaged since the 11th century. Inside the entrance of the fortress, researchers found several kilns, which were probably used for casting arrowheads.
In 1981 archaeologists persuaded city officials to preserve the find. A small museum was built in the underpass adjacent to the gate, but it was open for only a few years.
Today, few pedestrians know that as they hustle through the underground they are traipsing over such a significant site because the gates were all but forgotten once the museum closed. But it was not forgotten by Kyiv’s archaeologists, who alerted builders as soon as construction began again early this year.
When the archaeologists saw work taking place on Maidan, they objected.
This time, their claims were rooted in the law. For 20 years, the gate has been included on the Register of Monuments of National Value. Only 59 objects in Kyiv, including Zamkova Hill and Desyatynna Church, are on this list. These objects can be destroyed only by a special Cabinet of Ministers decree upon a request of the Culture Ministry or the State Construction Committee.
The law also states that no site can be disturbed without a prior archaeological evaluation.
“The first phase of each construction project is obtaining permission from a number of authorities, including the Archaeology Institute,” Sahaidak explained. “But this procedure was omitted.”
But the project’s chief architect said that it would have been impossible for archaeologists to do their work before the digging began.
“Archaeologists simply wouldn’t have been able to do any research before the construction started,” explained chief architect Oleksandr Komarovsky. “To reach the site, they need heavy machinery, which they must borrow from the construction workers.”
After writing letters to Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko and Culture Minister Bohdan Stupka, archaeologists finally were allowed on the site on March 27. Though assigned to conduct their work in several zones, they have not been granted access as yet.
“There is a one?meter layer of concrete and one?and?a?half meters of debris covering the site. Besides, electrical cables are still buried on the site,” Sahaidak said. “Every time, we are told ‘It’s not ready yet.'”
Archaeologists have been promised they could begin their work on April 14, but Sahaidak is not optimistic.
“I just recall what happened in 1981,” Sahaidak said. “The fate of the monument is not clear.”
There is also a financial issue involved. By law, the developer is supposed to finance all archaeological research on the site. In the West or even in Russia, a research project of such scale would take a minimum of 18 months and require about Hr 2 million, Sahaidak said.
“Of course, we expect just a fraction of that amount – if we get financed at all,” he added.
Ironically, the main developer for the reconstruction is the Historical Environment Protection Department, along with Kyiv Roads and Traffic Construction Management.
According to construction plans, a huge monument symbolizing Ukrainian historical events will be erected on Maidan Nezalezhnosti before the Independence Day celebration on Aug. 24. In addition, crews are working on an underground shopping center.
Sahaidak believes the plans can go ahead without destroying Lyadsky Gate. He even suggested that the historical site be incorporated in the design of the underground mall.
“In the West, they would take advantage of an archaeological find, make it a highlight, an attraction of the place,” Sahaidak said. “Here that is very unlikely.”
