Rare samples of 19th-century weapons will be added to the collections of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore
20/10/20110 views
On October 20, Vitebsk /Sergey Kochetov - BELTA/. Rare cold weapon samples of the 19th century, found by archaeologists in 2011 during excavations on the territory of the ancient Zamkovy Brook in the center of Vitebsk, will be transferred to the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. This was announced today to journalists by Olga Levko, Head of the Center for the History of Pre-industrial Society of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor. In Vitebsk, she is taking part in the scientific and practical conference "Vitebsk Antiquities", reports a BELTA correspondent.
During archaeological supervision, which has been carried out since 2010 during the construction of an administrative building in the channel of the Zamkovy Brook and its adjacent territory, specialists discovered a wooden structure at a depth of about 8 m from the surface. Near it, the hilt of some kind of weapon (without a blade) was found, on which a figure of 1872 was revealed during subsequent research. In addition, inside the wooden structure, a decayed bundle was found, which contained a sword, several sabers, and shashkas.
All the finds, which date back to 1841-1883, are in excellent condition, with the exception of one blade, which specialists hope to restore. On two items, the hallmarks of the famous German firm Solingen were found. A button of the 1812 model was also found here. As scientists believe, this could be a treasure collected by a participant in the events of 1812, otherwise it is difficult to explain the presence of very rare and rare weapon samples in one place. Archaeologists decided to transfer all discovered items to the collections of the regional museum of local lore.
In addition, at the site of archaeological supervision in 2011, specialists discovered a continuation of the remains of the foundation and walls of the Voskresenskaya Zaruchievskaya Church, the first fragments of which were identified in 2009. Now its location is absolutely precisely confirmed by items and materials also found this year, which are related to the cult building. In the vicinity of the church, a pectoral cross and a perfectly preserved encolpion cross, dating back to the 14th century, were found, which is a great rarity for Vitebsk.
Here, the remains of a stone structure housing an orphanage for artisans' children were also discovered, along with a number of wooden structures that could not be identified due to poor preservation. The only thing that could be done was to conduct dendrochronological analysis on wood samples to determine the age of the structures, which, according to preliminary estimates, date back to the 15th century. All the discovered buildings make it possible to refine the plan of the ancient city. "Vitebsk is very interesting from an archaeological point of view, and I hope the depths of the ancient city still hold many historical secrets, so the excavations will continue," noted Olga Levko. -0-
BELTA