Topography of the Mutyn Zlatoust Monastery in the 18th Century

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to reconstruct the topography of the Mutyn Zlatoust (St. John Chrysostom) Monastery of the 18^th century using archaeological survey data.

The scientific novelty resides in the introduction into scientific discourse of new finds and a refined site plan of the Mutyn Monastery structures, alongside their interpretation in accordance with a description from the late 18^th century. The location of the monastery on the territory of a hillfort enabled the investigation of sites significantly separated in time, combining the study of Early Iron Age antiquities with those of the Early Modern Period.

Conclusions. In the late 17^th and 18^th centuries, active monastic construction commenced in Left-Bank Ukraine. This process is associated with the activities of Hetman Ivan Mazepa and the Cossack officer corps. Small hermitages and monasteries were either rebuilt or constructed directly as substantial architectural ensembles. This process encompassed the territories of the Hetmanate and Sloboda Ukraine. The vast majority of monasteries were established near major military-administrative centres, namely regimental and company towns, or officer corps estates. One such monastery was the Mutyn Hermitage, іnterposed between the villages of Mutyn and Kamin. This religious house was initially male; however, on the initiative of Anastasiia Skoropadska, the monks were transferred to the Kharlampiy Hamaliya Monastery, and nuns were settled in their place. In the late eighteenth century, the monastery was closed as a result of secularisation.

For a long time, the location of the Mutyn Monastery remained unknown. Almost all information regarding it was contained in the work of O. Lazarevskyi and several documents pertaining to the history of the Kharlampiy Hamaliya Monastery. Ultimately, as a result of investigations by archaeological expeditions led by R. Terpylovskyi and D. Karavaiko, a hillfort featuring occupational layers of the Cossack era was discovered, enabling its identification specifically as the Mutyn Monastery. A re-examination of the hillfort provided an opportunity to thoroughly inspect all structures traceable on the surface and plot them onto the existing plan. These structures can be categorised into places of worship, residential buildings, and outbuildings. They are concentrated in the southern part of the monastery, whereas the central area is level, showing no visible traces of construction, where the monastic churches: the ‘Church of St. John Chrysostom’ and the ‘Transfiguration Church’ may have been situated.

The stove tiles and pottery fragments discovered on the monastery territory are dated to the 18^th century, which coincides with the dates specified in written sources.

Funding. The research was produced as part of the project ‘Historical Memory and Memorialization Practices as Tools for Countering Anti-Ukrainian Destructive Narratives: National and International Dimensions’ (0126U001457) with support from Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science.