DETINETS OF URBAN CENTERS OF THE HALYCH PRECARPATHIAN REGION (NOTHERN PART OF BUKOVYNA DURING THE 10th – the FIRST HALF OF THE 13th CENTURIES)

Abstract

The detinets as the main components of the urban centers of the northern part of Bukovyna, which existed here during the 10th – first half of the 13th centuries, are analyzed in the article. During the specified time, such cities as: Dzharvat (the village of Revno) in the 10th century, Lenkivtsi on the Prut (modern Chernivtsi) in the 12th – first half of the 13th century and chronical Vasyliv and Kuchelmin were known in the outlined territory. Their detinets had a fairly powerful defense system, consisting mainly of wooden and earthen fortifications, which included defensive ramparts with internal rampart structures (crepids, wooden retaining walls) and log buildings placed on a top of the ramparts. On the inner side, the ramparts were strengthened from erosion by residential and utility rooms intended for the soldiers of the garrison. A battle march was arranged on the flat roof of the log cabins for the convenient movement of defenders during a battle. The inner courtyard, as a rule, did not have a continuous building. There could be large above-ground buildings with basements, where the military nobility or merchants lived (Lenkivtsi on the Prut), Christian churches as the ancestral tombs of the castle owners (Vasyliv). The life of the inhabitants of villages differed from the life of the population of trade and craft posts. The author shows that the city-building processes in the indicated territory took place in the general direction of the development of medieval Ukrainian cities.