According to the latest research, the bridge connected the banks of the Volkhov already in the middle of the 10th century. This hypothesis needs careful testing, and now it allows historians to answer some questions about the time and place of the most ancient bridge in Russia. Previously, it was believed that the appearance of structures dates back to the first third of the XII century. This was reported by the press service of NGMZ.
Underwater archaeological research, organized by the Novgorod Regional Federation of Underwater Activities, the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Novgorod Museum-Reserve with the support of the Engineering and Technical Center for Special Works (St. Petersburg), were resumed at the end of March this year.
Using the latest instrumental system to study the bottom of the Volkhov River, archaeologists have found the remains of a structure that crossed the channel between the Nikolsky Cathedral and the lost Cathedral of Boris and Gleb. This was announced by the head of ITC Spetsrabot Evgeniy Pal.
The head of underwater work Aivar Stepanov said that three samples taken from the rubble boulder cleared from the ground and debris were sent to the laboratory of isotope studies of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after A. I. Herzen (head of the candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences Marianna Kulkova). Examination of the samples showed that the logs are about 1060 years old. Thus, the discovered bridge could have existed in the middle of the 10th century. The samples are of little use for dendrochronological dating, therefore, to be sure of the results, repeated analyzes will be carried out in other scientific laboratories.
“We have materials from the Nerevsky excavation site, where the earliest pavements on Velikaya Street are dated 953,” comments Sergey Troyanovsky, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Advisor to the Director General of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve. - This material testifies to the regular paving of streets according to a certain planning scheme of the city, into which the bridge could already be inscribed.
The find also confirms the message of the so-called Joachim Chronicle, to which the historian of the XVIII V. N. Tatishchev in his story about the baptism of Novgorodians: “In Novgorod, people who have seen the hedgehog Dobrynya go to baptize me, uchinisha veche and vowed not to let everything into the city and not let idols refute. And when they arrived, they, having swept the great bridge, worn out with weapons, and asce Dobrynya with suppression and lagod words, aggravating them, both of them didn’t hear the hotyahu and hung out 2 great crossbows with a lot of stone, placing them on the bridge, as if they were their enemies. Idosh, many men, and not those who want to be baptized, warriors to vlachs and kreschaks, men are above the bridge, and wives are below the bridge."
- The unpreserved text of the chronicle in Tatishchev's retelling was questioned in scientific circles. Now there is one more material evidence of its reliability, - believes Aivar Stepanov. - The find itself is no less interesting. This is a pentagonal blockhouse covered with stone - a very laborious and expensive structure. The distance between the centers of the remains of the five visible supports is about 22 meters, which suggests the existence of very long and complex bridge spans in antiquity. Since the flooring for backfilling with a boulder and horizontal ties have not yet been identified at the log house, the question arises - how was it submerged to the bottom? The cuts of the "horn" look irrationally wide, which impair the hydrodynamics of the entire structure.
Log supports are many times stronger than pile supports and probably served for a long time. However, no archaeological finds were found at the base of the log house. This may indicate the absence of trade on the bridge (in contrast to the XIV-XVI centuries) and erosion of soil between the supports due to the "constraint" of the living section of the river by supports of a similar design.
Promotional video:
After the destruction of the framework, a rubble boulder poured out and blocked the channel with a dam, obviously causing a lot of difficulties in navigation and the renewal of the bridge. Some of the supports, inaccessible for extraction, caused shallowing, and four still rise above the river bottom. For this reason, the construction of the new bridge was moved 170 meters downstream. The construction of the bridge pillars was piled at least in the first third of the 12th century.
Archaeologists were also interested in two oak logs - a “zygomatic” crown and a pile lying next to the frame. Analysis showed that, possibly, they belonged to a structure 150 years younger, built at the beginning of the 12th century upstream of the Volkhov. In addition to bridge structures, few finds of broken ceramics and metal products dating from the 14th to the 19th century have been found in the surface layer of river sediments.
Dmitry Vorobyov