The monograph, through the prism of ethnoarchaeological approaches, highlights numerous issues of paganism of the population of ancient Plisnesk of the 7th–12th centuries. First of all, it presents the description of the structure and historical development of the cult center, on the basis of which a huge Slavic settlement was built. The functioning of the sanctuary began with the laying of sacrificial pits, on top of which a shaft-shaped sacrificial “belt” was soon built – a cult object that was used during various sacred rites. Its main component was ritual cremated and fragmented human inhumations. The latter made up cult burials, entire complexes of burials, or were scattered in the filling of the “belt”. The set of things accompanying burials (jewelry, household items, weapons, tools, etc.) shows that the sacrificed people occupied a high social status in the social hierarchy of ancient Plisnesk. It was found that the sanctuary also included long overground buildings of public purpose – “contins”, a temple, a ritual line of defense, numerous stone sites of sacred purpose, asynchronous defensive lines around the site of the cult center, as well as various types of sacred buildings, whose purpose has not been quite established yet. The monograph presents the analysis of the burial rite of the indigenous Slavs (represented by soil cremations of the 9th-10th centuries) and the incoming Varangian population (kurgan burial rite of the late 10th-early 12th centuries). Within the scope of the analysis is also the pagan tradition of building cenotaphs – symbolic empty graves that were filled in memory of a person who died in a foreign land. The current research defines the time frame for the functioning of the kurgan on the settlement site; outlines the question of religion, worldview and ideas about the sacred space of the inhabitants of Plisnesk; shows that the presence of a well-ordered sacred space of Plisnesk, the complete structure and functional load of the cult center, its connections with other sacred antiquities of the Slavic population directly indicate the existence of a special social institution in Plisnesk – the priesthood. The influence of priests on state-building and city-building processes, clearly visible on the example of ancient Plisnesk, is analyzed. The book is for ethnologists, historians, archaeologists, undergraduate and graduate students, and all those interested in the ancient history of Ukraine.
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