ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY OF THE KANDALAKSHA MONASTERY

The Kandalaksha Monastery on the banks of the Niva River is the oldest in Russian Lapland – founded in the early XVI century. In 2013 and 2015, for the first time, archaeological work was carried out on the site of the destroyed monastery church of the Nativity of the Mother of God. The purpose of the work was to obtain new informationabout the cultural layer of the monastery, about the time of its foundation and about unknown stages of its history.Excavations have studied the eastern part of the church on an area of 47 m2. A well-preserved cultural layer XVII–XIXcenturies with a thickness of 0.8 m was found. Interesting objects were found under the church: the foundation of 1865,four masonry, two burials, the remains of walls and pillars. They are mostly dated to the middle of the XVII century, butthere are dates from the end of the XV – beginning of the XVI century, which is important for finding traces of the “premonastery”period. The “original” burial in the altar – two men lying on top of each other in the same pit, we consideras monastic and “status”. The finds are mostly nails and staples, there are not many individual artifacts: a screwdriver for an XVIII century gun, fragments of mica windows, one copper cross from the burial of a baby, ceramics, a fish hook, barley grains. The excavations have confirmed the relevance of the research and the prospects for their continuation.

Kola Peninsula, Kandalaksha Monastery, Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, late Middle Ages, archaeological research