HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

ARCHAEOLOGY OF KIEV 325Traditionally, the Kiev area is divided into distinct segments (fig. 2).The northern part of the Kiev plateau, which faces the Dnieper, is called thehills of St. Cyril. Further down, towards the south, are two distinct hillsdivided by a deep ravine where the Jurkovycja brook once flowed. Inwardfrom the plateau land stretches for more than a kilometer; this is theLuk"janivs'ka Hill. The hill's western boundary is the Syrec' River whichflows in a semicircle towards the Dnieper valley. The southern boundary ofthis northern part of the Kiev plateau is the long and deep ravine of theHlybocycja brook, which runs almost east-west. Continuing to thesoutheast of the Kiev plateau is its central part, with three distinct promontoriesfacing the Dnieper. Furthest to the east is the Kudrjavec', followedby the much smaller Dytynka Hill and the larger but less distinctStarokyjivs'ka Hill. To the north of these promontories and to the south ofthe Hlybocycja lies the Kyselivka Hill, completely detached from the Kievplateau as a result of water activity. The southern boundary of this centralpart of the Kiev plateau is the Xrescatyk ravine, which from the southwestruns towards the northeast. The valley floor from the Jurkovycja brook tothe end of the Xrescatyk ravine is the district called the Podil. Furtherdownstream, on the west bank of the Dnieper, the valley floor is very narrow.To the north of the Jurkovycja the valley floor is called the Obolon'.Both the Jurkovycja and Hlybocycja brooks empty into the Pocajna River, abaylike tributary of the Dnieper.To the south of the Xrescatyk are the plateaus of Klov, the Pecers'kMonastery (Uhors'ke) and Vydubyci furthest to the south. They are partlydivided from each other by ravines with brooks joining the Dnieper or theLybid' River. On the west side of the Lybid', which runs from thenorthwest to the southeast, is a new succession of plateaus, one of which isthe dominating Batyjeva HillAlthough the Kiev plateau today is part of the natural woodland zone,the wooded steppe zone begins not far south. In the late first millenniumA.D., the border between the two zones may have run even somewhatfurther south.III. SETTLEMENT IN THE KIEV REGIONBEFORE THE END OF THE NINTH CENTURYDue to the favorable geographical situation, human settlement in the Kievregion goes back to the Paleolithic era. The area was especially rich in settlementsduring the Roman Iron Age. In the fifth century AD. there seemsto have been a certain lacuna in the settlement sequence. However, alreadyby the end of the sixth century the Kiev plateau was resettled. A number ofstray finds are datable to this period (Karger 1959, pp. 92-97), and there