АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОЕ ИЗУЧЕНИЕ ЦЕРКВИ РОЖДЕСТВА ПРЕЧИСТОЙ БОГОРОДИЦЫ КАНДАЛАКШСКОГО МОНАСТЫРЯ
ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF THE KANDALAKSHA MONASTERY

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

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