Opinions & Interviews
Is Minsk older than commonly believed? Scientists are reconsidering the date
BelTA’s note: The Svisloch River goes through “the heart of Minsk”. However, there are reasons to believe that the city was only moved to this location in the 11th century. Historians consider the Menka River as the birthplace of the Belarusian capital. It was this river that gave the city its name. Originally it was called Mensk. Archaeologists have been doing large-scale excavations on the Menka River for the second year in the village of Gorodishche, 10km from Minsk.
MINSK, 16 August (BelTA) - Belarusian scientists have evidence that prove that Minsk was founded in the 10th century and now they are trying to establish a more accurate date, BelTA learned from the National Academy of Sciences.
In 2023 and 2024, on the instruction of the government, archaeological research was carried out on the Menka under the leadership of Andrei Voitekhovich, head of the Department of Archaeology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences. "We excavated the rampart of a large settlement and found a number of wood-and-earth fortifications. The time of their construction can be considered as the date of founding of Minsk. It turns out that this large settlement had fortifications that were rare, probably even for the entire Ancient Russia. They were very strong and complex. Only a large, well- developed settlement could afford to have such fortifications. Therefore, the question of whether it was a city or not is removed," Andrei Voitekhovich said.
Excavations were carried out on the Menka to establish whether this settlement was the starting point of the Minsk chronicle. "We can say for sure that these fortifications in their complexity and strength were not inferior to the fortifications of Minsk which were located on the Svisloch. Therefore, it was an equivalent city. It was initially located on the Menka and was founded a little earlier ( more archaic technologies were used in the construction of the rampart) and then was moved to the Svisloch a little later. The city on the Menka was built around 990s, and it was quite large, well-developed place with powerful fortifications. There could simply be no other city here except Mensk. So we have solved this issue. This is our most important discovery," the scientist emphasized.
Aleksei Avlasovich, the head of the Belarus Archaeology Center at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences, noted that the date of founding of Minsk should be reconsidered. "Because what is happening now? We know the date of 1067 when ancient Mensk was burned. This date should be adjusted. Now we have the opportunity to correct the date using natural science methods in archaeological research. We see that the city existed much earlier. Dendrochronological dating shows that the date is 990s. But so far we have not been able to establish a specific year," he stated.
According to Aleksei Avlasovich, such adjustments of historical dates are not at all rare. Such cases have happened in world archaeology before. For example, in Russia the date of the foundation of Veliky Novgorod was corrected thanks to dendrochronological analysis. "Now we have the opportunity to do the same. We expect help from the Institute of Experimental Botany of the National Academy of Sciences," he said.
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