Plisnesk archaeological complex is a group of archaeological sites located near the khutir of Plisnesk (now part of Pidhirtsi, Zolochiv Raion, Lviv Oblast), at the source of the Buzhok river. [1]
The early medieval settlement had a big area of 400-450 ha which could inhabit tens of thousands of people, surrounded by several rows of fortifications, smaller settlements, more than 142 burial mounds, and included a fort with a pagan center. [1] [2] [3] Part of the Luka-Raikovetska culture, it was a Polis-like city and one of the centers of early medieval tribe of Croats. [1] [4] [5] [6] [7] The city's downfall and layers of burning are considered to be related to the Vladimir the Great's war with the Croats (992-993). [1] [6]
Since 2015 is regionally protected as a Historic and Cultural Reserve "Ancient Plisnesk". [8]
In 1810, the first studies of the complex were conducted by the Vasylian Father Varlaam Kompanevych and the local official Heisler. Subsequently, archaeologists Teodor Zemencki (1881–1883), Karol Hadaczek (1905, 1907), Yaroslav Pasternak (1940), Ivan Starchuk (1946–1949), Volodymyr Honcharov (1953), Mykhailo Kuchera (1954), Roman Bahrii (1970–1972, 1983), Mykola Peleshchyshyn, and Roman Chaika (1980) joined the study of Plisnesk. Mykhailo Fylypchuk (1990, 1993, 1998–2004, 2007–2016) and Andrii Fylypchuk (2015–2022) discovered dozens of dwellings, hundreds of Christian burials, Varangian mounds, structures of defensive structures, and a pagan cult site in the Olenyn Park tract. [1] [9]
Main attractions of the archaeological complex include: