Iziaslavl

an ancient Russian city on the eastern edge of Volyn’ Land, destroyed (according to the Hypatian Chronicle) by the Mongol-Tatars in 1241. The city was probably founded in the second half of the 12th century; the site of a fortified settlement on the outskirts of the village of Gorodishche in Shepetovka Raion, Khmel’nitskii Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, is evidently the remains of Iziaslavl’. Between 1957 and 1963 almost all of the city was excavated by M.K. Karger. The remains of burnt pisé dwellings and workshops have been found on the territory of the citadel and posad (merchants’ and artisans’ quarter), surrounded by three rows of banks and ditches. Many well-preserved farming and artisan tools as well as stores of singed grain and various articles made from wood, bone, stone, glass, iron, bronze, and silver were found beneath these structures. The skeletons of thousands of victims and numerous weapons were scattered over the entire site. After 1241 the city was not rebuilt. Modern Iziaslav arose on a new site (on the Goryn’ River) apparently in the middle or late 13th century.