Raiki Gorodishche

the remains of a town-fortress of the 12th and 13th centuries, located in the vicinity of the village of Raiki, Berdichev Raion, Zhitomir Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. The town-fortress had been destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars. The citadel was surrounded by moats and wooden and earthen walls with towers. The dwellings, outbuildings, and artisan workshops, together with the fortifications, formed a unified residential-fortification system.

During the 1929–35 and 1946 excavations, archaeologists unearthed beneath the ruins of charred buildings the skeletons of people and domestic animals, as well as thousands of household articles, tools, food stores, and weapons. Also found were the remains of a blast furnace, a smithy replete with tools and finished products, and a jewelry workshop containing crucibles, casting molds, and both semifinished and finished articles made from nonferrous metals. The finds have made it possible to reconstruct the economic life and culture of ancient Russian town-fortresses, which were part of the defensive fortification line of Rus’ against the nomadic tribes of the steppe.