Pages: 27-44 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp2552744

It has been an accepted hypothesis until recently that the raw stone for the Novgorod medieval buildings was quarried at the glint on the southern shore of Lake Il’men. The Il’men glint near the villages Buregi and Retlyo still preserves the most remarkable outcrops of the Devonian limestones in the vicinity of Novgorod. The article presents the results of the thin section, palaeontological, geochemical, and stable isotope analyses, which revealed that the stone from the early 12^th—century masonry cannot be identified as originating from Il’men glint (Buregi formation). The provenance of the samples is identified as from Porkhov-Svinord and Chudovo layers (Upper Devonian, Frasnian stage), whose outcrops are known at the river Shelon’s inflows, the rivers Koloshka and Mshaga (ca. 80–90 km from Novgorod by water route). The results of the SIA helped in specifying the δ¹³С_carb curve for the Frasnian stage of the Main Devonian Field and verifying the provenance of the limestone samples. Thus, it was discovered that mining durable stone from more distant outcrops was preferred in the early 12^th century, the initial period of the formation of the Novgorod tradition of masonry architecture. The closer outcrops at the Il’men glint were used solely for building needs in the late 12^th century.

Keywords: medieval architecture, stone masonry, limestone quarries, XRF analysis, thin-section analysis, stone provenance, stable isotope analysis

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