Pages: 407-424

Study of plyntha found in the temples of the Novgorod land and dated by the first half of XII century, pursued following the methodology developed by the staff of the Sector of Architectural Archaeology of the State Hermitage, enabled the author to suppose that a number of groups of plyntha creators were active on this territory. Plynthas of St. George’s Temple of Yuriev’s Monastery, Nikolo-Dvorishchenskii Temple, Ioanna-na-Opokah Church were attributed by the author as creation of the first group of masters; the second group created plynthas for the Church of Annunciation on Gorodishche, Christmas Temple, and, possibly, dining-hall of St. Antonio’s monastery. Construction of Joanne’s Temple in Pskov probably used two types of plynthas. Masters used plynthas cast in both dismantling and hard forms. The first type of plynthas of Joanne’s Temple seems to evolve from traditions of the first group of Novgorod plyntha creators of the first half of XII century, while the second one can be compared with the Novgorod plynthas of the late XII century, as well as with plynthas from temples on Old Ladoga. It seems that the church of St. Dimitri Solunski in Pskov was built by masters who had not worked on Novgorod territory before.
It appears that the sites on the Old Ladoga saw a mixture of various traditions in plyntha creation typical of Novgorod land in XII century.