Oral sources of history. Scientific confirmation of the legend about the foundation of Kiev
Prior to the emergence of writing, people stored the experience in an oral word: tales, legends, legends, songs, riddles, proverbs and sayings. All this variety of works is called Oral folk art, or Folklore. From folklore works, historians learn first of all about what life was like in ancient times, what people believed in, what they were doing, what were the customs. The creators of folklore and historical events responded with a word. So, the remarkable monuments of oral folk art were the epics dedicated to the heroes – defenders of their native land.
A lot of ancient legends and legends got to the pages of the chronicles. So, from the “Tale of Bygone Years” we got the legendary legend about the origin of the name and time of the founding of the city of Kiev: “When the meadows lived… separately and were governed by their families… there were three brothers among them: one named Kiy, and the other – Shchek, and the third – Horeb,
For a long time historians did not consider this chronicle legend true. However, comparing the testimony of the chronicler with other sources of that time, they nevertheless came to the conclusion that the legend has a historical basis, and Kiy was a real person who lived at the end of the 6th – early 7th centuries. Confirm this and archaeological findings on the Starokievo mountain: archaeologists were lucky enough to dig out the remains of the settlement of Kiya, which is attributed to the 6th century. The names of other founders of Kiev – his brothers and sisters – are preserved in the names of the Kiev rivers, hills, streets: the Lybid rivers, the Shchekavitsa and Khorevitsa mountains, the Khorevaya streets.
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