Irina Petrovna Rusanova (, 22 April 1929 – 22 October 1998) was a Russian
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
who mostly explored
early Slavic
The early Slavs were speakers of Indo-European languages, Indo-European dialects
who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately from the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Ea ...
sites in the
Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine or West Ukraine (, ) refers to the western territories of Ukraine. There is no universally accepted definition of the territory's boundaries, but the contemporary Ukrainian administrative regions ( oblasts) of Chernivtsi, I ...
. She held a string of positions at the Institute of Archaeology of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences
The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...
.
She studied at
Moscow State University
Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
, first at the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics, then at the Department of Archaeology. Her diploma thesis was written under the supervision of Daniil Avdusin. Immediately afterward, she entered postgraduate studies and became a student of Pyotr Tretyakov. Her Candidate of Sciences dissertation examined the
Drevlian
The Drevlians, Derevlians or Derevlianians ( or , ) were a tribe of East Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries, which inhabited the territories of Polesia and right-bank Ukraine, west of the eastern Polans and along the lower reaches of ...
archaeological sites (1960).
Beginning in 1959, Rusanova conducted independent research in
Polissia
Polesia, also called Polissia, Polesie, or Polesye, is a natural (geographic) and historical region in Eastern Europe within the East European Plain, including the Belarus–Ukraine border region and part of eastern Poland. This region shoul ...
, especially the Zhytomyr region. In 1974, after marrying archaeologist Boris Timoshchuk, they jointly led an expedition to study two 5th-century Slavic settlements on the
Prut River
The Prut (also spelled in English as Pruth; , ) is a river in Eastern Europe. It is a left tributary of the Danube, and is long. Part of its course forms Romania's border with Moldova and Ukraine.
Characteristics
The Prut originates on the eas ...
Doctor of Sciences
A Doctor of Sciences, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; ; ; ; is a higher doctoral degree in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and many Commonwealth of Independent States countries. One of the prerequisites of receiving a Doctor of Sciences ...
dissertation (1977) was dedicated to the
Prague-Korchak culture
The Prague-Korchak culture was an archaeological culture attributed to the Early Slavs. The other contemporary main Early Slavic culture was the Prague-Penkovka culture situated further south, with which it makes up the "Prague-type pottery" gr ...
. She championed the idea that the Prague culture (the first unambigiously Slavic culture) had grown out of the earlier
Zarubintsy culture
The Zarubintsy, Zarubyntsi or Zarubinets culture was a culture that, from the 3rd century BC until the 1st century AD, flourished in the area north of the Black Sea along the upper and middle Dnieper and Pripyat Rivers, stretching west towards t ...
. This idea was taken up and developed by some of her students such as
Andrey Oblomsky
Andrey (Андрей) is a masculine given name predominantly used in Slavic languages, including Belarusian, Bulgarian, and Russian. The name is derived from the ancient Greek Andreas (Ἀνδρέας), meaning "man" or "warrior".
In Eastern Or ...
.
In 1984, Rusanova and Timoshchuk conducted an archaeological expedition in the
Zbruch River
The Zbruch (; ) is a river in Western Ukraine, a left tributary of the Dniester.Збруч
Zbruch idol
The Zbruch Idol, Sviatovid (''Worldseer'', ; ) is a 9th-century limestone sculpture idol, and one of the few monuments of pre-Christian Slavic beliefs (according to another interpretation, it was created by the Kipchaks/Cumans). The pillar was ...
, among other sites. They concluded that the "Zbruch pagan cult center" had been still active in the 12th and 13th centuries (that is, well after the
Baptism of Rus
The Christianization of Kievan Rus' was a long and complicated process that took place in several stages. In 867, Patriarch Photius of Constantinople told other Christian patriarchs that the Rus' people were converting enthusiastically, but his ...
). Those conclusions sparked a controversy.https://web.archive.org/web/20160316120611/http://krotov.info/library/17_r/us/anova.htm
Publications
* ''Kurgany polân X-XII vv'', 1966
* ''Slavjanskie drevnosti VI - IX vv. meždu Dneprom i zapadnym Bugom'', 1966
* ''Drevnerusskoe Podnestrovʹe : Istoriko-kraevedcheskie ocherki'', 1981
* ''Kodyn - slavânskie poseleniâ V-VIII vv. na r. Prut'', 1984
* ''Kulʹtura i iskusstvo srednevekovogo goroda'', 1984
* ''Âzyčeskie svâtiliŝa drevnih slavân : rossijskaâ predistoriâ'', 1993
* ''Slavâne i ih sosedi v konce I tysâčeletiâ do n.è.-pervoj polovine I tysâčeletiâ n.è.'', 1993
* ''Jazyceskie svjatilisca drevnich slavjan'', 1993
* ''Istoki slavjanskogo jazyčestva : kul'tovye sooruženija Central'noj i Vostočnoj Evropy v I tys. do n.ė. - I tys. n.ė'', 2002
* ''I︠A︡zycheskie svi︠a︡tilishcha drevnikh slavi︠a︡n'', 2007