Нові археологічні дослідження в околицях сіл Стільсько та Ілів на Львівщині

The publication presents the results of field explorations conducted in the vicinity of the villages of Stilsko and Iliv of the Stryi district of the Lviv region. Intensive archaeological research in this region began in the 1980s and continued until the mid-1990s. It was mainly concentrated around two key sites – Stilsko and Iliv hillforts. During this period, within the defensive lines of the hillforts and in the adjacent territories, numerous sites of different chronological periods were discovered – agricultural settlements, production centers, and barrow fields, which reflect the stages of settlement of the region and can be dated back within a broad chronological framework from the Eneolithic era to the XVII–XVIII centuries.

A significant contribution to the study of this area was made by the Upper Dnister archaeological expedition, which involved Lviv archaeologists O. Korchynskyi, M. Phylypchuk, V. Shyshak, and the Carpathian expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR led by B. Tymoshchuk and I. Rusanova. Since the beginning of the 2000s systematic research in this area has been suspended because of a lack of funding. Only after the creation of the Historical and Cultural Reserve «Stilske Gorodyshche» in 2015 did archaeological searches gradually resume. The main attention is paid to establishing boundaries of already known sites, discovering and including in the scientific circulation of new locations, their recording and topographic binding, studying by non-invasive methods of the remains of ground objects, etc.

Scientific cooperation between the Historical and Cultural Reserve «Stilske Gorodyshche» and the I. Krypyakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the NAS of Ukraine become very productive. Within its framework, excavations of the hillfort and multi-layered settlement in Iliv were resumed (expedition leader A. Havinskyi), and joint surveys of the region are being carried out.

In 2023, an exploration of the territory of Stilsko hillfort within the outer line of defense was conducted to identify earthen ramparts using a GPS navigator for further transfer of coordinate point data to digital maps, archaeological material from the surface was collected on the settlements of Iliv I, XII and Stilsko IX. Together with the fragments of ceramic ware of different periods (from Neolithic to Late Middle Ages), several flint and stone products were found, including artifacts with signs of use and tools: an arrowhead, an awl, a grinder, a fragment of an end-scraper. A new Bronze Age–Early Iron Age settlement was discovered in Koshyra Place near Stilsko. Numerous materials from the XVII–XVIII centuries were recorded on the surveyed site with a total area of about 20 hectares together with two locations of the artifacts from the Bronze Age–Early Iron Age. These locations were defined by finds of flint products – flakes and tools with patination of the surface.