Ruins of fortified settlements in the don valley in the miniatures of the 16th century

The paper explores two miniatures of the 16th century from the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible. They contain images of classical archaeological sites, i.e. fortified settlements. The miniatures are from Osterman Volume II of the Chronicle. They illustrate the pilgrimage of Metropolitan Pimen to Constantinople down the Don River in 1389. The first miniature features ruins of the Medieval Russia city of Chyur-Mikhailov; the second site has a foreign name (Terklia). The text of the Chronicle describes it as ‘fortified settlement’. This is an image of two dead cities used as markers separating inhabited regions from vacant lands. The miniatures show the fortified settlements schematically; still defensive walls and towers are clearly identifiable.