«...On the Sara river near the Saint Maria hill». Archaeological sites at the popular place of memory

The paper reviews results of archaeological explorations of ‘the Saint MariaHill' in the Rostov district, the Yaroslavl Region. The site occupies a section of the steepSara River bank. Given the geographical position of the site, the discovered 13th centuryoccupation layer suggests that it was this place that was mentioned in the chronicle in thedescription of an episode from the feudal war of 1216. The main occupation layer and thediscovered cemetery as well as an ascent road to the steep bank from the river and remainsof a pond with a dike upstream a gully located nearby are dated to the 14th-16th centuries.Therefore, archaeological data confirm the legend about a monastery in this area. A largebarrow cemetery that was in operation at the end of the 11th-12th centuries and an EarlyIron Age open settlement have been preserved not far from the site. The paper concludesthat potentially new archaeological sites can be discovered.