The laterally-oriented tomb in the Church-upon-Pyatnitsky stream in Smolensk and its analogies

The paper reports on the laterally oriented (along the north-south axis) tombmade from plinth bricks attached to the western wall of a recently discovered 12th centurymedieval Russian church known as the Church-upon-Pyatnitsky Stream. A rare orientationof the tomb and the burials it contains is explained by the fact that the tomb abuttedupon the western wall of the church, which means that architecture was more importantthan burials. The paper provides information on dozens of burials in arcosolia and tombslocated in the western walls of churches and their galleries oriented to the north-south.In medieval Russian architecture such burials are dated to the 12th - early 13th centuries.Based on Byzantine materials, such laterally oriented burials, their sarcophagi andarcosolia are dated to the 10th - early 14th centuries. These burials demonstrate a specialtrend where architecture turned out to be more important than the rite.