Yu. YURIY SHEVCHENKOMuseum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences 3 Universitetskaya Emb., Saint Petersburg, 199033, Russia E-mail: yurshev@kunstkamera.ru; yurishevchenk@narod.ru It is believed that the caves at the Elijah Church in Chernihiv were founded by 1072 AD. St. Anthony of the Caves. However, there are facts that allow us to connect this cave monastery with Christians who came to these places before the historical campaign of the baptism of Rus by St. Vladimir (988). Folklore sources tell about some abbot of the monastery who left his monastery, which already existed here when the population of ancient Chernihiv converted to Christianity in 988-992. [Shevchenko, 1999, pp. 9-22]. From this it follows that the Christian monastery in Chernihiv appeared before 988. According to available data, events related to the action of baptism in the city took place on the south-western outskirts of Chernihiv - between the locations of the Yelets (Fig. 1, 3) and Ilinsky (Fig. 1, 5) cave monasteries. The assumption about the existence of an underground monastery at that time is confirmed by the results of an analysis of the archaeological context of the immediate environment of the Ilinsky caves. On the edge of the terrace where the Ilyinsky caves are dug, there is a pagan burial mound-a place dedicated to the spirits of our ancestors. Here, on the slopes of the spur of the Boldy Mountains, neither hunters nor beekeepers wandered. This place, where a Christian community could safely exist, was considered reserved by pagans. It can be assumed that it was chosen by Christians who came here after the pagan burial mound began functioning (the turn of the IX - X centuries); not later than this time, the earliest Gulbishche mound in the burial mound was laid here. The sacredness of the pagan cemetery guaranteed the absence of ordinary visits, and strict regulation of the movement of the funeral procession to and from the burial site (Baiburin, 1993, p ... Читать далее