Specialists from St Petersburg University, together with colleagues from the Russian Academy of Sciences, studied the first fortress built in 1703 on the territory of St. Petersburg. This, according to RIA Novosti, was reported in the press service of the university.
In 2016, on the territory of the Menshikov bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress, fragments of a wood-and-earth fortress built in 1703 by decree of Peter I were discovered during emergency response work.
This made it possible to study the soils and ecosystem of the territory on which the city was built. “For us, as soil scientists, peat and sod blocks, the so-called earthen bricks, with which the fortress was surrounded, were of particular interest. We managed to study a rampart made of cut and displaced layers of soil measuring 40 by 20 by 10 centimeters, laid down with grass and fastened together with willow stakes,” explained Aleksey Rusakov, Professor and Head of the Department of Soil Science and Soil Ecology at St. Petersburg State University.
Radiocarbon analysis of the wooden elements of the Menshikov bastion, carried out by specialists from St. Petersburg State University, showed that the age of the wood is approximately 510 years with a possible error of 70 years. That is, for the construction were used trees about 200 years old.
The samples found by St Petersburg University scientists contain traces of the activity of soil animals and microorganisms, fragments of the chitinous cover of invertebrates and seeds. Traces of cultivated cereals and weeds were also found, which is typical for the study area, already partially developed by the time the city was born.
Specialists from St Petersburg University and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences studied the composition of pollen, spores and fossilized plant fragments preserved in the soil. According to scientists, the results indicate that the soils in this place were formed mainly under the vegetation of water meadows and coastal willows, and the surrounding area was dominated by spruce-birch-pine forests with an admixture of alder.
The formation of silt-humus and humus-peat material of the studied soils, as the scientists explained, occurred under conditions of regular addition of fresh mineral material, which corresponds to the conditions on the low Neva Islands, which were regularly flooded.
“Archaeologists from the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences gave us a unique sample of soil from the sole of a boot found during excavations. According to our estimates, the dirt from this boot is dried silt. So, at the construction site, there probably existed a coastal reedbed: the builder walked there, and silt stuck to the sole, ”said Maria Fedorova, postgraduate student at the Department of Soil Science and Ecology of Soils at St. Petersburg State University.
Source: Rosbalt
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