The dissertation deals with the comprehensive study of the historical development of the population, system of settlement, and the flow of urbanization processes in the basin of the Horyn River at the end of the 5th – middle of the 16th centuries.
The issues of the historical and cultural development of the population of Pohorynnia in the Middle Ages have not been generalized in individual works, scientists considered them in connection with the study of Volhynia. Therefore, the dissertation has systematized and analyzed the works of historians on the topic of the research.
The antiquities of the early Slavs of the Horyn River basin are represented by the monuments of the Prague-Korchak and Raikovets cultures. Slavs settled on capes, coastal terraces, and ascents on floodplains. The main type of housing was a semi-underground dwelling with a columnar or log construction of walls. According to the materials of the 8th – 10th centuries, settlements nests were found on the whole territory of the Volhynian Upland and along the Horyn within Volhynian Polissia. Of the 9th – 10th centuries the structure of such nests was becoming more complicated, fortifications appeared, and burial mounds were formed.
The mapping of the monuments of the end of the 1st millennium between the Horyn and the Western Bug (settlements, burial grounds, the placement of various types of furnaces in homes) made it possible to outline two territorial groups of monuments: the eastern between the Horyn and the Styr (Volhynians) and the western one in the basin of the upper reaches of the Western Bug and the upper reaches of the Prypiat (Buzhans).
The obtained data testify to the purposeful development of Pohorynnia by the Kyiv princes in the 11th century, due to the fact that the western border of the "Rus land" (in the narrow sense of the word) passed here. We can single out the fortifications with complex planning, with citadels of more than 1 hectare and a total area of 2.5 to 12 hectares: Brykiv (chronicle Shumsk), Dorohobuzh, Derman, Novomylsk (chronicle Mylsk), Lystvyn, Zhorniv, and Peresopnytsia. The fortified settlements of this group belong to the type of princely fortresses.
In the structure of Pohorynnia, there are three main parts: Upper Pohorynnia, lands on the Volhynian Upland, and Polissia territories in the middle and lower reaches of the Horyn. The analysis of the location of settlements in the region makes it possible to single out the lands of the Volhynian Upland as a peculiar core of the system of settlement.
The analysis of the location of fortified and unfortified settlements, centers of autonomous principalities, and other chronicle centers made it possible to conclude that the basins, as natural territorial complexes, became the basis for the formation of districts. According to the size of the districts in the 12th – first half of the 13th century, urban settlements in Pohorynnia are divided into three groups. The smallest districts with an area of 500-700 sq. km were Ostroh, Mylsk, Sapogyn, and Chemeryn districts; the middle in size districts (800-1300 sq. km) were Peresopnytsia, Korchesk, Shumsk, and Stepan; the large Dorohobuzh districts was 1600-1800 sq. km.
Historical and archaeological research of the late medieval towns of the Horyn River basin allows outlining two main stages of their development. At the first stage, in the second half of the 14th – 15th centuries, there was a revival of some of the towns that existed in the times of Kievan Rus. At the second stage in the 16th century, the region continued to develop urban settlements that had been formed earlier; also, as a result of town-founding initiatives, new towns were emerging. The written sources indicate that the middle and large towns in the second half of the 16th – beginning of the 17th centuries had a complex planning structure and included a castle, town, suburbs (Ostroh, Rivne, Stepan).
An important factor contributing to the development of the late medieval town was the size of its subordinate territory. The centers of large landholdings of individual princely families in the basin of the Horyn were Ostroh, Zhaslavl, Olyka, Korets, and Klevan. In Pohorynnia, small districts accounted for only 5-13 settlements and had an area of 40-120 sq. km, and the large districts covered a much larger area, from 800 to 1600 sq. km.
The most important parts of the late medieval cities and towns on the Ukrainian lands were the castles. All towns of the Horyn basin were privately owned; the castles were fortified courtyards of magnates and gentry and administrative centers of subordinate territories (districts).
During the marked period, there was a gradual increase in the number of rural settlements in the Horyn River basin. According to archaeological sources of the 15th – 16th centuries, the territorial boundaries of separate villages have been established. The size of Peresopnytsia was about 1700 × 600 m, and of Velykyi Zhytyn – 700 × 800 m.
