ABSTRACT
Stone was used extensively in Kievan Russia. Foundations were usually built from rocks of all sizes. In the mixed masonry of the walls of Kievan period monuments large uncut rocks were used, usually quartzite, granite or gneiss, with their faces more or less chipped flat.1 In the case of the late twelfth-century monuments, when stone only played a decorative role, such as at Grodno or in the Church of St Basil at Ovruch, stones of different colours were selected. The faces of such stones were flattened and slightly smoothed (fig. 31) and in some cases the surface was even smoothed on three faces (fig. 32).
