ABSTRACT
Wooden ties were generally built into the walls of buildings of the Kievan period. These ties formed a continuous ring encircling the building and inside they passed through most of the interior, intersecting at the pillars. Arranged in several tiers, they created closed circuits which played an important role in the stability of the structure, especially where irregular settling or deformation occurred. Unfortunately, the number of tiers of ties and their construction can only be determined from a few monuments, since ties projecting into the interior are preserved in very few buildings and the holes left in the walls were usually filled during repairs. It is clear, anyway, that ties were almost always laid level with the butts of the arches, and that as well as acting as a frame for the building, they served as tie bars at the springing of the arches. The ties that passed through the interior could be carved or painted and thus, most probably, became one of the decorative elements of the interior.
