From 24 to 28 August, employees of the Institute of Geology KarRC RAS – Pavel Ryazantsev, Yuri Smirnov, and Maxim Tsvetkov – conducted integrated geophysical investigations in the Murmansk Region: on the grounds of the Trifon of Pechenga Holy Trinity Male Monastery in Luostari and at the Church of 116 Monk Martyrs of Pechenga in the Town of Pechenga. The research is carried out within the project "To Be Remembered: Searching for the Burials of Venerable Trifon and Warriors in Pechenga", funded by the Presidential Grants Foundation. The project was initiated by the charitable foundation Revival of the Trifon of Pechenga Holy Trinity Male Monastery.

Trifon of Pechenga is one of the most venerated saints in the Russian North and the founder of the northernmost monastery. These places have witnessed his life and martyrdom, as well as the death of 116 monks killed in 1590 during the Russo-Swedish War. The current fieldwork is part of a larger effort to locate their burials and recover their bodily remains.

The Institute of Geology KarRC RAS is a partner in this project, providing geophysical support for the archaeological research. The resulting maps are to visualize the artifacts buried at various depths. The localization of geophysical anomalies will serve as a starting point for future archaeological excavations.

– For us, as Earth scientists, this is a bit of a challenge. The place has a complex and dramatic history, which has left traces in its cultural layer. The monastery life was active in the 16th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and since 2008 it has been undergoing restoration after the destruction it suffered during WWII. Burials or structural remains from different periods may overlap. Moreover, the surveyed area is now almost entirely covered up by a sand and gravel fill layer, which is locally up to three meters thick. This is a very challenging target for GPR sounding, – said Pavel Ryazantsev, Principal Investigator, Leading Researcher at the Institute of Geology KarRC RAS.




Employees of the IG KarRC RAS in the field (left to right): Pavel Ryazantsev, Maxim Tsvetkov, and Yury Smirnov.
To survey the burials, the scientists tried out 3D electrical resistivity modeling, which permits ‘scanning’ the target remotely

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) operates as a locator: the high-frequency electromagnetic pulses sent into the subsurface by the antenna are reflected from objects of a different dielectric permittivity. The reflected signal returns to the receiver, and the depth at which the object is bedded is calculated from the travel time and the propagation velocity of the wave. This principle allows ground-penetrating radar to be used not only in geology but also in forensic science and archaeology, including the search for burial sites. It has been experimentally established that the wave field of the radar varies depending on the age, size, and condition of the grave.

On the monastery grounds, the researchers tested a new methodology for constructing 3D electrical models for surveying burials. With this approach, objects can be ‘scanned’ remotely, which is important from the ethical standpoint.

– We conduct surveys around the monastery’s current cemetery without placing electrodes directly in the burial sites. If the historical cemetery was indeed located in the same area, we expect to identify burials from different time periods at various depths, – the geophysicist explained.




Maxim Tsvetkov, Junior Researcher at the Institute of Geology KarRC RAS, taking measurements in the Pechenga monastery grounds

During the field campaign, the researchers collected over 150 GPR profiles with a total length exceeding 7 km. The task for the coming months is to process and interpret this vast dataset. The results will be passed on to archaeologists, who will use information on the location of subsurface features to plan their excavations. GPR is useful not only for locating burials. Previously, Pavel Ryazantsev, together with archaeologist Alexey Tarasov of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History KarRC RAS, investigated the Fofanovo XIII site in Karelia — an Eneolithic stone tool workshop.

For the geophysicists, participation in this project is not merely a matter of scientific curiosity. It is a chance to apply natural-sciences methods in the efforts to preserve the country's historical and cultural heritage. "We want to help reconstruct human history of this area. This place is a milestone in the development of the Russian North and the Arctic, since Pechenga was our outpost on the Barents Sea. Many keys to the past have now been lost, and we are trying to recover them", – summarized Pavel Ryazantsev.

A video about the study was featured on TV-21 channel



Photos provided by project participants