Brick with a trident

A plinth of the end of the 10th century with a stamp in the form of a relief princely sign – the trident of Volodymyr Svyatoslavych (980–1015) was found in 1907 during the excavations of Vikenty Khvoika in the estate of the doctor M. Petrovsky on Starokyivska mountain in the city of Kyiv. It was discovered directly next to the northern wall of the stone basement of the building of the late 10th century, which V. Khvoyka considered the remains of the princely palace of the times of Olga and Volodymyr. It is about so-called "eastern palace", which stood near the apses of the Church of the Tithe.
The plinth belongs to the assortment of narrow bricks – plinth-half was preserved in the form of a fragment. In the times of Rus plinth were manually stuffed into the wooden frames, surface after stuffing into the form was leveled with a tool. The relief of the trident was molded from rounded braids placed on raw clay and pressed with the fingers. On the reverse side of the plinth, the remains of the limestone-tsemianka (gravel of bricks or ceramics) solution have been preserved. The imprint of the relief sign is similar to the trident heraldic sign on the coins of Volodymyr Svyatoslavych. According to the details of the design, the sign did not appear before Volodymyr's sriblianyk Type III, that is, in the late period of his reign. This dating confirms the researchers' conclusions about the appearance of plinth with tridents already after the completion of the construction of the main volumes of the Church of the Tithe. Currently, 13 bricks with "Volodymyr's trident" are known, the vast majority are in fragments. The trident is depicted on the modern coat of arms of Ukraine.