Investigations were carried out in the central part of the fortress. Two excavations of almost 1000 m2 total area were started. Four basic horizons of the site were examined: Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Early Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages.
The Bronze Age (the end of the 3rd – the end of the 2nd millennium BC). Fragments of hand-made pottery with combed decorations were found here. Such decorations were typical for the pit and catacomb culture of the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The fragments of the hand-made pottery seem to belong to the end of the Middle Bronze Age.
Permanent settlement on the territory of the modern fortress appeared at the end of the late Bronze Age. The horizon is represented by the kitchen pit, some vessels and some separate clusters of pottery. Kitchen pottery finds were decorated with finger impressed moldings on the shoulders or were stamped. The pottery belongs to Bilogrudivska, Ivanivska and Bondarykhynska cultures of the Late Bronze Age. Other finds of the horizon are represented by stone querns fragments and a bronze, sharp at both sides blade.
The early Iron Age (7th – 3rd centuries BC) is represented by fragments of the hand-made pottery of the Scythian period and fragments of ancient amphorae.
The early Middle Ages (8th – beginning of the 10th centuries AD). Major part of the found objects among which were three sunken-floored buildings and three household pits dated to the Early Middle Ages. Sunken-floored buildings were 1.4 – 1.7 m below the modern surface, of a square shape, oriented by the cardinal directions by their corners, walls of the pits were clad with timber. A hearth was in the corner of each building. The lower part of the hearth was made of clay on the vertical framework on wooden stakes, and the dome was made of stones.
Round kitchen pits (nearly 1 m in diameter) were not far from the dwellings. The pits were filled with fragments of pottery and animal bones among which some objects were found (borers, finished astragals, sawn-off deer horns). The pottery is represented by pots modeled on the slow pottery wheel (seems to belong to the late Raikovets culture period).
Apart from the typical Raikovets pottery several fragments of hand-made pots with stamped decorations that seem to belong to the Romny culture were found.
Late Middle Ages (17th century). Two kitchen pits (2 and 4) are connected with the occupation of B. Khmelnytskyi’s estate. A significant amount of household waste, pottery remains, a ceramic smoking pipe, fragments of stove tiles with plant decorations (some with polychromatic glaze), fragments of bricks and tile covered with green glaze were found. Such numismatic finds as the pendant of Sigismund III Vasa silver groschen (1626), a quarter of the cut Prussian solidus of elector Frederick William I originated from the fill (1648 – 1665).
Such finds from the occupation layer as fragments of ceramic pots and cups, lead bullets to the musket, three Swedish coins – a solidus of Christina Augusta (1633 – 1654) and Charles X Gustav (1654 – 1660) – seem to belong to the Late Middle Ages. There was a golden ring (15 mm in diameter, cast and brazed) by the coins. The band was thin, the plate high and round with turquoise. The edges of the plate and the band were decorated with chased ornament. Inside in the lower part of the band there was a monogram of two Cyrillic letters F and Kh (“Ф” and “Х”).
At the territory of the fortress two inhumation burials were examined one of them of a child. There were no grave goods in the burials. The child’s burial is considered to be nomadic and belong to the 11th- 16th centuries. The other burial belongs not earlier than to the 19th century.