Yanenko A. Archaeological activity of the museums of Soviet Ukraine (1919-1934's.)

The thesis is the first complex study of the field archeological exploration of the Ukrainian museums in 1919-1934. The analysis of the historiography and sources has demonstrated that the museum archeology in 1919-1934 was the important component of all archaeological researches in the Soviet Ukraine. Three phases in the historiography of the study of the archaeological work of the museums of USSR in 1919-1934 are distinguished: the work in 1920s - 1930s, the research of the post-war phase (late 1940s - late 1980s.) and the historiography of the independent Ukraine since the early 1990s. 56 museum institutions and more than 100 archaeologists, museum staff, took part in the archaeological studies at the territory of USSR. The consolidating scientific advisory centers of the museum archaeological research of the National and regional levels were established, the principles of the interactions between the museums, scientific societies and local history organizations were determined. The main focus of the archeological work in USSR museums was the collection of a stock which included, besides the confiscation of the landlord collections, donation, transfer of the stock of the closed museums and institutions, the archaeological research of the regions with the participation of the museum staff. Periodization of the development of the museum archeology in USSR in the 1920s - first half of the 1930s could be divided into three phases. The first phase covers the formation and organization of the museum centers as the centers of regional archeology (1919-1923). At this stage the infrequent field exploration were conducted mainly by the museums established before 1919. In 1919-1923 the staffs of 18 museums were involved to archaeological research and more than 400 archaeological sites of various times were excavated. The second stage was the time of a boom of the field museum archaeology (1924-1930). The museum was considered as a research institution and the museum network became subordinate to the "Ukrnauka" committee of the Ministry of Education of USSR. During the second phase the archaeological research was carried out by 50 museums and about 1700 sites have been explored. The third phase is the extinction of the archaeological work of USSR museums due to the persecution of the national intelligence, massive repression of the archaeologists and destruction of the local history centers (1930-1934). During this period the sporadic museums carried out the archaeological research "through inertia". 14 museums launched the archaeological expedition, about 140 sites of the various age have been explored. Since 1934 the initiative in organization of the archaeological research has seized by the reorganized academic structure - Institute of the Material Culture History. The study emphasizes that the archaeologists of the 1920s -first half of the 1930s worked hard in stock performing a vital function of a museum - keeping the artifacts, mainly its first phase, collecting them. The main task of the USSR museums in the field of archeology was discovering, registration, and primary research of the archaeological sites. The field campaigns of the museums of USSR in 1919-1934 covered about 2000 archaeological sites in chronological range from the Paleolithic to the Late Middle Ages and modern time. Survey was the main form of the archaeological exploration. Museum staff in 1919-1934 devoted the considerable attention to the compilation of the archaeological maps of the regions, the development of methods of the field exploration and laboratory processing of artifacts. Methods of the field exploration were gradually improved; the context of the discovered materials became the subject of the detailed study etc. During 1919-1934 the views of Ukrainian archaeologists on the methods of the archaeological research gradually evolved towards so-called "New methods of archeology." Analysis of the publications of the 1920s - 1940s shows that the field exploration of USSR museums was reflected in 150 publications that contain information about 940 archaeological sites discovered by the museum archaeologists.