Archaeological Antiquities of Church and Archaeological Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy (1872-1919)

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to study the formation history of the collection of archaeological antiquities of the Church and Archaeological Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy, the ways of their acquisition by the Museum, the content of the archaeological collections, the personalities of the collectors, and the historical fate of the holdings.
 Scientific novelty. The history of the formation and content of the collections of archaeological antiquities is separated from the general issue of the activities of the Church and Archaeological Society and the Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy.
 Conclusions. The Church and Archaeological Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy, founded in 1872, was the largest and most significant in the territory of modern Ukraine in terms of the number, variety, and value of the objects stored. Despite its initial focus on collecting mainly church objects, during the existence of the Museum, its collection accumulated a lot of other archaeological and historical artifacts. Accumulation of antiquities in the Museum contributed to their preservation and scientific study.
 Among the archaeological antiquities of the Museum were objects of the Stone, Copper, and Bronze Ages, ancient Egyptian, antique Greek and Rome, Greek colonies of the Northern Black Sea region, Hellenistic, Scythian, Sarmatian, Gothic, Slavic, Byzantine, Kyivan Rus, Lithuanian era, period of 1569-1795, and the items belonged to the Cossacks of the 18th century, etc.
 Objects came from the territory of modern Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Palestine, etc. Mainly, there were artifacts from excavations and accidental finds. Collections were given to the Museum by private individuals. Among them, the greatest contribution to the enriching of holdings belonged to Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), Bishop Porfyrii (Uspenskyi), M.O. Leopardov, V.Z. Zavitnevich, V.I. Hoshkevich, numerous donators from the clergy, teachers, and archeology enthusiasts. The greatest contribution to the preservation, research, scientific description, and publication of the Museum’s collections belonged to M.I. Petrov.
 Disasters of the 20th century (two world wars, the revolutions of 1917, and the dominance of atheistic ideology in the USSR) negatively affected the preservation of the rich collections of the Church and Archaeological Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy. Many museum objects disappeared, were stolen, or were simply destroyed; the Museum itself also ceased to exist. However, part of the collections survived, and some items from them are still stored in some Kyiv museums.