Vikentiy Viacheslavovych Khvoyka ( ua, Вікентій В'ячеславович Хвойка; russian: Викентий Вячеславович Хвойка; cz, Vincenc Častoslav Chvojka; born Čeněk Chvojka; 1850–1914) was a Czech-born Ukrainian

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts ...

, who discovered the Neolithic Trypillia culture of Ukraine. He also researched the

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centr ...

, Zarubintsy,

Chernyakhov The Chernyakhov culture, Cherniakhiv culture or Sântana de Mureș—Chernyakhov culture was an archaeological culture that flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what is now Ukraine, Rom ...

and

early Slavic The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the S ...

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between these ...

Biography

Khvoyka was born on 21 February 1850 in the village of Semín in the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...

(then part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

). After graduating from the Academy of Commerce in Chrudim, he lived in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a tempera ...

for a time before emigrating to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. T ...

. From 1876 he lived in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

and worked as a teacher. He turned his attention to archaeology in the 1890s and excavated around Kyiv and the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

region. He was one of the founders of Kyiv's Museum of Antiquities and Art, now the National Historical Museum, and the first curator of its archaeological collection. Khvoyka discovered the Trypillia culture in Ukraine. The exact year of his discovery is uncertain: 1893, 1896 and 1887 have been reported. He presented his findings at the 11th Congress of Archaeologists in 1897. The same culture was discovered in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

around the same time, where it was called the Cucuteni culture. Khvoyka died in Kyiv on 20 October 1914. He is buried in the

Baikove Cemetery Baikove Cemetery ( uk, Байкове кладовище) is a historic cemetery memorial in Holosiiv Raion of Kyiv, Ukraine. It is a National Historic Landmark of Ukraine and is known as a necropolis of distinguished people. It was established i ...

Legacy

In 1962, Novokirillovskaya Street in Kyiv, where Khvoyka lived from 1898 to his death in 1914, was renamed in his honour, and a memorial plaque was installed there. In 2000, the

National Bank of Ukraine National Bank of Ukraine ( uk, Національний банк України) or NBU ( uk, НБУ) is the central bank of Ukraine – a government body responsible for unified state policy in the field of country's monetary circulation, inclu ...

issued a commemorative two hrivna coin to mark the 150th anniversary of Khvoyka's birth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khvoyka, Vikentiy 1850 births 1914 deaths People from Pardubice District People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the Russian Empire Czech archaeologists Russian archaeologists Ukrainian archaeologists Cucuteni–Trypillia culture History of Kyiv Burials at Baikove Cemetery