The Odesa Archaeological Museum () is one of the oldest

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

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It was founded in 1825; the current museum building was completed in 1883 according to a design by Polish architect Feliks Gąsiorowski. The museum's address is 4 Lanzheronivska Street, 65026,

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

, Ukraine.

History

Founded in

1825 Events January–March * January 4 – King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies dies in Naples and is succeeded by his son, Francis. * February 3 – Vendsyssel-Thy, once part of the Jutland peninsula forming westernmost Denmark, becomes an ...

as the "Odessa City Museum of Antiquities" by Ivan Blaramberg. Its development was facilitated by the Imperial Odessa Society of History and Antiquities, which had the right to conduct

excavations In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

in the south

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. * The first director of the museum was Ivan BlarambergБларамберг Иван Павлович — археолог
сайт «Белгород-Днестровский и Затока
12.12.2013, сайт «Пантикапей» * In 1913–1919 the museum was headed by Boris Varneke * In 1930–1932 the director of the museum was Mikhail Boltenko * In 1936–1937

Tikhon Vnukov Tikhon (, , ) is a Slavic male given name of Greek origin, related to Western European Tycho. *Tikhon Bernstam (born 1979), American Internet entrepreneur *Tikhon Chicherin (1869–1904), Russian entomologist * Tikhon Dzyadko (born 1987), Russian j ...

was the director of the museum * In 1959–1961 Moses Sinitsyn headed the archaeological museum. Since 1997, the Odesa Archaeological Museum has functioned not only as a museum but also as an institute for scientific research into the archaeology of early human settlement in the Northern

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

region and the archaeology of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The museum conducts expositions, restorations and publishing activities.

Exhibition activity

The main fund of the museum is the largest collection of sources on the ancient history of the Northern

coast, it has more than 170 thousand archaeological sources of ancient history of

southern Ukraine Southern Ukraine (, ) refers, generally, to the territories in the South of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern Economical District of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The region ...

from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

to the

, including 55 thousand coins, the only collection of monuments in Ukraine of

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

, the largest collection of ancient rarities in the country. The best examples of ancient sculpture are exhibited in the lobby of the building, specially built for the Public Library in 1883. The first two halls display materials covering the period from the advent of man to the

second millennium BC File:2nd millennium BC montage.jpg, 400x400px, From top left clockwise: Hammurabi, Babylonian king, best known for his code of laws; The gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun has become a symbol of ancient Egyptian civilization and its enduring lega ...

. Of particular interest are finds from settlements and cemeteries of the Humelnytsia,

Trypillia Trypillia () is a village in Obukhiv Raion (district) of Kyiv Oblast in central Ukraine, with 2,800 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2005). It belongs to Ukrainka urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Trypillia lies about south from Kyiv o ...

, and Usatovo cultures, burial mounds, and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

treasures, such as the Antonivsky Treasure. The "Golden Pantry" of the museum exhibits real things made of precious metals, the oldest of which date back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. Decorations from

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

and

Sarmatian The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...

cemeteries, medieval burials of nomads, and products of Slavic craftsmen attract attention. Out of the 50,000 coins stored in the museum, the rarest of gold and silver minted in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

, and

Kyivan Rus Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

are on display. In particular, the "gold coin" of Prince Volodymyr, one of the two in Ukraine and of 11 known, is on the display. The collection of Egyptian antiquities is the third largest in the

former USSR The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...

. Wooden and stone

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek language, Greek wikt:σάρξ, σάρξ ...

, funeral utensils, stone slabs and fragments of

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

with

hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

are of interest here.

Research activities

The museum conducts extensive archaeological researches on many monuments of the

Eneolithic The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as st ...

and Bronze Ages (for example, the settlement of the late Trypillia culture Usatovo, Mayaki). Monuments of the Early

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

in the lower reaches of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

(Orlivka-Kartal),

ancient times Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

– on the banks of the

Dniester The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...

estuary (the city of Nikonion), Odesa Bay – Tiligula are also studied. The museum expedition is conducting research on Snake Island. The scientific activity of the museum is reflected in numerous publications, scientists of the museum maintain active scientific ties with Ukrainian and foreign colleagues. Joint research activities are conducted with specialists from

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

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

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and others. The museum participates in exhibitions abroad. In the 1920s and 1930s there was a postgraduate course at the museum, in which future famous Odesa researchers studied (Virkau M.M., Sinitsyn M.S. and others).

Gallery

File:Pottery of ancient Greece in Archaeological Museum of Odessa.JPG,

Pottery of Ancient Greece Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a dispro ...

File:Marble bull Niconium.JPG, Marble bull, Niconium File:Terracotta bronze Bosporan Kingdom.JPG, Terracotta and bronze figurines,

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (; ), was an ancient Greco-Scythians, Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day ...

File:Funeral stele Olbia.JPG, Funeral stele from

Olbia Olbia (, ; ; ) is a city and communes of Italy, commune of 61,000 inhabitants in the Italy, Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia, Italy, in the historical region of Gallura. Called in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle ...

File:Head of Hera from Olbia.JPG, Head of

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Oly ...

from Olbia File:Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus Archaeological Museum of Odessa.JPG, Ancient Egyptian

References

External links

Odesa Archaeological Museum – official website

Ukraine Travel Guide
{{authority control Museums in Odesa Archaeological museums in Ukraine History museums in Ukraine Science and technology in Odesa Institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine NASU department of history, philosophy and law National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Art museums and galleries established in 1825 1820s establishments in Ukraine 1825 establishments in the Russian Empire Museums established in 1883 1880s establishments in Ukraine 1883 establishments in the Russian Empire Neoclassical architecture in Ukraine Research institutes in Ukraine Odesa Archaeological Museum