STONE ARTEFACTS OF ANTIQUE PERIOD IN THE NMUH COLLECTION

Abstract

The National Museum of Ukrainian History houses interesting collections of the Ancient Period. Museum has acquired a large amount of materials for more than a hundred years of its existence. The collections currently reckon up more than 20 thousands of items. There are only about 300 stone 306 artifacts of the Ancient Period in the museum so far. These are fragments of tomb steles, pedestals with dedicatory inscriptions, fragments of decrees, which are also epigraphic monuments; things of everyday household life; samples of various architectural details of religious and public buildings and other items. There are remains of paint on some exhibits. The opinion of ancient art as achromatic one had lasted untill the middle of the 19th century, then it started to change. But only due to modern technology, researchers have identified a compound of ancient pigments and restored the original state of some items. The assemblage of stone artefacts is a part of the current National Museum of Ukrainian History collection of the Ancient Period.