Hypological Artifacts of the Copper­Bronze Age in the Archeological Collections of the Museums of Dnipropetrovska and Kharkivska Regions

Abstract

The actual meaning of this topic is due to the fact that the museum collections of Ukraine contain a lot of material monuments created by the peoples of the Steppe during the Copper-Bronze Age, which were studied only in fragments. The reason for it is that these finds came to museums by accident and as a result were not reflected in reports and publications. Therefore, we do not have a clear information about the situation in the regional and district museums of Ukraine containing the artifacts of the oldest pastoral population in Ukraine. Long ago the need exists to create the qualified catalogs with a description of the monuments of material culture of the early pastoralists, which are stored in the museums of the South and East of Ukraine. Therefore, the purpose of this study is creation of such catalog. The methodological basis of the work is the modern post-neoclassical museological, so-called object methodology, the emphasis of which is focused on the study of material culture and material museums as fundamental elements of cultural and natural heritage. The results. Materials from four museums of the South and the East of Ukraine were involved for processing: D. I. Yavornytsky Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum, Museum of Archeology of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Cultural Institution “I. O. Repin Art Memorial Museum” in Chuguev city of Kharkivska region, Museum of local lore in Zmiiv city Kharkivska region. The territories of Dnipropetrovska and Kharkivska regions were chosen for the study not by accident, because its reflect the gradual change of natural landscapes in the projection on the economy of the population. The study was able to observer the history of the formation of archaeological collections of these museums. A significant achievement for the authors of this article was the creation of a special Catalog of objects in the funds of museums of Dnipropetrovska and Kharkivska regions, which testify to the acquaintance of ancient people with the horse. As a result, it was possible to establish of horse breeding of the local population in the Late Bronze Age. The scientific novelty. A significant amount of unpublished material was introduced into scholar circulation. The practical significance. It gives reason to believe that in the Late Bronze Age only the first stage of domestication of the horse took place in the steppes of Ukraine. But other issues remain unresolved. It is a topic for future researches. The collections of museums in the South and East of Ukraine should play an important role in it.