Return from nothingness: the curious history of the collection of stone artefacts of the Iskorost site from the excavations of V. Khvoika
Authors:   The National Museum of the History of Ukraine, Naumenko Oleksandr , Radiievska Tetiana ,   The National Museum of the History of Ukraine
Published: March 2024

In the modern realities of the aggressive war started by the russian federation against Ukraine, the problem of preserving museum collections is more relevant than ever. Our essay highlights the history of the collection of stone artefacts from the Iskorost site, which was discovered by V. Khvoika more than 110 years ago and which managed to “survive” a number of extreme events, retaining its scientific and exhibition potential. The Iskorost site (now Korosten, Zhytomyr Oblast) was discovered in 1911 during V. Khvoika’s research of the mounds near the city of Ovruch and in the Iskorost village. V. Khvoika recorded traces of three hearths surrounded by flint artefacts on the site. He selected approximately 500 stone objects and distributed them between the Imperial russian Archaeological Society (today, these artefacts in the amount of 253 items are stored in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the russian Academy of Sciences) and the Kyiv Art, Industry and Science Museum (now the National Museum of the History of Ukraine). The total number of artefacts in the Ukrainian part of the collection is 265: 246 come from the excavations of V. Khvoika in 1911, the other 19 possibly from the reconnaissance works of I. Levytskyi, F. Kozubovskyi, and K. Korshak in 1920–1940s. Until 1936, the materials left in Ukraine were stored in the Archaeological Museum of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, where they were transported from the All-Ukrainian Historical Museum (the name of the Kyiv Art, Industry and Science Museums since 1924). Then this collection became part of the Central Historical Museum. At that time, K. Korshak and T. Teslia worked with this (Ukrainian) part of the collection. 79 artefacts from Iskorost were presented in a new exposition of the “Pre-class Society” department of the Central History Museum (1938–1941).During World War II, the Iskorost collection was moved from the Kyiv-Caves (“Kyiv-Pechersk”) Lavra (where the Central Historical Museum was located) to the building of the former Lenin Museum (now the Kyiv City Teacher’s House). The archaeological collection became the basis for creating an exposition of the Museum of Prehistory and Protohistory. In the autumn of 1943, the materials from the Iskorost were taken to Kraków, and from there were transported to Höchstädt. In 1947, the cultural values moved from Höchstädt to Munich were delivered to the Soviet occupation zone of Berlin and from there to Kyiv. At the beginning of 1948, the experts of the special commission began to inspect collections returned from Germany. This process spanned decades. Because of the difficulties during the identification of museum objects, artefacts of the Iskorost were attributed to collective collections: 29 items to “a3 Volyn”, the majority to “a252 Zhytomyr Polissia”. For some time, it was believed that the only finds from the excavation of V. Khvoika at the site, which have “survived” to this day, are contained in the collection of “a3 Volyn”. Another part of the artefacts from the Iskorost site was identified during the last inventory of the collections. Key words: Iskorost, Ukrainian Polissia, Vikentii Khvoika, museum collection, history of research.