Serhiy Hamchenko (1860–1932): documents and materials from personal archive through the prism of new consideration of creative biography of the scientist
Authors: Franko Andriy , Franko Oksana 
Published: September 2021

Through the prism of the latest, modern review of the scientific and creative biography of Ukrainian archaeologist, historian, ethnologist, publicist, museologist, vice-president of the All-Ukrainian Archaeological Committee (VUAK) of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) Serhiy Spyrydonovych (Svyrydovych) Hamchenko his personal archive, which are stored in his personal fund (f. № 3) of the Scientific Archive of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NA IA NASU) (Kyiv, fund № 3) are researched, analyzed and rethought.
Also information is represented (in a broad framework of timeless polylogue of scientists and epochs) about the activities of a tireless scientist from other official archives, manuscript collections, numerous publications of well-known experts in history, archaeology and source studying. Emphasized that archive fund of S. Hamchenko consists mostly of a collection of scientific manuscripts related mainly to archaeological research of sites located in Ukraine and Russia, which are devoted more to organization and conduct of archaeological excavations. There was also found S. Hamchenko’s epistolary, official and report notes on the organization of museum study in Ukraine, works of the All-Ukrainian Archaeological Committee, notebooks, official documents, photographs and other «visual» materials, collections of books, magazines and newspapers, etc. It is confirmed that the significant share of these source studies «papers» has not been published to date.
Also the little-known archival materials of S. Hamchenko, which contained in the Scientific Archive of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IA RAS) were processed. On the base of studying of archival and historiographical sources an attempt is made to truthfully, comprehensively, holistically reproduce the socio-biographical aspects and creative features of the chronicle of the life and scientific activity of the extraordinary scholar. It was paid considerable attention to specific, sometimes controversial issues of scientific and source «biography», primarily important prosopographic nuances of adequate, final clarification of the exact dates and places of S. Hamchenko’s birth and death (as well as the establishment of its medical cause).
The problem-thematic range of scientific interests of S. Hamchenko is extended from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age to the times of Kyivs’ka Rus’. The scholar have discovered 45 sites of Trypillia culture on the Southern Bugh river, conducted various archeological excavations mainly in Eastern and South-Eastern Volhyn’, Podillya, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovs’k, Kharkiv, Odessa, Bessarabia regions and other places of Ukrainian and Russian territory (Gulf of Finland area near Sestrorets’k near St. Petersburg).
It is confirmed that documents and archival materials related to the biography of S. Hamchenko is an integral part of the national cultural heritage and serve as an important authentic, factual source for a full, holistic study of the multifaceted history of archeology, ethnography, ethnology and museum studies in Ukraine at the end of the XIX th century – in the first third of the XX th century.
Key words: Serhiy Hamchenko, history of archeology, museum studies, ethnography, local history, ethnology, All-Ukrainian Archaeological Committee (VUAK), epistolary, intellectual community.