Antiquities of Northern Black Sea Region and Bessarabia on Pages of Eparchy Publications in Pre-Soviet Era

Abstract

The purpose of the publication is to study the informational potential of local church periodicals for modern archaeological science. The scientific novelty is in drawing the attention of the archaeological community to non-standard sources of obtaining information for the history of archaeological science and the formation of generalizing information about archaeological sites and finds of material culture. Conclusions. It can be stated with certainty that ‘Eparchialnyie Vedomosti’ can serve not only as a source for the history of archaeological science (in terms of the participation of the clergy and church societies in the accumulation of archaeological knowledge), but also as a direct source of information on finds, their location, and nature. The entire amount of material related to archeology, presented in the studied collections of the ‘Eparchialnyie Vedomosti’, can be divided into 3 main groups: 1) authoritative orders on the protection of antiquities; 2) reports about church institutions (societies, commissions, museums); 3) analytical reviews on localities and settlements. The first group of materials shows the process of involving the clergy in the process of discovering and preserving cultural and archeological sites. The participation of the clergy in the Archaeological Congresses in Kyiv and Odesa is also associated with this group. A great number of publications of ‘Eparchialnyie Vedomosti’ are represented by materials on the activities of local church-archaeological societies – reports of the societies, event chronicles and details of some meetings, research materials, etc. An important source of historical and local lore information about settlements and their outskirts is historical and statistical analytical reviews, which were regularly published in ‘Eparchialnyie Vedomosti’. One of the sections of such reviews was ‘Archaeological Sites’, where it was necessary to describe ramparts, settlements, burial mounds, caves, pile (lake) structures, dolmens, Stone Age sites (kjoekkenmoeddinger), etc. Many reviews contain interesting material for modern archeology not only in the context of the history of science but also in practical terms, pointing to the places of disappeared sites, found troves, and single finds.

Keywords

• history of archeology, orthodox clergy, ‘eparchialnyie vedomosti’, source, church-archaeological society