Major grant helps Ukraine's National Preserve of Chersonesos

by Taissa Bushnell

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine - Thanks to a generous grant from the Packard Humanities Institute, the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos can finally house its most precious archaeological treasures in a modern facility that is equipped with appropriate environmental controls and suitable space to study artifacts.

Located on the shores of the Black Sea in Sevastopol, Ukraine, this archaeological preserve is one of Ukraine's most important historical and cultural heritage sites, but its rich collections are suffering in dilapidated storage facilities, a result of decades of inadequate funding.

Treasures in unsuitable surroundings

Chersonesos, founded as an ancient Greek colony in the 5th century B.C., existed as a city until the 14th century, and the artifacts that have been generated as a result of 200 years of excavation reflect the daily life of its nearly 2,000 year existence. Prehistoric cooking vessels, Hellenistic painted grave monuments, Roman glassware and bronze sculpture, Byzantine floor mosaics and carved stone icons all provide clues about the economic, religious and social character of Chersonesos in each period of its history.

Today the Chersonesos museum's collections house approximately 200,000 artifacts in 17 different spaces scattered throughout buildings of the 19th century, remnants of a former monastery. Unfortunately, the conditions in these stores are far from the standards required for the safe storage of valuable archaeological finds. Some stores are located in basements that flood periodically; in others, wooden shelving and cardboard boxes used to store artifacts invite insects. Because of a lack of appropriate funding, the Collections Department can do little more than monitor the temperature and humidity of the rooms on very simple instruments.

Packard support helps save Chersonesos

Due in large part to the scientific publications and outreach work of the Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICA) of the University of Texas at Austin and its director, Prof. Joseph Coleman Carter, the unique history of Chersonesos and its modern-day plights have reached a wide audience in the West, interesting leading sponsors in the fields of archaeological and cultural heritage protection.

The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) supports a limited number of archaeological projects - in Greece, Albania and Turkey. Chersonesos has been very fortunate indeed to be one of the sites on this short list. Since 1999, PHI has funded major preservation projects at Chersonesos administered by ICA, including the conservation of exposed archaeological structures (ancient residential buildings, churches, public buildings) which make up the open-air exhibit of the preserve, and the creation of a consistent program of conservation throughout the site which will conform to international standards.

Another project is the digitization of the holdings of the scientific library and archive as a result of which thousands of fragile documents, including archaeological field reports from the 19th century and maps, plans and photographs of Chersonesos will be scanned and available on the web for worldwide accessibility. However, by far the largest contribution by PHI has been the much-needed facility for the storage and study of finds, a building that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ukraine has promised will officially be called the "Packard Laboratory." In fact, construction on the new building was completed just in time: when the ceiling in the museum's Ancient Hall began to crumble and leak last November, the many priceless artifacts on display were quickly moved to the Packard Laboratory for temporary storage.

Teaching a new generation

With construction finished in October 2005, the moving-in phase is currently being organized by the museum's Collections Department and ICA. The two basement floors have been designated to house the epigraphical collection of the museum and other large stone monuments.

The ground floor provides a spacious and bright area for the study of the different kinds of artifacts unearthed during excavation: ceramics, bone, glass, metal. It is also a convenient location for conferences and large group meetings, in fact the only large venue available today at the museum. Conservators are preparing an attractive open storage display of Hellenistic painted grave monuments for the ground floor.

On the gallery floor, eight work stations are being installed where participants of the joint excavations of ICA and the Chersonesos museum will have access to desktop computers, scanners, printers, digital cameras for the processing of finds and geographical data from the excavation site. Nowhere in Chersonesos is there such a unified area both for the temporary storage of finds and copious space to lay them all out for study.

Specialists who come from all over the world to work on the joint excavation in all its various fields - ceramics, physical anthropology, zooarchaeology, paleobotany, metallurgy - will now have a common study area which will facilitate the exchange of information during the excavation season.

This interdisciplinary approach to the study of ancient life provides a broad view of what daily existence in Chersonesos was like, and is a main tenet of Dr. Carter and ICA. It is this multi-faceted method of analysis that Dr. Carter hopes will take root in the next generation of Ukrainian archaeologists: he invites about 15 students from different Ukrainian universities - The National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Taras Shevchenko National University, Tauric National University in Symferopol - to take part in the joint excavations at Chersonesos. The kind of collaborative work conducted in the Packard Laboratory with students working alongside leading experts in their fields is truly a U.S.-Ukraine success story and will serve as an example for future cooperation in archaeology in Ukraine.

A new approach

The Packard Laboratory will be equipped with reliable heating and air conditioning units not only for comfortable working conditions, but also for the guaranteed controlled environments required for the proper care of archaeological collections. Environmental sensors have been installed to monitor the microclimates on the two basement floors of the building where artifacts will be stored to ensure stable temperature and humidity.

A specialist in collections care from the Museum of London was invited in the summer of 2005 to install the devices and to train the Chersonesos collections staff in their proper use. Plans are in place to install such devices in each of the 17 stores next summer.

"Now, instead of physically visiting every store to check temperature and humidity readings on primitive thermostats, we will be able to monitor all the environments from our office," said Elena Kochetkova of the Collections Department. The sensors send the data hourly through radio signals to a base station hooked up to a computer there. The data is finally processed into easy-to-read graphics. Only in the Packard Laboratory, however, will it be possible to change the environment if necessary, thanks to the heating and air-conditioning units.

The steps being taken in the Packard Laboratory to ensure the safe storage of the archaeological heritage of Chersonesos are indications of a new understanding of cultural heritage management on the part of the Chersonesos museum.

The general director of the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos, Leonid Marchenko, noted that the Packard Laboratory sets a standard for the rest of the buildings on the preserve in its architectural style and level of accommodation for collections care. "All our stores are located in buildings which are well over a hundred years old. This will be the first building on the preserve to be designed with both the comfort of people working inside and the safety of stored artifacts in mind. Its construction had to adhere to strict national requirements because of its location on an archaeological preserve, so we chose to reconstruct a former monastery bathhouse to preserve its footprint and not damage other archaeologically sensitive areas." "In the course of construction, however, we did have to expand the foundations somewhat and we hit archaeological structures - a street perhaps dating to the 4th century B.C. and abutting rooms of the 10th-13th centuries - but these were subsequently incorporated into the design and saved," Mr. Marchenko said. "Visitors can view them through specially designed windows inserted into the lower walls."

"In view of our aspirations to join the UNESCO World Heritage List, we are especially grateful to Dr. Packard and Dr. Carter for enabling us to start meeting international standards in collections care. This is by far the largest charitable donation given to any museum in Ukraine" he underscored.

The next big project

Recent visits to Chersonesos by President Yushchenko have accelerated plans for the creation of an archaeological park in the chora, or ancient agricultural territory, of Chersonesos. [The President has initiated an international non-profit organization called "Friends of Chersonesos" ("Druzi Khersonesu") to help support the future development of the Preserve; Dr. Carter and the author have been invited to represent the fund in the U.S.] Chersonesos and Metaponto in southern Italy are the best examples of rural life in the ancient world to survive to the present day. ICA, which focuses its research on the study of these ancient chorai, is involved in the planning of one of the areas designated to become a park. The Packard Humanities Institute has also expressed an interest in sponsoring this, the first archaeological park of the ancient Greek countryside in the world, which will preserve an important component of Ukraine's archaeological heritage and make Chersonesos a leading world heritage site for the use, study, and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Taissa Bushnell, formerly of New Jersey, directs "Pidtrymka Chersonesu," a non-profit organization in Sevastopol that supports and monitors the heritage preservation activities of the Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Texas (Austin) at Chersonesos. She may be reached at taissa@mail.utexas.edu. For information readers may log on to www.utexas.edu/ica/research.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 5, 2006, No. 6, Vol. LXXIV

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