Representation of Ukraine’s Ancient History in Museum Collections: Contemporary Ukrainian Historiographical Analysis of the Problem

Abstract

The article is dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of the reflection of the process of representing the ancient history of Ukraine in museum collections within modern domestic scholarly literature. The authors aim to examine the main scientific achievements of Ukrainian researchers whose interests lie in highlighting the ancient history of Ukraine in museum collections; to assess the current state and challenges of exhibiting artifacts of domestic historical antiquity in museum holdings; and to outline further research prospects in the historiography of this topic. Emphasis is placed on the fact that a comprehensive historiographical analysis of the representation of the ancient history of Ukraine in museum collections is a poorly studied aspect, despite the development of the historiography of the museum sphere. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the article provides the first critical analysis of the current state of this representation in scholarly literature, taking into account historiographical experience. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, comprehensiveness, scientific rigor, and systematicity. The possibilities of the method of system analysis, comparative method, method of synthesis, and generalization are utilized. It is stated that the historiographical analysis of modern domestic scholarly literature shows researchers' interest in this issue and a positive dynamic in the level of scientific knowledge. As a result of the conducted research, key trends and problematic aspects of the reflection of the ancient history of Ukraine in modern domestic scholarly literature are identified. It is determined that, despite significant research interest and the progressive trend of scientific knowledge, there remains a need to develop new methodological approaches, conduct a comparative analysis of the representation of specific archaeological cultures and epochs, as well as study the representation in museums of different types and regions.