Letters to Serhii Hamchenko

Among the many historical disciplines there is one that studies private correspondence, it is called epistolography. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, correspondence was one of the active means of communication between people, relatives, friends, colleagues and various institutions.

In the Scientific Archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in addition to materials related to archaeology and related sciences – ethnography, anthropology, local lore and museum studies, the epistolary heritage of scientists is stored in their personal funds. This is a private and official correspondence of scientists, among which there are letters from colleagues, as well as from relatives and friends and various institutions. In addition to letters relating to archaeology in general and excavations in particular, they contain information about the daily lives of scientists and various events of the past.

Letters to S.S. Hamchenko covers a significant period of history, starting from the Russian Imperial times and including almost the first one and a half decades of Soviet government – a time when everything changed dramatically. The letters reflect both the development of archaeological science and the attitude to archaeology of ordinary people in different periods of history and different events of those times.

Serhii Hamchenko is a man of diverse interests, he managed to combine military service with archaeological research, later, in Soviet times, he held the position of Vice-President of the All-Ukrainian Archaeological Committee (the AUAC) – all this was reflected in the letters sent to him. To S.S. Hamchenko were sent many letters by the Imperial Archaeological Commission (the IAC), the Kyiv Society of Antiquities and Arts, various museums and institutes, the AUAC. The epistolary legacy in Serhii Hamchenko’s personal fund is a source for research by many generations of scientists.

H.O. Stanitsyna