CHERKASY – The unique excavations of the largest Trypillia settlement in the world near the village of Talianky of Talne raion in Cherkasy oblast have been in progress for 30 years now. The other day the leading scientists from Ukraine, the US, China, Azerbaijan, Russia, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania gathered for a conference there.
According to the director of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve “Trypilska Kultura” (“Trypillia Culture”) Vladyslav Chabaniuk, it is the second international scientific conference Talianky has hosted during the period of the archeological expedition. Previously, they held two Ukrainian archeological field seminars. The scientists have visited the site (the students of the State Uman Pavlo Tychyna Teachers’ Training University and of the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy work there). Some of them just come for the usual two-week practical training, but there are also volunteers who spend over a month at the archeological site. Bohdan who studies philosophy at the humanities department of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy is a real archeological expedition old-timer. In 2003 the 12-year-old boy first came to the archeological site and has been coming as a volunteer to Cherkasy region every summer for five years now. He says: “When I work I discover something new. I find it interesting to touch the history and do something useful. All of my finds are the same crocks and I have never found anything important, say, a sta-tuette. We work from 7 a.m. till 1 p.m. (when it rains we stop working since the ground turns into a swamp, when the sun is blazing we hide under the trees and have a rest). Our main instruments are spades, brushes and knives. Unfortunately, we are not funded to afford the professional archeological equipment but we can work well with what we have, too.”
By the way, over the last 10 years the archeological expedition has been financed by the director of the British investment company QES Investment Limited, businessman and sponsor Bertrand Coste. In 1994 he started doing business in Ukraine and when his work was on the rise there he decided to do something good for the country that brought him profit.
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that I do not invest, I do not expect the money I give for the excavations to be reimbursed one way or another,” Coste emphasized. This project is not self-supporting. I give money for the research, so that people knew who they are and where they descend from. The sum of money I give every year is about 30,000 dollars. This sum is not large but it makes the Archeology Institute sure that the scientists will continue their important researches.”
By the way, in France, (Coste is French but he has been living in Great Britain for 25 years now) similar cultural projects are funded by the government!
The Ukrainian authorities hang to allocate the money for such projects. The deplorable condition of the Trypillia Culture Museum building is another evidence of this. Previously, it was a part of the program “The Golden Horseshoe of Cherkasy Region,” but in 2007 the funding was stopped. So, today the museum that has valuable exhibits is left without the governmental support! Moreover, the scientists have found out that the Trypillia settlement of Talianky had the surface of 450 hectares and about 2,700 buildings but du-ring the 30-year period of expedition they managed to excavate and study only 46 of them. This territory has not changed its commercial purpose and has been transferred to the reserve. Thus every year they plant corn and sunflowers on the territory where Trypillia houses were situated.
“We only arranged with the agrarians not to use the deep plowing,” Vladyslav CHABANIUK says. “Thus we will manage to preserve the settlement which is very important. The archeology does not just excavate crocks from the ground, it finds the charcoals of knowledge that we can use to give some light to the dark past in order to see and discover our childhood, the childhood of the human race.”
