Treasures Trapped in Light

Angela Morgan describes Ukrainian archaeological and artistic treasures

5,000 years separate the tools of Tripolye farmers from the techniques of Russian scientists, but the two come together in an exhibition of Ukrainian archaeological and artistic treasures opening in York in May. As many of the artefacts are too fragile to travel to temporary exhibitions, special holograms have been produced under the supervision of Vladimir Markov, head of the Applied Holography Laboratory of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences – world leaders in this field.

None of the items on show have ever been exhibited in the West before and include some extremely rare items, such as a fourth-century gorytus, a Greek bow and arrow case of a type not found anywhere in mainland Greece. Consequently, this exhibition provides an opportunity to study artefacts from a relatively unknown part of Europe whose inhabitants have included Vikings, Scythians, Goths, Greeks and Huns.

It was this Viking connection which first led the organiser, Dominic Tweddle of the York Archaeological Trust, to consider mounting such an exhibition:

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