IV Italy-Ukraine Scientific Meeting "Ukraine-Italy: Archeology and Formation of Spaces of Historical Memory": a Virtual Conference on the Occasion of the Italian Research Day in the World

On April 15, 2021, on the occasion of the Italian Research Day in the World, Karazin University held the online IV Italy-Ukraine Scientific Meeting "Ukraine-Italy: Archeology and Formation of Spaces of Historical Memory".

The event was organized at the initiative of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) and the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli (Italy), under the aegis of the Embassy of Italy in Ukraine (Kyiv) and the Italian Institute of Culture in Kyiv.

The virtual conference was dedicated to the issues of archeology and historical memory of Ukraine and Italy, which had mutual influence from the Archaic Period to the Middle Ages.

"Our purpose is to trace the historical tradition that unites such remote territories of Ukraine and Italy, which, however, have common historical roots. Its sources are in the Great Greek colonization of the 8th-6th centuries BC and the emergence of the so-called Greater Greece in Italy and the Greek poleis in the Northern Black Sea region. It is also connected with the spread of the Roman and then the Byzantine Empire and with the appearance of the Genoese colonies in the Black Sea region,” said Oksana Ruchynska, Associate Professor of Ancient and Medieval History of the School of History.

The conference was opened by the Acting University President, Vil Bakirov, who told about the contribution of Karazin University to the development of research in Greco-Roman history and archeology. In particular, he noted that the first President of Kharkiv University, Professor Ivan Ryzhskyi, a philologist, historian of the ancient world, studied the system of worship and the state system of Rome in different periods of its existence. He also mentioned the activities of scientists such as Mykhailo Lunin, Petro Keppen, Ivan Netushyl, Vladyslav Buzeskul, and others.

The Ukrainian experts told about the unique monuments in the Ukrainian territories of the Northern Black Sea region: Olbia, Chersonesus, Cembalo, Byzantine Taurica, and the Italian scientists acquainted the audience with the history of the Italian Cumae, Sybaris, Herculaneum.