From May 20 to 22, 2026, the XXI International Scientific Conference "Archaeology of Western Ukraine" was held at the Department of Archaeology of the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
The co-organizers of the event were the Research Center "Rescue Archaeological Service" of the Institute of Archaeology of the NAS of Ukraine and the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Tustan".
More than 50 scholars from Ukraine, Poland, and Austria participated in the conference.
The director of the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, corresponding member of the NAS of Ukraine, Ihor Soliar, addressed the conference participants with a welcoming speech. In his speech, he emphasized the significant achievements of the Department of Archaeology amid the full-scale war and wished the attendees fruitful work during the sessions. The director of the Research Center "Rescue Archaeological Service," Candidate of Historical Sciences, Oleh Osaulchuk, in his welcoming speech, highlighted the need to preserve cultural heritage and the role of archaeologists in these processes.
A series of interesting and topical reports were presented by researchers conducting interdisciplinary studies, including Larysa Kulakovska, Vitalii Usyk, Ruslan Koropeckyi, Oleksandr Sytnyk ("Levallois techno-complex in Volyn"), Andrii Bohutskyi, Olena Tomeniuk ("At the intersection of paleogeography and archaeology: cryogenesis as a factor in the formation and preservation of Paleolithic sites"), Marta Poltovich-Bobak, Maria Lanchont, Dariusz Bobak ("Polish-Ukrainian cultural borderland in the Early Stone Age"), Yevheniia Yanish, Oleh Petrauskas ("Results of archaeozoological studies of the Komariv-1 site (Chernyakhiv culture burial ground) and the Middle La Tène period structure of the 3rd century BC").
Special attention of the conference participants was drawn to reports dedicated to the study of specific archaeological cultures, including the Linear Pottery culture (Dmytro Haskevych), Funnel Beaker culture (Andrii Havinskyi, Małgorzata Rybińska), Trypillia culture (Taras Tkachuk, Yevhenii Levinzon, Yana Yakovyshyna), Corded Ware culture (Maria Voitovych, Ihor Voitovych, Zoya Ilchyshyn, Iryna Lutsyk), and Early Iron Age sites (Andrii Bardetskyi, Denys Slyusar). An interesting report for the audience was Dmytro Pavliv's "Western Ukrainian Hyperborea and the cult of the goddess Demeter".
Medieval archaeology is numerically represented every year. This year's conference was no exception, where researchers addressed issues of early and classical medieval periods (Maryna Serhieieva – on small-scale forest products), verification excavations at the multi-layered site on Mount Pechera in Ilov (Yurii Lukomskyi, Andrii Havinskyi, Ruslan Koropeckyi), new archaeozoological studies in Podillia (Maryna Yahodynska, Mykhailo Kubliy, Vasyl Ilchyshyn), "Flandomeria," mentioned in the papal letter of 1327 (Mykola Bandrivskyi), as well as issues of funeral culture (Volodymyr Moizhes), urban archaeology (Ostap Lazurko, Taras Verba), and late medieval and early modern ceramic collections from Kamianets-Podilskyi (Larysa Vynohrodska).
Reports dedicated to treasures and individual finds from various archaeological epochs were also interesting (Volodymyr Petegirych, Vitalii Konoplia, Nazar Demskyi, Oleksandr Pozikhovskyi, Larysa Bilynska, Yaroslav Volodarets-Urbanovych, Volodymyr Stemkovskyi, Yurii Mazuryk).
A separate block was devoted to reports on the history of archaeology in Western Ukraine. This direction was represented by Natalia Bulyk, who, as part of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine project, delivered the report "Prehistoric Age of Western Ukraine through the prism of interwar visual sources," as well as Oksana Kutseniak, Anastasiia Baukova, Daria Koniv, Adrianna Shcherba, and Maghena Vozny.
Exploratory research (Roman Myska, Zoya Ilchyshyn, Bohdan Salo, Taras Ostapyk, Dmytro Mostovyi, Artem Borysov), rescue excavations (Bohdan Salo, Dmytro Mostovyi, Yulia Shnitsar), and inventory of archaeological objects (Maria Padiuka, Oleh Osaulchuk) were not left unnoticed by the conference participants. Summarizing the conference results, participants emphasized the need to inventory archaeological sites and the importance of conducting interdisciplinary research involving archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists, soil scientists, paleobotanists, and other specialists.
On the third day of the conference, as is traditional, archaeologists spent time in their usual environment. This year's route led to the "Tustan" fortress. The tour was conducted by the deputy director of the reserve, Roman Myska.
According to information from the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the NAS of Ukraine
