Polish Archaeological Mission „Tyritake”
The agreement signed on the 20th of December 2007 between the National Museum in Warsaw and the Kerch Museum enabled launching a five-years long archaeological mission at the site of the ancient settlement of Tyritake. The Polish mission will be a part of the „Bosporan City Tyritake” project directed by dr. hab. Viktor Nilkolaevich Zin'ko. In June 2012 was signed, with Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, agreement allowing to National Museum in Warsaw continuation of the excavations in Tyritake. The aim of the mission is not only to excavate, but also to conduct a full scale analysis of the site. Geological, paleozoological and paleobotanical investigations will be run in order to acquire a coherent picture of the living conditions of the inhabitants of the ancient settlement of Tyritake. The mission's plan also encompasses extensive conservation and reconstruction works, which should eventually lead to creating an archaeological park and a local museum devoted to Tyritake. This modern program of „museification” an archaeological site is the first of its kind in Ukraine.
Polish Archaeological Mission „Tyritake”, headed by Mr. Alfred Twardecki, a chief curator at the Ancient Art Gallery, is the first archaeological project launched by the National Museum in Warsaw in 50 years. By running it, the Museum intends to support the „Bosporan City Tyritake” project. The Polish team will participate in archaeological excavations as well as reconstruction and conservation works. It is worth mentioning here that the majority of the most precious exhibits from the collection of classical art at the Hermitage comes from the area of Kerch (Bosporan Kingdom).
The newly established archaeological cooperation not only relates to the great traditions of the previous expedition of the National Museum in Warsaw, run by prof. Michałowski, which worked at Myrmekion (also in the Kerch area) 50 years ago, but it also opens the possibility of obtaining a long-term loan of valuable monuments of the Graeco-Roman culture. It is hoped that in some time it will also lead to creating an important research centre concerned with the archaeology of the ancient Bosporan Kingdom and, more generally, archaeology and history of the northern shores of the Black Sea.
The Mission was indefinitely suspended in 2014 since Russian Federation annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.