There are probably very few of us who haven’t dreamed of finding treasure at least once in our lives. And it’s not even about the financial gain. After all, a discovery found by chance deep within the earth also brings the joy of owning something antique.
The various tribes and peoples who lived in Sloboda Ukraine have left their mark on its land.
Treasure troves are still being found today, just as they were 100 years ago. They were reported in newspapers and official reports, and were investigated and studied. The stories associated with these treasures can be quite fascinating.
For example, in January 1889, rumors spread throughout Kharkiv that a skull filled with old silver coins had allegedly been found near the seminary. Naturally, both the police and the Imperial Archaeological Society took an interest in such a discovery.
People were interviewed, but it turned out that no one knew anything about the skull. In the end, it was determined that no such discovery had ever been made. Although, maybe someone just decided to keep the treasure for themselves?
In 1902, the following appeared in the Kharkiv newspaper *Yuzhny Krai*:
In September, a peasant from Rublevka, Bohodukhiv District, stumbled upon a “treasure” by chance: while driving along a forest path, he spotted a copper coin near an old stump; it was an old five-kopeck coin from 1803. “Maybe there’s treasure buried here,” the man thought, and began digging through the soil; sure enough, he soon found many more copper coins just like it. In total, he found 45 coins in denominations of 5 and 2 kopecks, dating from the reigns of Peter, Catherine, and Alexander I. The coins weighed 5 1/2 pounds. The hoard remains in the finder’s possession; the discovery has been reported to the Kharkiv Archaeological Committee.
And in the wonderful 1903 issue of *Knizhny Vestnik*, the journal of the Russian Society of Booksellers and Publishers, we read:
Reports from Kharkiv indicate that, during the dismantling of the cathedral’s old bell tower, a hiding place was discovered containing various documents, books, and manuscripts preserved in a special box. The box is labeled “Secret.” The items found were taken to the consistory, where an inventory of everything was compiled. The documents date back to the early 18th century.
In 1904, in the village of Sokolovo, Zmiyv District, a peasant named Arseny Yermolaenko, while digging in his garden, stumbled upon a hard object, which turned out to be a clay pot filled with large and small silver coins, blackened by age, bearing the image of a head and a cross. There were 740 coins in total: 733 small ones and 7 large ones.
On May 17, 1908, the Lebedyn District Magistrate reported to the Governor of Kharkiv that “on April 27, in the village of Olshany, the peasant boys Kornei Rybalko and Osip and Dmitriy Denisenko, while playing after the rain in an alley between buildings, noticed a small clay jug in a gully formed by the water; when they touched it, it crumbled completely. The jug contained coins. The children, thinking they were toys, divided them among themselves and, on their way home, showed them to people they met and gave away a few to each, while giving the rest to their parents.”
All 635 silver coins found were handed over to the authorities and then sent to the Imperial Archaeological Commission for examination. Due to their extremely poor condition and lack of outstanding numismatic significance, the hoard of antique Polish, Prussian, and Swedish coins from the 17th century was returned to the people who found it.
In July 1910, in the village of Gorodnoye, Bohodukhiv District, a peasant boy discovered a rather rare historical hoard while digging the foundation for a house. At a considerable depth, beneath the stump of a rotten oak tree, 10 pieces of silver were unearthed. Each of these pieces was about 3 vershoks long, as thick as a finger, and triangular in shape. The hoard dated back to the time of the Battle of Poltava. Similar pieces of silver had been found on multiple occasions during excavations of burial mounds near the settlement of Rublevka in the Bohodukhiv District.
In the spring of 1911, a discovery was made in the vicinity of Kharkiv that was unique and unusual for our region, and which was reported in many newspapers.
Private attorney F. F. Pastukhov reports that a few days ago, in the vicinity of the city of a gold-and-platinum amulet belonging to one of the Egyptian pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty was discovered while digging a ditch within a soil excavation approximately 5 sazhens deep. This rarity dates back to time immemorial; the Fifth Dynasty of pharaohs reigned 4,000 years before Christ, and this artifact, a witness to the deepest antiquity, is now over 6,000 years old. According to experts on ancient artifacts, writes Mr. Pastukhov, this find is extremely valuable: a single coin from the era of the Fifth Dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs (see the “Encyclopedic Dictionary” Brockhaus”), housed in the Louvre Museum, is valued at 30,000 francs (11,000 rubles). One side of the amulet depicts the pharaoh, with the sun and moon above his head; on the right side are hands, inscriptions, and hieroglyphs, and on the left is the goddess Isis in a seated position. Below the pharaoh’s hands are two cats (a symbol of the chief Egyptian deity), and on the other side of the amulet: at the top—the rising sun; below, on either side, pyramids are visible; in the distance is the Sphinx of Cheops; below the sphinx are inscriptions and hieroglyphs. The original artifact has been deposited for safekeeping at a bank, and the owner has photographs of it, one of which he submitted to the editorial office.
It goes without saying that this is by no means all, and there were quite a few similar stories. If we were to count only the cases involving hidden treasures preserved in the State Archives of the Kharkiv Region, their number would exceed several hundred. And then there were also articles in newspapers and magazines. With such priceless treasures at our disposal, one can’t help but wonder: is there really a need to invent new legends for Kharkiv today?
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