Metal Detecting in Ukraine

1. Brief Info on Ukraine as an Independent State

The area in focus was not named "Ukraine" until the early 20th century, and the language spoken by Ukrainian citizens today was artificially developed by a radical, anti-Russian populist Michael Hrushevsky (1866-1934) at the end of the 19th century. During the 1920s, Soviet leadership encouraged a national renaissance in the Ukrainian culture and language under the Ukrainisation policy which was part of the Soviet-wide policy of "Nativization" (indigenization) of certain regions of the former Russian Empire. Among the goals of the policy was the undoing the forced russification of oppressed nations under the Russian empire.

The Ukrainisation implied the introduction of the Ukrainian language into all spheres of public life and usage of the language to the widest possible extent in education, publishing, culture, and, most importantly, government. During the 2000s, the Ukrainisation was intensified by the Ukrainian government proclaiming that "our ideology is nationalism!" and suppressing the Russian language. This contributed to a flare-up of protests in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Historically, the Russian language has been the primary language of communication in big cities and the entire eastern regions of the country. Statistically, 70% of Ukrainians speak Russian.

Modern Ukraine is bordered by Russia to the east, Russia and Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungry to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest and in the south by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. In 2006, it had an area of 233,088 sq. mi. (603,700 sq. km.) and a population of 52 million.

As of December of 2014, Ukraine has lost the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea (in a legitimate referendum, 98% of Crimeans voted in favor of secession of the Republic of Crimea from Ukraine and reunification with Russia) and the Donetsk and Lugansk regions (now Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic) in the South-East. Additionally, over three million of Ukrainians have migrated to Russia, and an uncountable number of Ukrainians moved to European countries in search of work. As a result of this mass migration and other negative factors, the country's population has shrunk dramatically and was estimated at 25 million in 2018.

History of Ukraine as an officially established state began after the disintegration of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires in 1917-18. The Ukrainian People's Republic as a part of the Russian Republic was declared on June 23, 1917, and proclaimed its independence after the Bolshevik Revolution on January 25, 1918. The West Ukrainian People's Republic emerged briefly in the lands of former Austro-Hungarian territory before being partitioned between Poland, Romania, Hungry and Czechoslovakia.

In 1919, the remaining Ukrainian People's Republic had to defend itself on three fronts: from the Bolsheviks, from the "White" czarist forces, and from Poland. The Ukrainians lost the war. In 1920 Eastern Ukraine was occupied by the Bolsheviks and, as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1922.

Ukraine declared itself an independent state on August 24, 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On December 1, 1991 Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum formalizing independence from the Soviet Union. The Union formally ceased to exist in December 25, 1991, and with this, Ukraine's independence was officially recognized by the international community.

2. Brief Historical Facts about Lands Occupied by Modern Ukraine

Even though Ukraine as a country is relatively young, its territory has been inhabited since 32,000 B.C. The first identifiable tribes, Chalcolithic people, inhabited the area in 3,300 B.C. during the "Copper Age" period. As the result of its location, Ukraine has served as the gateway to Europe for millennia, and its southern territories were colonized by the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, the Byzantine Empire, the Crimean Goths, the Genoese and the Ottoman Empire, while at the same time its steppes were occupied by invading nomads and empires, such as the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Alans, Bulgars, Huns, Khazars, Kipchaks, Mongols and the Golden Horde.

The area's early history has been recorded by Arabic, Greek, and Roman historians. Until the 16th century, Ukraine was known as Rus' (from which the name Russia was derived in the 17th century) which became the major and cultural center of Eastern Europe and the powerful Slavic state of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century.

At its apex, the Rus' Kingdom stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from the upper Volga River in the east, almost to the Vistula River in the west. In 988, Prince Volodymyr adopted Christianity from Byzantium. With it came church books written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which originated in Bulgaria. The language spoken was the Old East Slavic language. The Mongol invasion in 1240 brought an end to the might of the Rus' Kingdom.

Following its fragmentation in the 13th century by the Mongols, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers such as Poland, Austria-Hungary, Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire and Russia for almost four hundred years. In 1648, a Cossack republic under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky emerged, gained independence, and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Hetman State lasted until the mid-18th century and was eventually split between Poland and the Russian Empire, and finally merged fully into the Soviet Union in the early 20th century.

After reading the above-mentioned historical facts, one may easily get excited about what metal detecting in Ukraine can yield. With such impressive history, the Ukrainian territory can be considered one of the most "fruitful" areas for treasure hunting in the world. The oldest coin finds, particularly coins of the Roman Empire, date back to the 4th century BC. Since so many powers contested and ruled the territory, the diversity of coin denominations and origins is just incredible.

This is why coin shooting has been the most participated activity of all types of metal detecting in Western, Central and Southern Ukraine. And the ancient coin detecting in Ukraine could not be easier as the potential hunt sites, ca. 600 BC - AD 800, can be effortlessly located on land through observation, and even without use of maps, if one knows what topographical clues to look for in the landscape. Hunt sites of every historical time period have characteristic clues which are pretty simple to remember and easy to notice. Some of them are described in my stories listed below.

Since the oldest bronze relic finds in Ukraine date back to the 7th century BC, relic hunting has been another widely popular activity in the country. And the more to the south any search area is situated, the older the finds. Not to mention gold artifacts that are regularly discovered in the most southern areas of Ukraine where numerous groups of "black diggers" - unlawful hunters for rare gold relics, tear up ancient earth mounds with bulldozers to get to treasures of the ancient cultures. The black diggers do not even use metal detectors! Around 2010 or 2011, the Ukrainian legislature enacted some amendments to the existing law suppressing illegal treasure hunting at the archaeological sites, but the new restrictions did not stop the black diggers. The new law only created more problems for regular metal detectorists.

The utmost treasure-bearing areas in Ukraine are the Black Sea and Azov Sea coastlines where the signs of antiquity are present everywhere, both on land and underwater. Before the Crimean peninsula was reunified with Russia, it used to attract many enthusiasts conducting land and underwater treasure hunting at sites of ancient ports such as, for example, Theodosia ("Feodosia" in Russian). The city was founded in the 6th century BC and, after becoming a flourishing trading settlement a few centuries later, it monopolized trade in the Black Sea region and served as a major port and one of Europe's biggest slave markets. Of course, places like Theodosia also attracted the organized mafia gangs which had gained a total control over most treasure hunting endeavors in the region. All that was put to an end after Crimea became Russian, especially when the harshest Russian law against treasure hunting was enforced in the region.

The underwater treasure hunting in the Black Sea and Azov Sea has been not only exciting, but also very dangerous due to the abundance of unexploded bombs, Naval mines, projectiles and submarine torpedoes that have been still resting among the antique amphoras on the sea bottom since many sea battles took place along the coastlines during the World War II. When Nazi Germany with its allies invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Ukraine was occupied and remained under the Nazi control until the German Army was kicked out of the region by the Red Army in 1944. The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the Eastern Front which certainly rolled over Ukraine. This resulted in the myriad military debris and "rubbish" left behind. The intact objects ranged from small firearms to multi-ton explosive devices and was scattered all over the country. This is why Ukraine also attracts many detectorists specializing in WWII relic hunting

But not everything is hunky-dory with metal detecting in Ukraine. Unfortunately there are some vast areas in the country, which are set off limits to detectorists not by law, but by the worst reason one can imagine - radioactive contamination of soil. In April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl accident occurred when a nuclear power plant exploded in the town of Pripyat, some 104 km (65 mi) north of Kiev - the Ukrainian capital. The fallout contaminated large areas of Northern Ukraine and even some parts of Belarus. The contaminated area contains a large number of towns, villages and settlements that were abandoned by their inhabitants during emergency evacuations and thereafter. Many of these places and other potential treasure hunting sites, of course, have been very tempting to detectorists.

Just the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone - an area of 30 km (19 mi) radius from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, alone was once home to 135,000 people living in the cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat as well as 187 smaller communities. But now it is one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in the world, and one must be nuts to go metal detecting there! According to reports from Soviet scientists, "the Chernobyl accident resulted in contamination of 28,000 square kilometers (or 10,800 square miles) by caesium-137 to levels greater than 185 kBq per square meter. Roughly 830,000 people lived in this area. The nuclear disaster also resulted in the development and dispersal of a radioactive cloud which drifted not only over Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, but also over most of Europe and as far as Canada."

When I was in Ukraine in 2006, everything was normal, and I enjoyed my staying in Kiev - one of my favorite cities in the world. And I had good times metal detecting with my Ukrainian friends. Unfortunately many negative changes have occurred in Ukraine since then.

Currently the country is going through really hard times. According to some American political scientists, since the so-called "Maidan Revolution" - the violent change of government, took place in Kiev in 2014, followed by the military conflict, now defined as "frozen", in Donbass (Eastern Ukraine), the state of affairs in the country has worsened significally due to the new government's incompetence, dysfunction and corruption. According to the Ukrainian political scientists, the country is on the verge of breaking up into a few "principalities" seeking economical and political independence from Kiev.

Despite the crisis situation in the country, Ukrainian detectorists, especially those who live off metal detecting, most likely continue searching for valuable coins and artifacts. However, the current situation may not be favorable (e.g. in terms of personal safety) to those foreigners who would like to visit Ukraine for metal detecting.

A Photo Gallery: The City of Kiev and Around