<b>Zaporizhzhia Antiquities in the “Catalog of the Katerynoslav Regional Museum named after O. M. Pol. Archaeology and Ethnography” (1905, 1910) : the Issue of Authenticity and Representativeness</b>

The aim of the article is to demonstrate the source potential of the “Catalog of the Katerynoslav Regional Museum named after O. M. Pol’. Archaeology and Ethnography” (1905, 1910); to reveal the course and consequences of introducing “Zaporizhzhia” issues by historians (both professionals and amateurs) of the city of Katerynoslav into the process of formation and development of museum source studies practices in the early 20th century. The study of museum publications was carried out using a set of source analysis methods. Special attention was paid to the analysis of the structure of museographic descriptions, the adequacy of attributions and classifications conducted by museum professionals, and the stylistic features of publication texts. The priority of collecting and museumification of various types of antiquities was established through the techniques of their segmentation using formal mathematical calculation. The main results of the study relate to establishing the completeness and reliability of the information presented in museum catalogs. The authors concluded that the museum publications selected for analysis adequately reflect the development of collection activities and the formation of museum source studies in the city of Katerynoslav on “Zaporizhzhia” themes. It was shown that erroneous, contradictory, sometimes overly generalized information, as well as incompleteness of museographic texts, require the involvement of historical sources of other kinds for a reliable reconstruction of organizational measures aimed at searching, studying, and publishing monuments related to the history of the Zaporizhzhians. The practical significance of the proposed study lies in the fact that its results can be used by researchers studying the subject world of the Zaporizhzhia Cossacks; museum specialists conducting attributions of museum artifacts of the 16th – 18th centuries. The scientific novelty of the study lies in presenting museum publications (museography) as sources that can be included in the circle of sources of the social history of the Zaporizhzhia Cossacks and sources for the study of the formation process of museum source studies in Ukraine. Article type: review.