V. P. BABENCHIKOV AND CRIMEAN ACADEMIC ARCHAEOLOGY: 140TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH

the article is devoted to the post-war scientific activity of the Crimean scientist Vladimir Petrovich Babenchikov (1885–1974), whose name remained little known in the history of archeology for a long time. The pre-war period of his museum and local history work took place in the city of Sevastopol and was studied in detail by V. V. Akimchenkov. After the Great Patriotic War, V. P. Babenchikov held the position of chief custodian of the Central Museum of Crimea in Simferopol. In 1945, P. N. Schultz involved him in the research of the Tauro-Scythian archaeological expedition. Under his leadership, since 1948, V. P. Babenchikov worked on a permanent basis in the History and Archeology Sector of the Crimean Scientific Research Base and the scientific divisions created on its basis. The main area of his scientific interests were the problems of the ethnic history of the peninsula, primarily the question of the ancient Slavs in Crimea. V. P. Babenchikov contributed to the study of burial grounds of the southwestern Crimea of the first centuries of our era, medieval monuments of the southeastern Crimea — the settlement of Tepsen and the surrounding area, the necropolis of Scythian Neapolis, dedicating his candidate’s dissertation to the latter. His research works are imbued with the spirit of sincere patriotism, love for his homeland, his people and their ancestors. When working on the article, numerous documents from the archive of the Institute of Archaeology of Crimea of the Russian Academy of Sciences were used, which had not been previously used.