Museum-reserve “Verkhny Saltov”

In 1900, Vasily Alekseevich Babenko, a local school teacher, was asked to search for historical and archaeological sites around the village of Verkhny Saltov. Babenko conducted the first survey. During the search, the first catacomb burial was found, which laid the foundation for the study of burial sites of the catacomb type.

Until 1927, archaeological expeditions of Kharkov , Odessa and Moscow universities took place in the Upper Saltov region ^{[1] [3]} .

In 1959, the Kochetok expedition was formed by the Institute of Archeology, thanks to which a village and burial ground were found on the banks of the Seversky Donets River ^{[1] [3]} .

From 1984 to the present day, the Kharkov Historical Museum has been conducting research on the Verkhnyaya Saltov Archaeological Complex ^[3] .

The museum exposition is located in several halls ^{[2] [3]} :

• Archaeological halls, which tell about the history of the region in the period VIII-X centuries. About the history of the discovery and study of culture, which was named after the location of SALTOVSKAYA. The exposition contains archaeological materials obtained from local archaeological excavations that reveal the life, beliefs and customs of the tribes of that time.
• The hall of the history of the period of the Second World War on the territory of Verkhnyaya Saltov, narrating about the events associated with attempts to liberate Kharkov from the Volchanschina, namely March and May 1942.
• Ethnographic Hall. There are exhibits that tell about the history of Verkhnyaya Saltov from the period of settlement of these places by Cossacks and the construction of the Cossack fortress until the end of the 20th century.