2026. no 2. Sevilya Velieva

Imprinted memory: ancient houses of the Crimean Tatars
on negatives in the collection of the Bakhchisarai Museum-Reserve

Sevilya Velieva
Bakhchisarai Historical, Cultural and Archaeological Museum-Reserve
Bakhchisarai, Russian Federation

Abstract. The article examines pre-war negatives from the collection of the Bakhchisarai Museum-Reserve, which show ancient Crimean Tatar houses that have not survived to the present day. Most of the collection was created under the first director of the museum, U.A. Bodaninsky, and is a valuable source of information on the history and ethnography of Crimea.
The considered negatives serve as an important material for studying the construction of residential buildings of the Crimean Tatars. An analysis of the architectural features of traditional dwellings, both external and internal, reveals a variety of construction techniques and decorative elements typical of various regions of Crimea. Attention is drawn to the distinctive features of urban and rural houses, their layout, and the materials used – all this makes it possible to more fully present the civil architecture of the Crimea of the pre-war period.
It is concluded that the study of negatives depicting ancient houses complements written evidence and archaeological data, providing visual confirmation and enriching our understanding of the past.

Keywords: negatives; Bakhchisarai Museum; civil architecture; Bakhchisarai; Crimea

For citation: Veliyeva S.S. Imprinted memory: ancient houses of the Crimean Tatars on negatives in the collection of the Bakhchisarai Museum-Reserve. Krymskoe istoricheskoe obozrenie=Crimean Historical Review. 2026, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 128–145. https://doi.org/10.22378/kio.2026.2.128-145 (In Russian)

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sevilya S. Velieva – Senior Research Fellow, Bakhchisarai historical, cultural and archaeological museum-preserve (133, Rechnaya Str., Bakhchisarai 298405, Russian Federation); ORCID: 0009-0000-2684-0292. E-mail: vsevila83@mail.ru

Received 20.12.2025

Accepted 02.04.2026