The main fund of the museum is the largest collection of sources on the ancient history of the Northern
Black Sea coast, it has more than 170 thousand archaeological sources of ancient history of
southern Ukraine from the
Stone Age to the
Middle Ages, including 55 thousand coins, the only collection of monuments in Ukraine of
Ancient Egypt, the largest collection of ancient rarities in the country. The best examples of ancient sculpture are exhibited in the lobby of the building, specially built for the Public Library in 1883. The first two halls display materials covering the period from the advent of man to the
second millennium BC. Of particular interest are finds from settlements and cemeteries of the Humelnytsia,
Trypillia, and
Usatovo cultures, burial mounds, and
Bronze Age treasures, such as the Antonivsky Treasure. at the entrance to the museum The "Golden Pantry" of the museum exhibits real things made of precious metals, the oldest of which date back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. Decorations from
Scythian and
Sarmatian cemeteries, medieval burials of nomads, and products of Slavic craftsmen attract attention. Out of the 50,000 coins stored in the museum, the rarest of gold and silver minted in
ancient Greece,
Rome,
Byzantium, and
Kyivan Rus are on display. In particular, the "gold coin" of
Prince Volodymyr, one of the two in Ukraine and of 11 known, is on the display. The collection of Egyptian antiquities is the third largest in the
former USSR. Wooden and stone
sarcophagus, funeral utensils, stone slabs and fragments of
papyrus with
hieroglyphs are of interest here. ==Research activities==