Chykalenko, Levko

Chykalenko, Levko [Чикаленко, Левко; Čykalenko], b 3 March 1888 in Pereshory in Kherson gubernia, d 7 March 1965 in New York, New York State. Political and civic leader, archeologist, full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1932 and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1945; son of Yevhen Chykalenko and brother of Hanna Chykalenko-Keller. He studied with Fedir Vovk and collected archeological and ethnographical materials with him. Between 1912 and 1916 he excavated (initially under Vovk’s supervision, but later independently) an important Upper Paleolithic Mizyn archeological site in the Chernihiv region. He was an active member of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers' party and a member and secretary of the Central Rada and the Little Rada. In 1920 he emigrated to Poland, then Prague (where in 1924 he obtained a doctoral degree at the Ukrainian Free University and where he later lectured at the Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute), the France, Germany, and, in 1948, the United States. He wrote works on the Paleolithic Period ornaments and the Trypillia culture ceramics.

[This article was updated in 2020.]