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The Spanish colonization dramatically interrupted the autonomous development of ancient Mesoamerican culture. Nevertheless, indigenous societies learnt to live with the conquest. It was not only a time of crisis, but also an extraordinarily creative time period in which material culture reflected indigenous peoples' varied responses and adaptations to the changing circumstances. This work presents insights into the process of cultural continuity and change in the indigenous world by focusing on pottery technology in the Nahua (Aztec) region of Central Mexico. The late pre-colonial, early colonial and present-day characteristics of this industry are explored in order to come to a renewed understanding of its long-term development.

The archaeological material that formed the basis of this article was brought from the Eastern Aral Sea region during the long-term work of the Khorezm archaeological and ethnographic expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences and was kept in expeditionary storages for a long time. The purpose of this work is to carry out a detailed classification and typology of handicraft ceramics of the Uygarak settlement and to reveal the chronology and sequence of settlement of this territory in the Middle Ages.

This article aims to present the effects of the agents of deterioration on ceramics. We focus here on the agents of deterioration that act on the ceramic artifacts in the epoch they were created, on the agents of deterioration that affect these objects in the environment they were preserved, sometimes during thousands of years (in soil, in water and in the internal and external undersurface), but also on the agents of deterioration and the degradation that can occur during or after these artifacts have been removed from the environment they were found in, e.g. during sampling, cleaning, drawing, packaging, or in museums, during storing, exhibiting, or when doing conservation or restoration work. Hence, we refer to archaeological ceramics found in soil or marine environments, decorative ceramics from architectural contexts and to ethnographic ceramics. Detecting the mistakes made in the technological process of ceramic production which lead to defects/ vices that can cause degradation of the ceramic material even after removing it from the environment in which it was preserved and highlighting the external deterioration agents which affect ceramics under various forms are mandatory in order to adopt a correct methodology for the preservation and restoration of ceramic objects.

The article is devoted to the traditional ceramics of Bukovyna – one of the ethnographical regions of Ukraine, where in the XIXth–XXth centuries the pottery of high-quality technology and high artistic level was developed. The historical and cultural processes, which occurred on this territory and influenced the development of handicraft are considered. The pottery centers are highlighted and the creative works of leading potters are analyzed. The peculiarities of manufacturing technology, the local names and the purpose of clay products are recorded. The characteristic features of the traditional pottery of Bukovyna are researched: the typology and the main shapes of wares, the artistic qualities of ceramics decoration, the dominant motifs of the ornaments, the characteristics of individual techniques and of expressive methods. On the basis of art-critical analysis, by comparing the pottery vessels from Bukovyna with the ones from neighboring ethnographic regions of Ukraine (Prykarpattia, Podillia), as well as with the pottery ware from foreign countries, the local peculiarities of traditional ceramics of Bukovyna are determined and common features with the samples of pottery ware from Moldova, Romania are found. Previously unknown artworks and names of craftsmen are introduced in the scientific circulation.

The archaeology of the 18th and 19th century western BaTswana towns in the Rustenbutg·Zeerust region of North West Province, South Africa, is important and complex. This period, the late Moloko phase at the end of the Late Iron Age, was a time of significant upheaval. The colonial frontier was advancing, slowly hemming in the BaTswana population. In the mid· 17th century, the climate became cooler and drier, resulting in widespread drought through the beginning of the 18th century. These factors increased inter-group competition over land, access to trade goods and control of agricultural and exchange networks. The sociopolitical response to these political and environmental pressures was large- scale centralization, in which people moved from dispersed village homesteads into expansive stone-walled towns with populations in the thousands. Settlement aggregation had significant effects on the scale of production at these new centres. Whereas earlier, small populations were largely self-supporting in basic needs such as agriculture and pottery manufacture, large, centralized populations required controlled maintenance of food and other natural resources. This trend toward sustainable management likely spread to materials production, as well. This research examines a shift in pottery manufacturing techniques that occurred between the early and late Moloko periods, as evidenced by inclusions of grapWtic and lustrous, platy and fibrous tempers in ceramic samples from town sites that do not occur in ceramics from earlier sites. Comparatively, petrographic data of analyzed potsherds from Marothodi, an early 19th century BaTlokwa town, reveals only two of 42 ceramic samples containing lustrous inclusions and none made of graphitic clay. A number of concepts, drawn from materials science and ethnographic analogy, are put forth to help understand this variation. This shift must be examined in the broader context of aggregation. Craft specialization and standardization might be one solution for providing for the needs of a large population. There are underpinning technological, social, political, economic, environmental and ideological factors that must be considered in understanding and interpreting the production and use of an object. Also implicit in the chafne operatoire of pottery manufacture is human behaviour, technological choice, function, style and social identity. Changes in scale or type of ceramic manufacture must be evaluated in terms of the sociopolitical, cultural and technological context in which they took place. These shifts in pottery production occurred over a relatively short time, but the exact sequence of change over the late Moloko is unknown. While the oral-historical record offers a general indication of when the large stone-walled towns were occupied and abandoned, the beginning and duration of settlement cannot be resolved. This is because radiocarbon, the most common archaeometric method for dating the Late Iron Age, is ineffectual during the late Moloko due to anomalies in atmospheric production ofradiocarbon and acute De Vries effects in the time range AD 1650- 1950. Bayesian radiocarbon calibration can help to refine radiocarbon results, but still the resolution is not precise enough to inform usefully on the late Moloko archaeological record. An alternative dating method is optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), which determines the amount of time passed since a mineral grain was last exposed to heat or light. This research includes a pilot study in dating late Moloko sites by measuring OSL of quartz grains from furnace and midden features for which approximate age is already known though oral-historical records and ceramic seriation. The results of this experiment in OSL dating of the recent past are promising. OSL provides chronological control with the resolution necessary for establishing the settlement and ceramic sequence of late Moloko sites. This constitutes a first step in the future construction of a master archaeomagnetic calibration curve for absolute dating of sites in this region using chronometric data obtained through OSL. Archaeomagnetism is potentially the best method for relative, and eventually absolute, dating of sites in this temporal and geographic context.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- § 1. History and Anthropology: Strange Bedfellows -- § 2. In Search of the Colonial Subject -- § 3. Laughing at Leviathan: John Furnivall, Dutch New Guinea, and the Ridiculousness of Colonial Rule -- § 4. Export Ceramics in Philippine Societies: Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives -- § 5. Chronotopes of a Dystopic Nation: Th e Birth of "Dependency" in Late Porfirian Mexico -- § 6. Foretelling Ethnicity in Trinidad: The Post- emancipation "Labor Problem" -- § 7. The Nationalization of Anthropology: Japan and China in Manchuria -- § 8. The Figure of the Tamil in Modern Malaysia -- § 9. Unsettled Stories and Inadequate Metaphors: Th e Movement to Historical Anthropology -- Contributors -- Index

Ethnographic fieldwork (1994-1998) by the author among the Palikur of French-Guiana and Amapá State, in Brazil, provided a description of the actual state of their pottery tradition. It shows how the last Palikur potters manufacture ceramics and how they decorate their pottery. The Palikur decoration motifs reflect the organisation of Palikur society which is embedded in their oral tradition. They play an important role during public (ritual) events such as marriage, initiation and death. This information can be used as a tool for archaeologists to gain a better understanding of pre- Columbian ceramic complexes.

This article examines the production of two classes of goods, textiles and ceramics, in the medieval South Indian empire of Vijayanagara. A general model for the organization of specialized craft production is presented in which productive organization is linked to political/administrative regulation of product manufacture, distribution, and use. Three modes of productive organization are defined: administered production, centralized production, and noncentralized production. Historic documentation is used to examine Vijayanagara textile production, and a centralized productive organization is proposed. Vijayanagara ceramic manufacture is assessed through archeological and ethnographic data, and a noncentralized production system is proposed.

The problem of the interplay between manufacturing technology, vessel construction elements and surface treatment often attracts the attention of archaeologists studying ancient ceramics. The MAE RAS collection includes a number of ceramics vessels obtained during excavations of the La Paya site (province of Salta, northwest Argentina). The settlement was founded by the Diaguita-Calchaqui Indians at the end of the first millennium and existed in 9–16 centuries AD. An important part of this archaeological complex was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century by the Argentine archaeologist, founder and first director of the Ethnographic Museum in Buenos Aires, J. B. Ambrosetti. The most part of the La Paya complex was presented by hand-molded ceramic vessels, which were a characteristic part of Calchaqui's funeral rituals. Burials in cists were found within the stone wall surrounding the site, as well as in the territory of the necropolis adjoining it from the west. The ceramic complex of La Paya consists of a significant number of bowls, characterized by a high level of morphological diversity. Bowls of different shapes were made either as independent vessels or as components of complex forms. At the same time, the funerary urns and the bowls associated with them have a stable pattern of ornamentation. In the article the data on technology of manufacturing and ornamentation of the La Paya vessels is presented and some historiographical and mythological subjects, which can be useful for understanding new features of construction and ornamentation of the Calchaqui ceramic bowls and burial urns, are analyzed.

1. Decentralization and the evolution of egalitarian behaviors in sedentary societies -- 2. Ancient villages in the Niger bend: context and methods for exploring the Voltaic region -- 3. Ethnographic perspectives on western Burkina Faso : a survey -- 4. Kirikongo : an introduction to the site, the setting, and the research design -- 5. The West Africa environmental setting : Kirikongo in ecological context -- 6. Stratigraphies and depositional episodes: the excavations -- 7. Relative chronology : ceramics -- 8. Community growth at Kirikongo : the spatial and temporal setting -- 9. Early sedentary life in the Voltaic region : defining a "Voltaic tradition" -- 10. Craft production at Kirikongo : the origins, development and reinterpretation of specialization -- 11. Herding, farming, and ritual sacrifice: the economy from Kirikongo -- 12. Death and ritual objects at Kirikongo : house-based social differentiation -- 13. Archaeological patterns and social process : reconstructing changing life at Kirikongo -- 14. Land, spiritual power, and gerontocracy : an exploration of the roots of egalitarian revolution in the Western Voltaic region -- 15. Hierarcy and egalitarianism within the Niger Bend : revolution and the triumph of communalism.

One of the important assumptions of compositional analysis is that the elemental composition of an artifact reflects the source of the materials used to make it. Thus, pottery from a particular source will be chemically similar to the raw materials from that source. This "commonsense" assumption seems beyond dispute, but the fact that pottery is a mixture of clay, water, and often temper added by the potter, complicates the interpretation of compositional data from ceramics. This article examines the relationship between potters' behavior in obtaining and using raw materials, on the one hand, and the chemical composition of their finished pottery, on the other, by comparing the elemental composition of ethnographic pottery and raw materials from contemporary pottery‐making communities in the Valley of Guatemala. The results of this research show that the relationship between pottery and its constituent raw materials is not as obvious as was first supposed. The article concludes with an alternative approach to compositional analysis that is more in line with the realities of real‐world pottery production.

"A new pottery tradition has been developing along the border of northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Despite the fact that this region is not yet an established destination for pottery collectors, Michiana potters are committed to pursuing their craft thanks to the presence of a community of like-minded artists. The Michiana Potters, an ethnographic exploration of the lives and art of these potters, examines the communal traditions and aesthetics that have developed in this region. Author Meredith A. E. McGriff identifies several shared methods and styles, such as a preference for wood-fired wares, glossy glaze surfaces, cooler colors, the dripping or layering of glazes on ceramics that are not wood-fired, the handcrafting of useful wares as opposed to sculptural work, and a tendency to borrow forms and decorative effects from other regional artists. In addition to demonstrating a methodology that can be applied to studies of other emergent regional traditions, McGriff concludes that these styles and methods form a communal bond that inextricably links the processes of creating and sharing pottery in Michiana"--

Attention is drawn to a ceramic handicraft in the form of a rattle found at the Olymya IV settlement (the North of the Western Siberia). To determine the age, the archaeological context of the find was considered, in particular, household ceramic dishes lying next to it. It is represented by vessels of the Lozva and Atlym types of the Late Bronze Age. Great importance in dating the Lozva sites have the two models of socketed axes with frontal ears and a spear with incised feathers, found at the Suzgun IIa site in a complex with Suzgun-Lozva type pottery, as well as a mold for casting asymmetric chisel from the Staryi Katysh settlement. The Atlym culture and mixed Atlym-Lozva sites are dated by 14C and ceramics of the Luchkino type (it has a syncretic Suzgun-Lozva appearance). Four ceramic rattles were found in Western Siberia. They associated with the sites of the Bronze and Early Iron ages. In the search for parallels, it turned out that this category of archaeological finds is common in the Old and New Worlds, has a wide range of existence and exceptional variability in use. Historical and ethnographic data collected by Spanish archaeologists make it possible to speak about the polyfunctionality of these items, as well as outline the prospects for research that goes into the plane of numerical symbolism.

A work of art – a link between the present and the past. History and patriotism in non-professional art In her article, the author discusses art of non-professional artists who shape the national identity in an original way. In the former professional art, the works which illustrated and uplifted history were very popular. This phenomenon is still present among folk, naive, intuitive artists, generally speaking – non-professionals. The work of their hands and imagination is a tool serving the purpose of national values and ideas, and is sometimes the basis for broader considerations on the human condition. They balance between historical facts and ahistorical generalities. The martyrdom of the Polish nation with emphasis on the events of WWII has been inspiring artists, stimulating their imagination and artistic creation. Therefore numerous 'monuments of patriotic art' can be found in the wood sculpture, ceramics, painting, and glass painting works from the art collection of the Toruń Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa Ethnographic Museum. Dzieło sztuki na granicy przeszłości i przyszłości. Historia i patriotyzm w sztuce nieprofesjonalnejW swoim artykule autorka prezentuje sztukę twórców nieprofesjonalnych, którzy w sposób oryginalny kształtują tożsamość narodową. W dawnej sztuce profesjonalnej dzieła, które ilustrowały i uwznioślały historię były bardzo popularne. To zjawisko jest nadal aktualne wśród twórców ludowych, naiwnych, intuicyjnych, ogólnie nazywając – nieprofesjonalnych. Dzieło ich rąk i wyobraźni jest narzędziem w służbie wartości i idei narodowych, a niekiedy stanowi podstawę do szerszych rozważań nad kondycją człowieka. Balansują oni między konkretem historycznym a ahistoryczną ogólnością. Martyrologia narodu polskiego z naciskiem na wydarzenia II wojny światowej inspirowała i inspiruje twórców, pobudza ich wyobraźnię i zmusza do twórczej kreacji. Stąd też zarówno w rzeźbie w drewnie, w ceramice, na obrazach, w malarstwie na szkle, w zbiorach sztuki toruńskiego Muzeum Etnograficznego im. Marii Znamierowskiej-Prűfferowej możemy odnaleźć bogatą reprezentację "pomników sztuki patriotyzmu".

The issue of the journal opens with an article dedicated to the formation of metrology as government regulated activity in France. The article has discussed the historical process of development of metrological activity in France. It was revealed that the history of metrology is considered as an auxiliary historical and ethnographic discipline from a social and philosophical point of view as the evolution of scientific approaches to the definition of individual units of physical quantities and branches of metrology. However, in the scientific literature, the little attention is paid to the process of a development of a centralized institutional metrology system that is the organizational basis for ensuring the uniformity of measurements. The article by Irena Grebtsova and Maryna Kovalska is devoted to the of the development of the source criticism's knowledge in the Imperial Novorossiya University which was founded in the second half of the XIX century in Odesa. Grounding on a large complex of general scientific methods, and a historical method and source criticism, the authors identified the stages of the formation of source criticism in the process of teaching historical disciplines at the university, what they based on an analysis of the teaching activities of professors and associate professors of the Faculty of History and Philology. In the article, the development of the foundations of source criticism is considered as a complex process, which in Western European and Russian science was the result of the development of the theory and practice of everyday dialogue between scientists and historical sources. This process had a great influence on the advancement of a historical education in university, which was one of the important factors in the formation of source studies as a scientific discipline. The article by Tetiana Malovichko is devoted to the study of what changes the course of the probability theory has undergone from the end of the 19th century to our time based on the analysis of The Theory of Probabilities textbook by VasylP.Ermakov published in 1878. The paper contains a comparative analysis of The Probability Theory textbook and modern educational literature. The birth of children after infertility treatment of married couples with the help of assisted reproductive technologies has become a reality after many years of basic research on the physiology of reproductive system, development of oocyte's in vitro fertilization methods and cultivation of embryos at pre-implantation stages. Given the widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies in modern medical practice and the great interest of society to this problem, the aim of the study authors from the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was to trace the main stages and key events of assisted reproductive technologies in the world and in Ukraine, as well as to highlight the activities of outstanding scientists of domestic and world science who were at the origins of the development of this area. As a result of the work, it has been shown that despite certain ethical and social biases, the discovery of individual predecessor scientists became the basis for the efforts of Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe to ensure birth of the world's first child, whose conception occurred outside the mother's body. There are also historical facts and unique photos from our own archive, which confirm the fact of the first successful oocyte in vitro fertilization and the birth of a child after the use of assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine. In the next article, the authors tried to consider and structure the stages of development and creation of the "Yermak", the world's first Arctic icebreaker, and analyzed the stages of preparation and the results of its first expeditions to explore the Arctic. Systematic analysis of historical sources and biographical material allowed to separate and comprehensively consider the conditions and prehistory for the development and creation of "Yermak" icebreaker. Also, the authors gave an assessment to the role of Vice Admiral Stepan Osypovych Makarov in those events, and analyzed the role of Sergei Yulyevich Witte, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev and Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tian-Shansky in the preparation and implementation of the first Arctic expeditions of the "Yermak"icebreaker. The authors of the following article considered the historical aspects of construction and operation of train ferry routes. The article deals with the analysis and systematization of the data on the historical development of train ferry routes and describes the background for the construction of train ferry routes and their advantages over other combined transport types. It also deals with the basic features of the train ferries operating on the main international train ferry routes. The study is concerned with both sea routes and routes across rivers and lakes. The article shows the role of train ferry routes in the improvement of a national economy, and in the provision of the military defense. An analysis of numerous artefacts of the first third of the 20th century suggests that the production of many varieties of art-and-industrial ceramics developed in Halychyna, in particular architectural ceramic plastics, a variety of functional ceramics, decorative tiles, ceramic tiles, facing tiles, etc. The artistic features of Halychyna art ceramics, the richness of methods for decorating and shaping it, stylistic features, as well as numerous art societies, scientific and professional associations, groups, plants and factories specializing in the production of ceramics reflect the general development of this industry in the first half of the century and represent the prerequisites the emergence of the school of professional ceramics in Halychyna at the beginning of the 20th century. The purpose of the next paper is to analyze the formation and development of scientific and professional schools of art-and-industrial ceramics of Halychyna in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. During the environmental crisis, electric transport (e-transport) is becoming a matter for scientific inquiry, a subject of discussion in politics and among public figures. In the program for developing the municipal services of Ukraine, priorities are given to the development of the infrastructure of ecological transport: trolleybuses, electric buses, electric cars. The increased attention to e-transport on the part of the scientific community, politicians, and the public actualizes the study of its history, development, features of operation, etc. The aim of the next study is to highlight little-known facts of the history of production and operation of MAN trolleybuses in Ukrainian cities, as well as to introduce their technical characteristics into scientific circulation. The types, specific design solutions of the first MAN trolleybus generation and the prerequisites for their appearance in Chernivtsi have been determined. Particular attention has been paid to trolleybuses that were in operation in Germany and other Western European countries from the first half of the 1930s to the early 1950s. The paper traces the stages of operation of the MAN trolleybuses in Chernivtsi, where they worked during 1939–1944 and after the end of the Second World War, they were transferred to Kyiv. After two years of operation in the Ukrainian capital, the trolleybuses entered the routes in Dnipropetrovsk during 1947–1951. The purpose of the article by authors from the State University of Infrastructure and Technologies of Ukraine is to thoroughly analyze unpaved roads of the late 18th – early 19th century, as well as the project of the first wooden trackway as the forerunner of the Bukovyna railways. To achieve this purpose, the authors first reviewed how railways were constructed in the Austrian Empire during 1830s – 1850s. Then, in contrast with the first railway networks that emerged and developed in the Austrian Empire, the authors made an analysis of the condition and characteristics of unpaved roads in Bukovyna. In addition, the authors considered the first attempt to create a wooden trackway as a prototype and predecessor of the Bukovyna railway. ; The issue of the journal opens with an article dedicated to the formation of metrology as government regulated activity in France. The article has discussed the historical process of development of metrological activity in France. It was revealed that the history of metrology is considered as an auxiliary historical and ethnographic discipline from a social and philosophical point of view as the evolution of scientific approaches to the definition of individual units of physical quantities and branches of metrology. However, in the scientific literature, the little attention is paid to the process of a development of a centralized institutional metrology system that is the organizational basis for ensuring the uniformity of measurements. The article by Irena Grebtsova and Maryna Kovalska is devoted to the of the development of the source criticism's knowledge in the Imperial Novorossiya University which was founded in the second half of the XIX century in Odesa. Grounding on a large complex of general scientific methods, and a historical method and source criticism, the authors identified the stages of the formation of source criticism in the process of teaching historical disciplines at the university, what they based on an analysis of the teaching activities of professors and associate professors of the Faculty of History and Philology. In the article, the development of the foundations of source criticism is considered as a complex process, which in Western European and Russian science was the result of the development of the theory and practice of everyday dialogue between scientists and historical sources. This process had a great influence on the advancement of a historical education in university, which was one of the important factors in the formation of source studies as a scientific discipline. The article by Tetiana Malovichko is devoted to the study of what changes the course of the probability theory has undergone from the end of the 19th century to our time based on the analysis of The Theory of Probabilities textbook by VasylP.Ermakov published in 1878. The paper contains a comparative analysis of The Probability Theory textbook and modern educational literature. The birth of children after infertility treatment of married couples with the help of assisted reproductive technologies has become a reality after many years of basic research on the physiology of reproductive system, development of oocyte's in vitro fertilization methods and cultivation of embryos at pre-implantation stages. Given the widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies in modern medical practice and the great interest of society to this problem, the aim of the study authors from the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was to trace the main stages and key events of assisted reproductive technologies in the world and in Ukraine, as well as to highlight the activities of outstanding scientists of domestic and world science who were at the origins of the development of this area. As a result of the work, it has been shown that despite certain ethical and social biases, the discovery of individual predecessor scientists became the basis for the efforts of Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe to ensure birth of the world's first child, whose conception occurred outside the mother's body. There are also historical facts and unique photos from our own archive, which confirm the fact of the first successful oocyte in vitro fertilization and the birth of a child after the use of assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine. In the next article, the authors tried to consider and structure the stages of development and creation of the "Yermak", the world's first Arctic icebreaker, and analyzed the stages of preparation and the results of its first expeditions to explore the Arctic. Systematic analysis of historical sources and biographical material allowed to separate and comprehensively consider the conditions and prehistory for the development and creation of "Yermak" icebreaker. Also, the authors gave an assessment to the role of Vice Admiral Stepan Osypovych Makarov in those events, and analyzed the role of Sergei Yulyevich Witte, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev and Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tian-Shansky in the preparation and implementation of the first Arctic expeditions of the "Yermak"icebreaker. The authors of the following article considered the historical aspects of construction and operation of train ferry routes. The article deals with the analysis and systematization of the data on the historical development of train ferry routes and describes the background for the construction of train ferry routes and their advantages over other combined transport types. It also deals with the basic features of the train ferries operating on the main international train ferry routes. The study is concerned with both sea routes and routes across rivers and lakes. The article shows the role of train ferry routes in the improvement of a national economy, and in the provision of the military defense. An analysis of numerous artefacts of the first third of the 20th century suggests that the production of many varieties of art-and-industrial ceramics developed in Halychyna, in particular architectural ceramic plastics, a variety of functional ceramics, decorative tiles, ceramic tiles, facing tiles, etc. The artistic features of Halychyna art ceramics, the richness of methods for decorating and shaping it, stylistic features, as well as numerous art societies, scientific and professional associations, groups, plants and factories specializing in the production of ceramics reflect the general development of this industry in the first half of the century and represent the prerequisites the emergence of the school of professional ceramics in Halychyna at the beginning of the 20th century. The purpose of the next paper is to analyze the formation and development of scientific and professional schools of art-and-industrial ceramics of Halychyna in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. During the environmental crisis, electric transport (e-transport) is becoming a matter for scientific inquiry, a subject of discussion in politics and among public figures. In the program for developing the municipal services of Ukraine, priorities are given to the development of the infrastructure of ecological transport: trolleybuses, electric buses, electric cars. The increased attention to e-transport on the part of the scientific community, politicians, and the public actualizes the study of its history, development, features of operation, etc. The aim of the next study is to highlight little-known facts of the history of production and operation of MAN trolleybuses in Ukrainian cities, as well as to introduce their technical characteristics into scientific circulation. The types, specific design solutions of the first MAN trolleybus generation and the prerequisites for their appearance in Chernivtsi have been determined. Particular attention has been paid to trolleybuses that were in operation in Germany and other Western European countries from the first half of the 1930s to the early 1950s. The paper traces the stages of operation of the MAN trolleybuses in Chernivtsi, where they worked during 1939–1944 and after the end of the Second World War, they were transferred to Kyiv. After two years of operation in the Ukrainian capital, the trolleybuses entered the routes in Dnipropetrovsk during 1947–1951. The purpose of the article by authors from the State University of Infrastructure and Technologies of Ukraine is to thoroughly analyze unpaved roads of the late 18th – early 19th century, as well as the project of the first wooden trackway as the forerunner of the Bukovyna railways. To achieve this purpose, the authors first reviewed how railways were constructed in the Austrian Empire during 1830s – 1850s. Then, in contrast with the first railway networks that emerged and developed in the Austrian Empire, the authors made an analysis of the condition and characteristics of unpaved roads in Bukovyna. In addition, the authors considered the first attempt to create a wooden trackway as a prototype and predecessor of the Bukovyna railway. ; The issue of the journal opens with an article dedicated to the formation of metrology as government regulated activity in France. The article has discussed the historical process of development of metrological activity in France. It was revealed that the history of metrology is considered as an auxiliary historical and ethnographic discipline from a social and philosophical point of view as the evolution of scientific approaches to the definition of individual units of physical quantities and branches of metrology. However, in the scientific literature, the little attention is paid to the process of a development of a centralized institutional metrology system that is the organizational basis for ensuring the uniformity of measurements. The article by Irena Grebtsova and Maryna Kovalska is devoted to the of the development of the source criticism's knowledge in the Imperial Novorossiya University which was founded in the second half of the XIX century in Odesa. Grounding on a large complex of general scientific methods, and a historical method and source criticism, the authors identified the stages of the formation of source criticism in the process of teaching historical disciplines at the university, what they based on an analysis of the teaching activities of professors and associate professors of the Faculty of History and Philology. In the article, the development of the foundations of source criticism is considered as a complex process, which in Western European and Russian science was the result of the development of the theory and practice of everyday dialogue between scientists and historical sources. This process had a great influence on the advancement of a historical education in university, which was one of the important factors in the formation of source studies as a scientific discipline. The article by Tetiana Malovichko is devoted to the study of what changes the course of the probability theory has undergone from the end of the 19th century to our time based on the analysis of The Theory of Probabilities textbook by VasylP.Ermakov published in 1878. The paper contains a comparative analysis of The Probability Theory textbook and modern educational literature. The birth of children after infertility treatment of married couples with the help of assisted reproductive technologies has become a reality after many years of basic research on the physiology of reproductive system, development of oocyte's in vitro fertilization methods and cultivation of embryos at pre-implantation stages. Given the widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies in modern medical practice and the great interest of society to this problem, the aim of the study authors from the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was to trace the main stages and key events of assisted reproductive technologies in the world and in Ukraine, as well as to highlight the activities of outstanding scientists of domestic and world science who were at the origins of the development of this area. As a result of the work, it has been shown that despite certain ethical and social biases, the discovery of individual predecessor scientists became the basis for the efforts of Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe to ensure birth of the world's first child, whose conception occurred outside the mother's body. There are also historical facts and unique photos from our own archive, which confirm the fact of the first successful oocyte in vitro fertilization and the birth of a child after the use of assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine. In the next article, the authors tried to consider and structure the stages of development and creation of the "Yermak", the world's first Arctic icebreaker, and analyzed the stages of preparation and the results of its first expeditions to explore the Arctic. Systematic analysis of historical sources and biographical material allowed to separate and comprehensively consider the conditions and prehistory for the development and creation of "Yermak" icebreaker. Also, the authors gave an assessment to the role of Vice Admiral Stepan Osypovych Makarov in those events, and analyzed the role of Sergei Yulyevich Witte, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev and Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tian-Shansky in the preparation and implementation of the first Arctic expeditions of the "Yermak"icebreaker. The authors of the following article considered the historical aspects of construction and operation of train ferry routes. The article deals with the analysis and systematization of the data on the historical development of train ferry routes and describes the background for the construction of train ferry routes and their advantages over other combined transport types. It also deals with the basic features of the train ferries operating on the main international train ferry routes. The study is concerned with both sea routes and routes across rivers and lakes. The article shows the role of train ferry routes in the improvement of a national economy, and in the provision of the military defense. An analysis of numerous artefacts of the first third of the 20th century suggests that the production of many varieties of art-and-industrial ceramics developed in Halychyna, in particular architectural ceramic plastics, a variety of functional ceramics, decorative tiles, ceramic tiles, facing tiles, etc. The artistic features of Halychyna art ceramics, the richness of methods for decorating and shaping it, stylistic features, as well as numerous art societies, scientific and professional associations, groups, plants and factories specializing in the production of ceramics reflect the general development of this industry in the first half of the century and represent the prerequisites the emergence of the school of professional ceramics in Halychyna at the beginning of the 20th century. The purpose of the next paper is to analyze the formation and development of scientific and professional schools of art-and-industrial ceramics of Halychyna in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. During the environmental crisis, electric transport (e-transport) is becoming a matter for scientific inquiry, a subject of discussion in politics and among public figures. In the program for developing the municipal services of Ukraine, priorities are given to the development of the infrastructure of ecological transport: trolleybuses, electric buses, electric cars. The increased attention to e-transport on the part of the scientific community, politicians, and the public actualizes the study of its history, development, features of operation, etc. The aim of the next study is to highlight little-known facts of the history of production and operation of MAN trolleybuses in Ukrainian cities, as well as to introduce their technical characteristics into scientific circulation. The types, specific design solutions of the first MAN trolleybus generation and the prerequisites for their appearance in Chernivtsi have been determined. Particular attention has been paid to trolleybuses that were in operation in Germany and other Western European countries from the first half of the 1930s to the early 1950s. The paper traces the stages of operation of the MAN trolleybuses in Chernivtsi, where they worked during 1939–1944 and after the end of the Second World War, they were transferred to Kyiv. After two years of operation in the Ukrainian capital, the trolleybuses entered the routes in Dnipropetrovsk during 1947–1951. The purpose of the article by authors from the State University of Infrastructure and Technologies of Ukraine is to thoroughly analyze unpaved roads of the late 18th – early 19th century, as well as the project of the first wooden trackway as the forerunner of the Bukovyna railways. To achieve this purpose, the authors first reviewed how railways were constructed in the Austrian Empire during 1830s – 1850s. Then, in contrast with the first railway networks that emerged and developed in the Austrian Empire, the authors made an analysis of the condition and characteristics of unpaved roads in Bukovyna. In addition, the authors considered the first attempt to create a wooden trackway as a prototype and predecessor of the Bukovyna railway.