The Chotyniec Hillfort. The Western Gate of Scythia

A touring exhibition by the University of Rzeszów’s Institute of Archaeology on its excavations at a Scythian-period hillfort near Radymno, in south-eastern Poland, has reached Chełm. It is on at the main building of the Museum of the Chełm Land, 55 Lubelska Street, from 9 September to 2 November 2026. The museum’s words below are translated from its Polish-language page; it publishes no English version.

Museum of the Chełm Land on the exhibition:

The exhibition presents the results of archaeological research carried out at the hillfort in Chotyniec near Radymno - a site whose discovery has significantly changed what was known about the reach of Scythian culture. The results indicate that the influence of the Scythian world extended much further west than had previously been supposed.

The display introduces both the site itself and the history of the research carried out there, as well as the artefacts the archaeologists discovered. Among the objects on show is a reconstructed ancient wine amphora from a Klazomenai workshop.

What to expect

This is an archaeology show about a single site, which the museum’s report on the opening dates to the 7th-5th centuries BC. The Chełm museum publishes neither an object count nor a room plan. The one object it names is a Greek wine amphora from a workshop in Klazomenai, on the coast of Asia Minor, reconstructed almost in full.

Earlier showings of the exhibition tell you more. In Stalowa Wola, according to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), it included bronze, bone and iron arrowheads, a necklace of faience beads and bronze half-spheres, a small gold sheet, bronze pins and locally made pottery. Panels of photographs and drawings filled in the story.

The Archaeological Museum in Poznań, which showed the exhibition from 19 March to 1 September 2024, puts it at more than a hundred artefacts on its own exhibition page. Chełm does not confirm that the same set has travelled, so take all this as a guide, not a promise.

At the opening on 9 September the talk was given by Dr hab. Katarzyna Trybała-Zawiślak, professor at the University of Rzeszów, co-author of the exhibition and a member of the team that excavated Chotyniec. Allow 40-60 minutes. If the layout follows Stalowa Wola’s - text panels and small finds - your pace is set by the reading, not by the number of objects.

Context

The Scythians were nomads from the Asian steppes who conquered the steppes north of the Black Sea and pushed west from there. The outline of the Chotyniec hillfort had long been known and even appears on 19th-century Austrian maps, but it took Rzeszów archaeologists to date it: surface surveys ran from 2013 to 2016, excavations from 2017 to 2023. The site has yielded more than 200 fragments of Greek amphorae - according to the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, the largest collection of such vessels from any single site in Poland. That is why the amphora on show in Chełm matters.

Chotyniec is a village in Jarosław County, in the Subcarpathian region, close to the Ukrainian border. If the show makes you want to see the place, the village also has a wooden church (tserkva) added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2013.

Tickets and time

The museum has a single price list covering permanent and temporary exhibitions: one building costs 20 PLN full price, 15 PLN reduced, and a pass to all four buildings 40 PLN and 30 PLN. Holders of the municipal “Karta Chełmianina” or “Chełmska Karta 3+” cards pay 15 PLN and 10 PLN per building, or 25 PLN and 15 PLN for the pass; children under 7 enter free. The museum reserves the right to price temporary shows individually, but it publishes no separate price for this one. A guided tour of one exhibition costs 50 PLN.

Admission is free every Thursday. Hours are Tuesday to Friday 10:00-16:00 (10 AM to 4 PM), Saturday and Sunday 12:00-16:00, closed Monday, last entry 15:30. The Lubelska Street building opens normally on Saturdays; the Saturday closure in force since 5 September 2026 applies only to the branch at 4 Świętego Mikołaja Street.

Watch the closing date. The last day, Monday 2 November 2026, falls on a day the museum is closed, and 1 November is All Saints’ Day, a Sunday, for which the museum lists no special hours. Plan to go by Saturday 31 October at the latest; the last free Thursday is 29 October.

Who it is for: families with school-age children, history teachers, and anyone who has read about the Scythian finds in south-eastern Poland and wants to see the finds up close. Skip it if the show has already been to your city - it has also been shown in Poznań, Stalowa Wola and Tomaszów Lubelski. If you are coming from outside Chełm, buy the pass: the permanent exhibition “Powrót do przeszłości” (“Return to the Past”), on the archaeology and ethnography of the region, is at 56a Lubelska Street, a few steps from the main building.

English on site: the museum’s visitor page gives hours and prices in English as well as Polish, but it states nothing about English labels, an audio guide or English-language tours for this exhibition. Expect Polish-only panels unless you are told otherwise at the desk.

What the press says

Two pieces, both informative, neither judging the display.

Super Tydzień Chełmski (3 September 2026): a preview of the Chełm showing that in effect repeats the museum’s announcement about the Klazomenai amphora and the importance of the site - article, in Polish .

Nauka w Polsce (PAP) (29 March 2026): a report on the Stalowa Wola showing, listing the most notable finds and naming the exhibition’s authors, Prof. Sylwester Czopek and Dr hab. Katarzyna Trybała-Zawiślak - article, in Polish .

See also

• Museum of the Chełm Land profile - four buildings, including the archaeology and ethnography department at 56a Lubelska Street, with hours and prices.
• Chotyniec - the Western Gate of Scythia - the same touring show earlier in Tomaszów Lubelski, at the Janusz Peter Regional Museum.
• On the Way to the Academy - a local-history display in the same building on Lubelska Street. The museum’s price list says a one-building ticket covers permanent and temporary exhibitions, but temporary shows may be priced individually - ask at the desk.

Museum profile: Wiktor Ambroziewicz Museum of the Chełm Land .