Return to the Past

The permanent exhibition "Return to the Past" is housed in the former "Zwierciadło" printing house, where the archaeology and ethnography departments moved in 1999. Archaeological and ethnographic objects are grouped into eight themes, from obtaining food to the interior of a home.

The first part gathers tools for gathering, hunting and fishing, from the Mesolithic to objects used until quite recently. Farming is shown from the first farmers who settled on the Bug in the 6th millennium BC to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A separate part presents household tools and vessels for processing food from ancient, Old Polish and modern times. The weaving section leads from processing flax and spinning thread to work at the loom. Dress is presented from jewellery found in excavations to the complete costume of Chełm villagers from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Folk art is represented by works of regional folk artists, including Koguciuk, Uścimiak and Śledź. The visit ends in an old village room decorated for a holiday with pająki straw chandeliers, paper cut-outs and tissue-paper flowers around the holy pictures. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication prepared by the staff of the Department of Archaeology and Ethnography in 2007.