The main objects of the Institute’s research are Plisnesk archeological complex and Busk – annalistic town of the early Middle Ages. Archeological sources formed as the result of excavation of the above-mentioned objects along with materials of other monuments constitute the basis for the illumination of complex ethno-cultural, town-forming and state-forming processes of the end of the 1st – the beginning of the 2nd millennium A. D.
Research workers of the Institute of Archeology in cooperation with other institutions are elaborating a number of topical issues of the history of the population of the early Iron Age and Middle Ages on the territory of the Western Ukraine. During 2009-2011 research workers of the Institute are working at the planned topic “The system of settlements of the Upper Western Bug and Dniester in the 1st millennium B. C. – mid-2nd millennium A.D.”
In 2008 implementation of the pilot project “Archeological cadastre of Ukraine / Lviv region/” was launched, which was ordered by the Regional Administration of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Lviv Region State Administration. It envisages comprehensive archeological examination within some districts of Lviv region for the purposes of new monuments identification and repeated study of known monuments as well as elaboration of theoretical and methodological guidelines of field and office study of the materials obtained. On the basis of the results of exploration works in 2008 – 2009 over 120 monuments of different periods have been identified and studied.
Post-graduate student of the Department of Archeology and History of the Ancient World B. Zavitiy as well as senior students of the Faculty of History in the specialty “Archeology” (V. Shelep, А. Fylypchuk, О. Blaha, М. Baydala and H. Soloviy) have been involved in the work on the indicated topics.
The basic monuments of archeological research of the institute are hillforts, villages, burial grounds and cult pagan sites of the 1st millennium B. C. – early 2nd millennium A. D. in the Upper Dniester area and Western Bug area. During the 2008 – 2009 field season the research workers of the Institute have conducted large-scale exploration works on the territory of Plisnesk archeological complex (М. Fylypchuk), in the annalistic Busk (P. Dovhan), basin of the river of Holohirka (N. Stebliy), Loshniv and Lysychnyky (B. Zavitiy).