Archaeological finds made of white stone in the conditions of museum storage: to the problems of exposure and preservation

In this article, archaeological finds made of white stone (limestone) are considered as a special group of museum items. The subject of the study is the methods of exposure and methodological approaches to the preservation of monuments of this group, which are investigated by methods of problematization, comparative typological and system analysis. The article consistently examines the prerequisites for collecting stone sculpture, presents the main museum collections on the territory of the Russian Federation, which have impressive lapidary collections, reviews the bibliography devoted to the study of ancient stone sculpture and medieval monuments, and analyzes the methods of exhibiting and preserving objects of this group. В В  As a result of the undertaken analysis, it was possible to identify the main exposition practices. So lapidary monuments are exhibited both indoors and outdoors. The latter method probably goes back to the tradition of using sculpture as a decorative element, however, in the case of museum items, it requires considerable effort to ensure proper preservation. Stone monuments are successfully included in thematic and systematic expositions, while the most fully informative potential of these objects can be revealed by presenting them in a specially created lapidarium space. From the point of view of ensuring the preservation of limestones of archaeological origin, weak methodological provision and the lack of a unified approach to the choice of conservation measures are revealed.