Argument

In broadest terms, the argument here is that place mattered a great deal in Crimea (and in the Russian Empire more broadly) and that spatial structures shaped daily life in significant, discernible ways. Unearthing the traces of those spatial structures requires careful mapping. It requires disaggregation and reaggregation. It requires visualization and narration. It requires active engagement. And it requires a certain tolerance for the fact that history is often cobbled together from a few rough-hewn beams and a pile of ill-mortared stones; incomplete, unsatisfying, and yet deeply compelling. 

With this in mind, I hope you will move through the site at its subterranean levels, following the interwoven logic of collections, item relations, and tags, compiling your own insights and forging your own webs of meaning as you go.