Scythian Gold
One of the treasures that Kiev has to offer is the Ukrainian Museum of Historical Treasures. It is located at the Monastery of Caves, a complex of churches that began in the 11th century. It contains numerous caves that the monks dug out over the years as their housing, and many of the monks bodies are preserved in these caves. We visited the monastery yesterday. The upper lavre is now owned by the government and maintained as a museum, while the church still owns the lower lavre.
The Ukrainian Museum of Historical Treasures contains a good amount of Scythian gold.  The Scythians are an Iranian tribe that was located in Ukraine and Kazakstan. For students of the ANE, they are best known as causing troubles for Mesopotamia, most notably by attacking Assyria under Esarhaddon in the 8th century BCE. They also caused problems for the Medes, Persia, and the Greeks.
Unfortunately, I did not get to go into the museum. We had to leave all baggage at the coat check, and I was carrying around a new digital video camera and a digital still camera. I decided not to risk leaving these, which meant I couldn’t go in. Alas, another place where scholarship is a casualty of practicality. But we did enjoy the rest of the monastery, including the caves.
On a humorous note, I quite enjoyed the sign outside the Microminiatures Museum, which is also located at the monastery. It was closed at the time, and a sign explained why. The English translation read: At the time of atmospheric precipitates, exhibition is not function.