our university was the first Ukraine to begin teaching special and auxiliary historical disciplines. Here, in 1784, at the first special chair professors Gottfried Ulich, Ludwig Tsenmark and Foma Vucic gave lectures and published the first textbooks and manuals on heraldry, genealogy, sphragistics, paleography, diplomacy, and numismatics. In 1894, Mykhaylo Hrushevskyi was invited to give lectures on the history of Ukraine at Lviv University. A second Department of General History with a Special Overview of Eastern Europe was created for him, and in fact it was the Department of History of Ukraine. One of his students was Academician Ivan Krypyakevych, who worked at the history of the Galician-Volhynian state, the Cossacks, the History of Lviv, and special history disciplines. In 1939 he headed the Department of History of Ukraine, where his student, the famous medieval historian, Academician Yaroslav Isayevich majored. The modern period in the development of the tradition of studying the ancient history of Ukraine at Lviv University began in 1995, when the Department of Ancient History of Ukraine and Special History Disciplines was established at History Faculty. The Department was headed by Professor Roman Shust. In 2009, the department was renamed into the Department of Ancient History of Ukraine and Archival Studies. Since January 2015, the department has been headed by Associate Professor Olha Shchodra. The department cooperates with the Cabinet of Special Historical Disciplines. Its rich numismatic and sphragistic funds (more than 12 000 coins and medals and about 6 000 copies of seals) are used by employees of the department and students in the preparation of scientific and educational works. The department maintains scientific contacts with Ukrainian universities, as well as with the International School of Humanities of Eastern and Central Europe (Warsaw, Poland), the Institute of Central and Eastern Europe (Lublin, Poland), the Pedagogical University of the National Education Commission (Krakow, Poland), Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin, Poland), Center for the Study of Ancient Tradition (University of Warsaw, Poland), Rzeszów and Wrocław Universities (Poland).