Svetlana Bilyayeva

Svitlana Oleksandrivna Bilyayeva (, born 28 March 1946) is an archaeologist, who specialises in the ancient and medieval history of Ukraine, the Golden Horde and the Ottoman Empire.

Biography Bilyayeva was born on 28 March 1946 in Dzaudzhikau in North Ossetia.

Career and education She studied history at Voronezh State University from 1964, graduating in 1969. From 1969 to 1981 she worked as a researched at the Institute of Archaeology in Ukraine. She is Professor of History at Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University.

Bilyayeva is on several academic and heritage boards, including: the Ukrainian UNESCO Committee, the editorial board for "Сходознавство" ("The Oriental Studies") published by NAS Ukraine, From 2006 to 2010 she was director of the Akkerman Fortress Project. She led excavations into a previously unknown 14th century Lithuanian city near the village of Tyaginka in the Beryslav region, which was sited upon the previous settlement of the Golden Horde. She has led research into the Tyagin fortress, which was the southernmost defensive structure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. She has excavated and researched Ottoman monuments in Ukraine, including at Ochakiv (Özü).