Displayed in the first two halls are artefacts from the primitive era and the Ancient World.

The display incorporates three major sets of objects from the Northern Caucasus and adjacent area: finds from the Maikop burial mound, the Staromyshastovsky hoard and items found in the settlement of Novosvobodnaya. The considerable collection of artefacts from the Maikop burial mound include the most ancient examples of toreutics (artistic metal-working) in the Hermitage, dating from between the last third of the 4th millennium and the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C.

In terms of the richness of the finds this site can be compared only to the celebrated Mycenaean graves in Greece. This burial of a chieftain produced precious jewellery and utensils: necklaces of gold, cornelian and turquoise beads, gold and silver vessels, as well as silver tubes bearing small gold and silver sculptures of bulls, and plaques in the form of rings and figurines of walking bulls and lions. These articles were the work of craftsmen who had a perfect mastery of the main techniques of artistic metal-working: casting, hammering, chasing, engraving and stamping.

The collection of Scythian gold that includes examples of toreutics from the 6th to 3rd centuries B.C. is world-famous. The come from the burial mounds of not only the nomadic Scythians, but also the Meotians, a tribe closely related to them in culture and way of life that inhabited the basin of the River Kuban, as well as settled farmers of the forest-steppe zone. The display features items from sites of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. in the lower reaches of the Dnieper - the "royal" burial mounds, the most famous of which are Chertomlyk and Solokha. Here you can see masterpieces of Greek toreutics - a chased gilded silver amphora from Chertomlyk, the shoulders of which are decorated with a relief frieze of Scythians taming wild horses. A very interesting vessel from the Solokha mound shows Scythians hunting a lion and a horned lioness.

A special section is home to gold articles from the necropolises of the ancient city colonies on the Northern Black Sea coast. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, pendants and other sorts of jewellery allow us not only to judge the skill of the Greek craftsmen, but also to trace the development of the shapes of jewellery and techniques. Remarkable works of ancient applied art come from the rich royal burials in the Kul-Oba mound, the large mound necropolis of Pantikapaion, the capital of the Bosporan kingdom, and the graves of members of the priesthood - the Large and Small Bliznitsa (Twin) mounds and the Artiukhovo mound on the Taman peninsula. Sixth-century B.C. earrings found in the necropolis of the ancient town of Olbia are the most ancient in this section. They are simple in shape, but the quality of the workmanship seen in the relief lion's heads in the centre of the disc and the granular pattern of large triangles around its edges places them among the finest examples of the jeweller's art. Earrings customarily consisted of two elements: a disc and a pendant. Pendants were as a rule covered in a delicate filigree pattern, extremely fine granulation and adornments in the form of rosettes and palmettes that were soldered on. They varied tremendously in design: depictions of the goddess Nike, cupids, sphinxes, female heads in tall kalathos headdresses.

Fascinating design and remarkable craftsmanship distinguish a collar necklace from the Large Bliznitsa burial mound. Its base is an open-work frieze of various small animal figures shown among flowers.

Of considerable interest are the stamped artefacts found in huge numbers in the graves of the Bosporan nobility. They are small plaques that were sewn as decoration onto clothing and burial canopies. More often than not they bore traditional Greek decorative motifs: rosettes, female heads, masks of gorgons and sileni, fantastic creatures, as well as real animals and birds.

Some plaques were produced specially to order. These include the gold ones from the Kul-Oba and Large Bliznitsa mounds. They are depictions of two Scythians shooting arrows, a Scythian horseman, and graceful female dancers performing ritual dances in honour of the goddess Demeter.

The display also includes works representing what is known as the "polychrome" style that emerged in the Hellenistic period and reached its peak in the first centuries A.D. They are decorated with precious stones, glass and enamel insets, and gold pendants and chains.