The Gold Deer of Eurasia
20 February 2003 - 20 April 2003

The exhibition includes 104 items. They are remarkable finds made by Ufa-based archaeologists under the direction of Anatoly Pshenichniuk during excavations of the Filippovka burial mounds in the Orenburg region of the southern Urals in the late 1980s that caused a sensation in the scholarly world.

Despite the fact that the burial mounds were plundered back in ancient times, many items were left untouched in two secret hiding-places, particularly works in the Scythian-Siberian Animal style: unique sculptures of deer executed in wood and faced with gold and silver plates, dress weaponry and elements of harness, numerous gold plates adorned from wooden bowls, Achaemenid gold and silver vessels, and bronze cauldrons.

The inclusion of these artefacts in the exhibition reflects the basic idea of the exhibition - to demonstrate the unity that characterizes the culture of the nomads of the steppe belt of Eurasia over a period of a thousand years and to show the unique distinct qualities of individual ethnic components. Besides, the exhibition is intended to bring out the degree of interaction and mutual influence between different cultures, their openness, the variety of contacts (military, economic and diplomatic) between nomadic and urban civilizations, between the Scythian, Greek and Iranian worlds.

The image of the deer that also appears on other artefacts from Filippovka has become the central theme that provides the exhibition with its title.

Five metal plates in the form of a deer
Larger view

Shield Plaque
Larger view