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This room is situated in the part of the Winter Palace
that was originally used for auxiliary purposes. The exhibition of
the room introduces to the archeological materials from the burial
grounds found in the mountains of the Northern Caucasus (3rd-7th centuries)
and from the site of Moshchevaya Balka (8th-9th centuries). The latter
archeological site was located by the Bolshaya Laba River, on the
passageway in the mountains, once a route of the Silk Road. From the
burials of local Alan and Adighe nobles comes one of the world's largest
collections of unearthed silk fabrics. Thanks to the favourable climatic
and soil conditions of the area the organic materials - furs, hide,
wood and fabrics, including mainly silks of Byzantine, Sogdian and
Chinese origins - have reached us in a good condition. A masterpiece
of the Hermitage collection is a chieftain's long coat lined with
silk bearing images of fantastic monsters called senmurves. Of interest
is also a unique document of some Chinese merchant. |
