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Permanent Exhibition of the Department
of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia Antiquities
of Siberia (Early Iron Age - Middle Ages)
20 May, 2009, in halls 28-32 on the ground floor of the Winter Palace
a new permanent exhibition of the Department of Archaeology of Eastern
Europe and Siberia was opened.
The main theme of the exhibition is the history and culture of the peoples
of the Altai and Sayany Region, Transbaikalia and South Siberia during
the period starting from the Scythian Epoch till Middle Ages (VIII B.C.
- XIII).
In the halls devoted to the Scythian history the central place is occupied
by the finds from Altai and Tuva. Among the items presented here there
are utensils, jewelry, weapons and caparison items. Many things witness
not only about the high level of the craft development, but also about
the good artistic taste of the ancient craftsmen. The collection includes
unique crafts made of wood, clothes and shoes made of felt, leather and fur
coming from the "frozen" burial mounds of Altai where organic
materials remain well-preserved. This part of the exhibition also contains
finds from Tuva, among which the most interesting ones are the complexes
from the earliest burial mounds dating back to the Scythian Epoch and the reconstructions
of costumes enabling to visualize the dress clothes
of the people that lived more than two thousand one hundred years ago.
A special section of the exhibition is devoted to the materials of the Tagar
culture that occupied the territory of the Minusinskaya basin of the middle
reach of the Enisei river. The Tagar tribes were mainly engaged
in sheep breeding and crop farming. Among the industries that reached
a high level of development were pottery and bronze casting. Completing
each other, the materials of the exhibition form an integrated picture
of the Scythian Epoch in its diversity and give an opportunity of visualizing
the cultural integrity of the ’steppe’ world of Siberia that was destroyed
by the Khunnu.
The empire that emerged as a result of the Khunnu conquests predetermined
the formation of the contemporary ethnic and cultural picture of several
region of the Central Asia. The Khunnu influence can be traced in almost
all the Early Middle Age traditions of the Altai and Sayany region and South
Siberia. However, the main emphasis in the exhibition is placed
upon items telling about the everyday life of the people.
The final section of the exhibition contains archaeological materials
telling about the history and culture of the people of Altai and Sayany
region and South Siberia of the period of VI-XIII centuries, the epoch
mostly renowned for the creation of the Runic Alphabet. The material culture
is characterized by the originality of the ethnic traditions; the caparison
items begin to resemble the contemporary sets. It was the period of the military
and political domination of various Turkic-speaking tribes. Replacing
each other, they created several nomadic states and large tribal formations
in the steppe, the last of which fell as a result of the Mongol invasion
in XIII century.
The presented items do not include materials from the fifth Pazyrykskiy
burial mound studied at the end of the 1940-s in the Altai region. Hall
26 that will host these items is currently being reconstructed. The central
place at the future exhibition will be occupied by a burial chamber, an wagon
and a large felt carpet. Among other items presented here
there will be crafts by the local craftsmen and things witnessing about
the contacts of the Altai people with the ancient civilizations of the Central
Asia and the Near East - Chinese silk, woolen cloths, and the oldest woolen carpet in the world.
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Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage, at the opening of the exhibition
At the opening of the exhibition
Collection of the Altai antiquities of the 6th-3rd centuries B.C. Pazyryk
Barrows of the 5th-4th centuries B.C.
Full size image
Materials of the Bashadar and Tuekta Barrows. 6th-5th centuries B.C.
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Materials of the Arzhan-1 and Arzhan-2 barrows 8th - 7th centuries B.C.
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Tagar Culture. Minusinsk Basin
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Sayan-Altai in the Middle Ages: from Turks to Mongols
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