Opening of a new exhibition Archaeological treasures of the Hermitage Museum
in the Archaeological museum, Alicante, Spain

15 April, 2011 the exhibition Archaeological treasures of the Hermitage Museum, confined to the Year of Spain in Russia and Russia in Spain opened in the Archeological Museum of a Spanish city Alicante.

The exposition covered the time period from the Paleolithic Age (20 thousand years B.C.) to the Middle Ages (16th century A.D.) and includes 484 items. Geographically, archeological monuments from Central Asia in the east to Northern Black Sea Region in the west, from Karelia in the North to Southern Caucasus in the south are presented. All exhibit items are significant and reflect not only the history of the Hermitage Archeological Collection development but the research history of the museum own archeological expeditions.

Placed in three rooms, correspondent in their color treatment to the color of the Russian Banner, the exhibition is divided chronologically.

The first room is dedicated to "primeval" archeology from the Paleolithic Age to the Bronze Age in the vast territory, included Siberia, Central Asia, Caucasus and European Russia. Among the exhibit items of this section it is possible to emphasize Paleolithic Venus from settlement Kostenki and findings from the Maikop burial hill, dated the 4th millennium B.C.

The second section shows Hellene-Scythian antiquities of Northern Black Sea Region from the 7th to 2nd centuries B.C. Here masterpieces from the State Hermitage collection are represented: a golden deer (7th century B.C.) from the Kostromskoy burial hill in Northern Caucasus; a golden comb with the Scythians (5th-4th centuries B.C.) from the Solokha burial hill in the Dnieper Region, a golden vessel with the Scythians (4th century B.C.) from the Kul-Oba burial hill in Crimea.

The third part of the exposition gives an idea of archeology in Russia and includes Hunnish monuments from Central Asia of the first centuries A.D., Panjekent fresco paintings and Sassanid silver of mid of the 1st millennium A.D., Byzantine antiquities from Crimea and monuments of the Golden Horde. Here the items, telling of the history of Ancient Rus: jewelry, armament, household objects.

The exposition is completed with photographs and video materials: photographs and a film about the Hermitage, portraits of known Russian archeologists, photographs of archeological excavations, monuments and landscapes of the places from where the presented antiquities originate.

The exhibition is prepared by the Department of Archeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, the Oriental Department, the Antiquities Department and the Department of Russian Culture.

Exhibition curator - Andrey Alexeyev, Head of the Department of Archeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia of the State Hermitage, Doctor of Historical Sciences.

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At the press conference

At the opening of the ceremony

Georgy Vilinbakhov, Deputy Director of the State Hermitage

Andrey Alexeyev, Curator of the exhibition, and Jorge Soler Dias Curator of the Archaeological museum, Alicante, Spain

The first room of the exhibition