Readings dedicated to the memory of V.G. Lukonin

On January 23-24, 2013, the State Hermitage Museum hosted the latest Lukonin readings, an annual scientific conference dedicated to the memory of the famous Russian orientalist, specialist in the art of ancient and medieval Iran and head of the Department of the East at the Hermitage, Vladimir Grigorievich Lukonin (1932-1984). The subject addressed at the conference traditionally covers various aspects of eastern studies, from the Middle East to Central Asia and China, from the most ancient past to the art of the eastern countries in the XVIII-XIX centuries, and reflects the breadth of the Department of the East’s scientific research.

This year, the conference included an especially large number of presentations devoted to written texts, generally from the Hermitage collection: Egyptian papyruses, Chinese and Uyghur documents, Sogdian, Chorasmian, Turkic and Arabic inscriptions. The presenters put previously unpublished texts into scientific circulations and presented new readings of artifacts that are already well known. There were also presentations on one of the most traditional themes for Hermitage oriental studies; the archeology of Central Asia and Mongolia, the history of the origin of the Hermitage collections and critical analysis of works of art.

Aside from Hermitage employees, their colleagues from the Institute of Eastern Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Eastern Studies department of Saint Petersburg State University participated in the conference.