Golden Warrior: Treasures of Saka Barrows

On 28 May, 2002, in Apollo Room (No. 260) of the Winter Palace opened an exhibition from the collections of the Presidential Culture Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Astana), Museum of Gold and Precious Metals of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Astana) and Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty). The exhibition shows ancient golden decorations of early nomads unearthed in Kazakhstan. Prepared by the State Hermitage Museum jointly with the Ministry of Culture, Information and Public Agreement of the Republic of Kazakhstan, it marks the Days of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation.
The period when these things were created bears the conventional name of Scythian-Saka epoch, derived from the names of the two basic tribal groups that occupied the steppes of Eurasia. Blending of the Scythian and Saka cultures generated in the 7th-8th centuries B.C. the so-called animal style. Numerous golden decorations of the Sakas have been found in Kazakhstan, these are plates, straps and pendants with stylized figures of animals (tigers, elks, snow leopards, horses, wild rams, eagles, etc.).
The jewelry showed in the exhibition is just a fraction of the ancient golden decorations created by anonymous masters of the past centuries which attest to the uniqueness of the Kazakh people's cultural heritage.

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Kul-Muhammed Mukhtar Abrar-uly, Minister of Culture, Information and Public Agreement of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Mikhail B. Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum, opening the exhibition