The Hermitage guide

The Department of Prehistoric Culture

The main part of the infinitely rich archaeological collection of the Hermitage, some 450,000 odd items, is housed in the Department of Prehistoric Culture. Its stocks contain finds from a vast territory stretching from the Carpathians in the west to the Pacific coast in the east, and from the shores of the Black Sea and the Tien Shan foothills in the south, to the Taimyr Peninsula in the north. The materials preserved cover an enormous period in the ancient history of the peoples inhabiting this territory — a period embracing the Paleolithic Age and the beginnings of Russian statehood.

The origin of the Hermitage’s archaeological fund dates back to the early nineteenth century. In the middle of the nineteenth century the Museum acquired the famous Tmutarakan Stone bearing the oldest known Russian inscription, dated 1068 A.D. About the same time the Hermitage received, by transfer from the Kunstkammer (Russia’s first public museum), the country’s oldest archaeological collection, known as the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great. This collection consisted of numerous gold articles excavated by barrow-diggers in West Siberia and Kazakhstan in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Many such articles found their way into the hands of Nikita Demidov, a wealthy Urals industrialist, who presented them to Tsar Peter’s wife, Catherine. They were greatly prized by the tsar, who initiated a further search for such finds, so that the collection grew and came, in time, to number more than 250 gold articles: massive cast plaques that served as belt buckles, torques, bracelets, animal figurines, and various other ornamental objects.

The articles of ancient goldwork composing the main body of the Department’s collection were furnished by the systematic excavations carried on in Russia during the second half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. After the Imperial Archaeological Commission was founded in 1859, all finds of outstanding interest were usually placed in the Hermitage. Thus the objects yielded by the barrows and necropoli along the northern Black Sea coast and in the Northern Caucasus — the famous burials of Scythian and Sarmatian nobles in the barrows of Kelermes, Solokha, Chertomlyk, Khokhlach, and many others — reached the Museum, forming a collection of Scytho-Sarmatian antiquities which, judged by its scope and artistic value, remains unsurpassed to this day. As for relics of earlier date, brilliant examples are provided by the Maikop Barrow with its unique specimens of third millennium B.C. toreutics, and the Koban culture complexes of metal artefacts, dating back to the late Bronze Age (early first millennium B.C.). Towards the end of the nineteenth century the Museum acquired a great hoard of objects in precious metals, discovered in the vicinity of the Malaya Pereshchepina village near Poltava, and numerous pieces of jewellery from old Russian hoards found at Nevel, Gniozdovo and other places.

It was not until after the October Revolution of 1917, however, that the Hermitage collections of archaeological objects began to be studied and arranged on a strictly scientific basis. A new department was created, in 1931, named initially the Pre-class Society Department but later renamed the Department of Prehistoric Culture. Its nucleus was composed of the archaeological collections of the Helleno-Scythian and, partially, of the Byzantine sections of the former Department of Antiquities, comprising, to begin with, some 20,000 items.

Subsequently, the new department received archaeological material unearthed by pre-Revolution excavations and previously housed in other museums, such as the Leningrad Artillery Museum, the Moscow Regional Museum, the Moscow University Institute of Anthropology, and in private collections, belonging to the Stroganovs, Romanchenkos, Alexeyevs, and to Nikolai Roerich. A substantial increment came after the War of 1941—45, when the Russian Museum transferred to the Hermitage the collection of its former Ethnography Department.

The main credit for the growth of the Museum’s collections over the past thirty years should go to the archaeological excavations which have been regularly carried out by the Hermitage jointly with the USSR Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology, and which have substantially helped fill the gaps in the collections. Materials are also acquired from other organizations which conduct excavation works yielding finds of historical and artistic value.

A place apart in the Department’s stocks is held by complexes of archaeological finds coming from completely excavated sites. Among these are the excellently preserved collection of objects from the ancient Russian town of Staraya Ladoga, and the copious material obtained in the early Slavic settlement at Novotroitskoye and the Khazar fortress of Sarkel.

The Department’s collections of Scythian and Sarmatian gold have been enriched by fine specimens of the animal style, discovered in the Chilikty Barrow in Kazakhstan and in burials near the villages of Kalinovka and Verkhneye Pogromnoye in the Lower Volga area. Particularly significant was the growth of the Department’s Siberian collection, which was augmented by finds from barrows in the Altai Mountains (Shibe, Bash-Adar and Pazyryk near the village of Tuekta), belonging to the Scythian period and matchless in respect of their richness and state of preservation, as well as material from a first-century B.C. burial in the Oglakhty Hills on the Middle Enisey. Expeditions undertaken by the Hermitage in the 1950s and 60s produced rare finds from the Neolithic and Bronze Age pile settlements, discovered at Usviaty and Naumovskoye in the northwest region; these also enlarged the Department’s collections. Another source of material was Meshoko, the first and most thoroughly explored site belonging to the Maikop culture of the Northern Caucasus. The Department’s pre-Scythian and Scythian collections were substantially enriched by finds from the many-layered settlement of Magala, one of the most remarkable examples of the Thracian culture to be found in the Western Carpathians, and also by a splendid assortment of items from sixth-century B.C. barrows near the villages of Kruglik and Doliniany, which enabled the Hermitage to arrange for the first time an exhibition devoted to the culture of the population of the Dniester area of the Scythian wooded steppe.

The Polesye expedition brought to the Hermitage articles of the Zarubintsy culture, a culture hitherto not represented in the Museum’s collections. Its most interesting remains are the Otverzhichi and Velemichi burial grounds, which have by now been fully explored. Year after year the Department’s collections are enriched by the finds of the expedition that carries out excavations on burial grounds in the Ferghana area, which date back to the early centuries of our era.

All in all, the Department’s collections are approximately twenty times larger today than they were in the beginning. They provide a vivid picture of the main stages in the early history of the peoples who inhabited or continue to inhabit our country. The materials owned by the Department are subdivided into nine sections on geographical or chronological principles.

The earliest relics are assembled in the Paleolithic section. It contains Lower Paleolithic implements of obsidian discovered on Mt Satani Dar in Armenia, as well as objects found in a hunters’ station of the glacial period, and those yielded by a child’s burial under a dwelling at the Malta station near Irkutsk, whose wealth and variety of Paleolithic remains and objects of art put it among the world’s most important sites. Its treasure of female figures, both clothed and nude, and birds, all carved out of mammoth tusk some 20,000 years ago, its images of a mammoth and serpents engraved on ivory plaques, its necklaces of beads and patterned pendants, bracelets, diadems, and a plaque with incised zigzag-shaped design, have won this site world-wide renown. In addition, during the past decade the section was enriched by a magnificent set of stone implements from sites on the Middle Dniester, which characterize the Stinkovo version of the Mousterian culture.

The section devoted to the South European part of the Soviet Union contains exhibits belonging to the Eneolithic Age. Quite adequately represented in the collection are the relics of the well-studied Tripolye culture (third millennium B.C. and first half of the second), whose sites are to be found all over the Ukraine and Moldavia. Exceptional value is attached to finds from the settlements of Bernova Luka and Polivanov Yar and the Vykhvatintsy burial ground, as reflecting the step-by-step cultural development of the ancient farming population of the country’s Southwest. The collection includes pottery — occasionally of very curious shape — decorated with white, brown or black paint; numerous female statuettes and figurines of domestic animals, made of clay; copper tools; personal adornments; and other artefacts.

The Bronze Age culture of the peoples inhabiting the steppes of the Ukraine and the valleys of the Volga and the Don is represented by remains of the Old Pit, Catacomb and Timber Grave cultures, although there is considerably less material than from the Tripolye culture. Of outstanding importance is the so-called “founder’s hoard” comprising pottery moulds and various instruments used in making axes, adzes, daggers, etc., discovered on a site in the Volgograd region.

The Caucasian section contains artefacts dating from the period of the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age, and derived mostly from the Northern Caucasus (objects of chronologically later origin forming part of the collection of the Oriental Department). Among the earliest are the finds from the Agubekovo and Dolinskoye settlements and from a burial in the vicinity of Nalchik. The most important, however, is the famous complex of finds from the Maikop Barrow, discovered in 1837. Here, concealed beneath a great mound of earth, a timber crypt disclosed three bodies, including one of a tribal chief. It was around his remains that the largest number of objects was found: two gold, fourteen silver and eight pottery vessels; pieces of a funerary canopy ornamented with numerous gold plaques depicting lions and bulls; multitudinous gold, silver and stone beads and other ornaments, as well as a set of copper and several stone implements, including flint arrowheads. Since these Maikop finds comprise one of the earliest funerary comlexes of the tribal nobility and illustrate the relations between the tribes of the Northern Caucasus and the civilizations of the Ancient Orient, they have long drawn the attention of scholars. The material from Meshoko, the only settlement of the Maikop culture practically fully explored, affords an insight into the mode of life of the local population.

The remains of the Koban and Colchian cultures testify to a high level of metallurgy and metal working in the Caucasus during the first millennium B.C. The Koban burial ground in the mountains of North Ossetia, where over six hundred burials of the twelfth to tenth centuries B.C. have been excavated, has yielded a large quantity of bronze articles, most of which are ornamented with geometric and plant designs as well as animal and, occasionally, human figures. This material includes weapons, horse trappings, belts, fibulae, bracelets, vessels, etc. Figurines of men and animals also occur among the finds.

The Department’s newest section, that of Central Asia, — its collections were formerly part of the Caucasian section — contains material from complexes of the ancient (fifth to third millennia B.C.) settlements in the south of Turkmenia, which belong with the Painted Pottery culture of the early farming populations, spread over the vast area from the Balkans all the way to China. Finds from Turkmenia include thin-walled pottery decorated with monochrome or polychrome ornamentations; tools; adornments; and clay statuettes of women and domestic animals. Particularly interesting are the finds from the barrows of the early (fifth and fourth centuries B.C.) nomads of the Pamirs, and the comprehensive collection of articles from the Ferghana settlements and cemeteries dating mainly from the early centuries of our era. Material relating to later periods is housed in the Oriental Department.

The museum boasts the most archaic specimens of Scythian culture and art. These are sixth-century B.C. finds, yielded by the Kostromskaya, Kelermes and Ulsky Barrows in the Kuban area and by the Litoi Barrow in the Dnieper valley.

Among the later rich burials of the Dnieper valley, the Solokha and Chertomlyk Barrows, discovered near Nikopol, are best known. Buried under a mound eighteen metres high at Solokha were a king, his armour-bearer, an attendant and a groom, and five horses. The grave goods found here give an idea of a king’s personal battle array: a sword in a scabbard, and a bronze helmet of Greek workmanship. The gold-plate covering of the scabbard and sword-hilt is adorned with animal figures, and the silver-gilt one of the gorytus (combined bow-case and quiver) is embossed with representations of warriors in battle and scenes of animal combat. An object that gained world-wide fame is a gold haircomb with a sculptured group of Scythian warriors engaged in battle. Justly prized for its exceptionally high artistic merits, the comb is also of great historic value, since it accurately depicts the men themselves, the clothes they wore and the weapons they fought with. Another find from the Solokha Barrow is a set of gold and silver utensils, including silver vessels of Greek workmanship, a wine bowl, and a ladle with a strainer.

The Chertomlyk Barrow, whose mound measured some 20 metres high and 50 metres in diameter, had been looted, but even what remained was truly magnificent. Buried here was a king, his queen, his two armour-bearers, several grooms, and eleven horses. The royal burial has yielded weapons and gold plaques with a variety of designs, but our main interest is in the casing of the king’s gorytus — a massive gold plate depicting episodes from the Greek myth of Achilles — and in the gold cover of his scabbard with the scene of battle between Greek and Persian warriors. The queen’s burial contained a large number of gold ornaments: plaques forming part of a headdress, pendants, a torque with the terminals shaped as lion figures, bracelets, finger-rings, and a string of beads.

An admirable work of art is a silver amphora embossed with a design of flowers, leaves, palmettes, figures of birds, and gryphons tearing stags, and with a magnificent frieze of men and horses in relief. A large shallow silver bowl and ladle were found next to the amphora. The tomb of one of the royal armour-bearers also yielded valuable articles. The caches were found to contain fragments of decayed woollen textiles, numerous gold costume plaques, and more gold plaques from women’s headdresses. Equally rich are the horse trappings, which include some 250 gold, silver and bronze bridle sets with bits, cheekpieces and ornamental plaques, as well as gold plates from saddle mountings, and finials from chariot poles.

An important part of the Scythian section is comprised of beautiful specimens executed in the animal style. Viewed as a whole, they illustrate the development of this style all the way from the earlier realistic efforts to later works rendered in a simplified, stylized manner. The earliest specimens include two gold shield ornaments: the stag from the Kostromskaya Barrow, and the panther, from the Kelermes Barrow; characteristic of later periods are the plaques and cheekpieces decorated with distorted, strongly ornamentalized animal figures, which come from the Elizavetinskaya Barrows.

Judged by their expressiveness and their high standard of craftsmanship, the Hermitage Scythian artefacts, taken as a whole, remain unmatched. It is perfectly safe to say that there is no research on the Scythians that does not quote the Hermitage material. The Museum’s collections will long continue to serve as an inexhaustible source of information for students of archaeology, history and art.

In addition to the collections of artefacts from the treasure-rich barrows of the Scythian steppes, the section also contains numerous finds from the Nemirov, Grigorovka and other fortified sites of Podolia, as well as those from barrows on the Middle Dnieper and Middle Dniester, which tell of the occupations and mode of life of the agricultural tribes who inhabited the Scythian wooded steppes.

The collections presenting the culture of the South Russian grasslands and the Crimea during the period after the passing of the Scythians and down to the Middle Ages are housed in the Sarmatian section (the name “Sarmatian” in this case being somewhat conventional).

Outstanding among the large body of Sarmatian material proper is the set of finds from the Khokhlach Barrow, known as the Novocherkassk Treasure and dating from the first century A.D. This barrow rose over the burial of a high-born woman, and though the tomb had been looted, what remained was enough to become one of the Museum’s greatest collections of jewellery. A unique specimen is a gold diadem with pendants, adorned with colourful garnet and glass insets and, in the centre, a woman’s head carved in quartz. The diadem is crested with a frieze of stag and goat figures and two trees. This item is typically “barbarian” in style, combining as it does elements of Greek and Sarmatian art; it is thought to have been fashioned by Bosporian jewellers for a Sarmatian patron.

Excavations of 1952 at the great Kalinovka cemetery on the left bank of the Volga uncovered 159 Sarmatian burials. Typical of the articles found in the men’s graves were weapons, such as swords, spears, and quivers with arrows; of those in the women’s graves — wire temple rings, glass beads, bronze bracelets, bone haircombs, bronze mirrors, stone mortars used in the preparation of rouge powder, bone needle-holders, iron scissors, and spindle weights. Needless to say, all of the burials yielded pottery vessels, whose handles are often shaped as figures of animals which supposedly possessed some magical power. One burial contained a wooden coffin with the skeleton of a woman in a ceremonial dress adorned with gold plaques, gold earrings, a massive torque, spiral wire bracelets with terminals in the form of stylized animal figures, and silver and gold vessels.

The same section contains articles from the excavated settlements of the wooded steppe tribes whose economy was based on farming and stock-breeding and who were the bearers of a culture known by the name of Cherniakhovo, a village in the Kiev region where the first find was made. Material yielded by the Lepesovka site in the Khmelnitsky region is considered to be of particular interest. The settlement had been destroyed by fire and many articles had been damaged, but they still permit a fairly complete reconstruction of the inhabitants’ way of life. Locally made weavers’ and blacksmiths’ tools, pottery and ornaments were found here together with imported utensils.

During the fourth century both the Sarmatian and Cherniakhovo cultures fell under the attacks of the Huns at the start of the Migrations Period. The specific features of contemporary (fourth and fifth century) culture can best be seen in the collections of Bosporan antiquities obtained mostly from burials excavated in Gospitalnaya (Hospital) Street in the town of Kerch. Members of the nobility were buried in family tombs and common people in ordinary graves. Finds include a gold wreath, a gold torque with terminals in the shape of dragons, richly ornamented weapons and horse-gear. Characteristic of the jewellers’ work from this period were a predilection for rich colours and a general tendency to achieve strong decorative effects. This gave rise to a lavish use of semiprecious stones, and such techniques as filigree work and grain decoration; sometimes cloisons were soldered onto the surface and filled in with almandine and red glass. These techniques were also employed in ornamenting weapons and horses’ harness. The manufacture of such articles was apparently centred on the Bosporus, although they were also widely spread all over the steppeland area, the Northern Caucasus, the Urals, the Kama valley, and southeastern Europe.

An important part of the section comprises objects from the early Middle Ages (sixth and seventh centuries). Among the many hoards belonging to that period the most noteworthy is the Pereshchepina Treasure, accidentally found in 1912 by some shepherd-boys near the village of Malaya Pereshchepina in the Poltava area. This rich find of artefacts of various provenance has been for years the object of intensive study. Together with artefacts of local origin, it includes a set of church plate and coins of Byzantium, and vessels from Iran and Central Asia. The earliest piece is a dish with a picture of the Persian king Shapur II (A.D. 310—363), while the latest is a Byzantine coin minted prior to A.D. 668.

While considering the sixth and seventh centuries, we should mention a set of finds from the fortress of Eski-Kermen and the cemetery at Suuk-Su in the Crimea. By the end of the sixth century the Crimea had become a part of the Khazar Khanate whose culture is reflected in the collections of finds yielded by excavations in the fortified town of Sarkel on the Don, and a large variety of household articles, artefacts and craftsman’s tools, weapons and ornaments from settlements and cemeteries of the Saltovo-Mayatsky culture, so called from the names of the Saltovo burial ground and the hill-fort of Mayatsky in the Kharkov and Voronezh regions, respectively.

The culture and way of life of such nomad peoples as the Pechenegs, Torki and Polovtsy during the period between the ninth and thirteenth centuries may best be judged by the rich collection of goods discovered in the numerous barrows of the South Russian steppes. Outstanding among these goods are sets of weapons including single-edged swords, spears, fragments of bows and quivers with arrows, and sometimes accompanied by protective armour — leather helmets with a framework of iron, iron face guards and mail shirts. The physical features and outward appearance of the Polovtsy can most readily be learned from the so-called stone babas, monuments to members of the tribal nobility, which reproduce with great exactitude the details and ornaments of their ceremonial costumes.

Among the various sections of the Department the one devoted to Siberia is perhaps the biggest, with Siberian exhibits taking up almost a third of the display. These exhibits have been brought from the Minusa Basin and other areas of the Enisey valley, from West Siberia, Lake Baikal, the Altaian barrows, and some from Kazakhstan. Archaeologically, they cover the period from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages.

Thanks to the efforts of the Krasnoyarsk archaeological expedition organized under the auspices of the USSR Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology, the Hermitage collection now presents an unbroken historical record of the tribes inhabiting the Minusa Basin. Among the earliest finds are those belonging to the Okunev culture of the Bronze Age (first half of the second millennium B.C.). They comprise both the usual kind of grave goods, such as utensils and household articles, and works of art, including mythical beings carved in stone, steatite statuettes with realistically sculptured female heads, and bone plaques ornamented with engraved designs. The stone slabs of the cists still show drawings of animals, three-eyed human faces and fantastic beasts.

Dating back to the Bronze Age are also finds from the cemeteries of the Andronovo culture in the Minusa Basin and the Karasuk culture in Kazakhstan, as well as objects from settlements and cemeteries along the Ob River.

Justly famous is the collection of Minusa artistic bronzes wrought by the craftsmen of the Tagar culture, who lived along the middle Enisey during the seventh to third centuries B.C. Beautifully made artefacts of cast bronze (knives, adzes, plaques, mirrors, pole-tops, and other articles) were usually adorned with the sculptured figures of animals. Elements of the Tagar culture can be traced in the Tashtyk culture (first to fifth centuries) which came to replace it in the Minusa Basin. A barrow in the Tepsei burial ground has yielded a series of seven remarkable wooden plaques dating from the third to fifth centuries, somewhat charred, unfortunately, and having handles carved either with scenes of battle or with running animals — subjects apparently meant to illustrate legends, stories or songs. Another Tashtyk complex comes from a tomb in the Oglakhty Hills, where several bodies were found, dressed in fur garments, with plaster masks covering their faces, two life-size dolls, also wrapped in fur, a quiver, and wooden and pottery pots.

The same section is the repository of Russia’s first archaeological collection — the so-called Siberian Collection of Peter the Great. The most outstanding collection, however, and one that is justly famous, consists of finds discovered in the Pazyryk Barrows in the Altai Mountains. The first barrow was excavated here in 1929, and four more in the 1950s. In the Altaian highlands, some 1,650 m above sea-level, layers of permanently frozen ground form beneath any sizable mound of stones. The cairns of these burials reached 50 m in diameter and 2 to 4 m in height, so that all of the more than 6,000 articles that had lain in their icy graves over 2,500 years, such as furs, felts, textiles, and wood, were found in an excellent state of preservation. Among the finds unique of their kind mention must be made of a Persian pile carpet of great antiquity; a very large felt rug with two rows of appliqué ornament, with the motif of a horseman and a goddess seated on a throne; a four-wheel wooden funeral cart constructed entirely without nails; a harp and a tambourine; fur and linen clothing; horses’ headdresses surmounted with antlers; tree-trunk coffins occasionally decorated with carving; saddles and saddle-cloths; and many carved wooden plaques shaped as animal figures and used as harness ornaments. Horse trappings from Pazyryk Barrow 1 are especially rich and ornate. The mummy of the chief in Barrow 2 has preserved its tattooing, which depicts various animals, both real and fantastic.

Latest in point of date among the collections of the Siberian section are the seventh- to eleventh-century finds from the Turkic barrows in the Altai Mountains and articles left by the Kyrghyz population of the Enisey valley.

Collections reflecting various chronological periods are also kept in the section devoted to the Northeast European part of the USSR, which includes the Urals and adjacent areas, the Kama valley and parts of the areas east of the Urals.

The early period is represented by remains from the Shigir and Gorbunovo pile settlements of the third and second millennia B.C., located in the Sverdlovsk region, in the marshy country of lakes now turned into peat-bogs. Owing to the conserving properties possessed by peat, articles made of bone, wood, birch bark, and other organic material have been preserved.

The next stage in the development of culture in this area is reflected in the collections of finds from the Zuyevka and Turbino cemeteries of the Ananyino culture (eighth to third centuries B.C.), Pyany Bor and Gliadenovo type monuments (second to fifth centuries), complexes of the Lomovatovo culture (sixth to ninth centuries), such as various household articles, a large collection of arms, and numerous ornaments. Of particular interest are the openwork plaques of cast bronze executed in the Kama valley animal style and characterized by a combination of various animal, bird and human features in single figures. Many of the motifs of the Kama animal style still occur in the applied art of the peoples inhabiting the Urals. The chronologically latest finds presented in the section are those of the tenth to fourteenth centuries. They come from the fortified settlement of Rodanovo on the right bank of the Kama. The section devoted to the Northwest European Part of the USSR is very extensive both in its chronological range, i.e. from the Neolithic to the first appearance of towns in Old Russia, and in the area encompassed, which stretches from the country’s western frontiers to the Kama valley. Many of the finds belong to the Neolithic cultures of the forest zone. Extensive collections of flint tools have been assembled from finds in the numerous settlements of the Upper Volga Basin, the Valdai Hills lake country and the lands between the Volga and Oka. Among these tools, fashioned by pressure flaking, are polished stone axes, adzes and hammer-hatchets ornamented with figures of bear and elk evidently having some magic significance. The collections also comprise various kinds of pit-comb ware, and numerous articles fashioned of bone, horn and wood, including figures of animals and anthropomorphic idols. In recent years new material from the pile settlements of the Nevel district of the Pskov region has been received.

Rather unusual among the exhibits from the Neolithic Age are great pieces of rock with drawings depicting elk, deer, swans, ducks, dugouts with rowers, and various mysterious symbols, chipped out 4,000 years ago. These images were probably intended for magic rituals. They were brought to the Hermitage in 1935 from the environs of a village called Besov Nos (Cape Devil) on the shores of Lake Onega.

The same section contains collections of finds from the fortified settlements of Finnish and Baltic tribes, which include pottery whose different techniques of ornamentation make it possible to define the areas of habitation of the ancient Finns and Balts. Prominent in these collections are also remains of later cultures of the peoples of Baltic stock (the Raginiansky and Ludza cemeteries) and those of the Finno-Ugrians (the Middle Volga area, Liadino and Novo-Tomnikovo cemeteries). These finds reveal the distinctive ethnic characteristics of the culture developed by the Finno-Ugrian population of the northern areas of Eastern Europe and the Balts inhabiting the Eastern Baltic coast in the latter part of the first millennium and the early second. Among these, the bronze and silver adornments deserve attention. The ceremonial attire of Lettish women, for instance, consisted of a complicated headdress of ribbons with metal tubes and bells, several massive twisted necklaces and moulded bracelets (occasionally as many as nine on each arm), chains and plaques, fibulae and buckles. Finnish women wore various kinds of zoomorphic “tinkling” or “jingling” pendants, mostly in the shape of horses or ducks.

The collections representing the pre-Slavic and Slavic cultures include finds from sites belonging to the Pomor, Zarubintsy and Pshevor cultures (second century B.C.—fourth century A.D.), to early, and definitely Slavic, sixth- and seventh-century settlements along the South Bug and Dniester, as well as to settlements of the Romny-Borshevo culture. All of these sites throw light on the successive stages in the cultural evolution of the precursors of the Slavs and the Eastern Slavs themselves down to their unification in a single state in the ninth century.

Finally, this section contains material unearthed during the excavation of Old Russian cities, notably Staraya Ladoga, the oldest city of the Russian Northwest, which rose on the banks of the Volkhov on the site of an ancient settlement of the eighth and ninth centuries. A clear picture of life in this thriving centre of trade and commerce in the various periods of its history can be obtained from the Staraya Ladoga collection which is noted for the excellent state of preservation of its exhibits, whether made of wood, leather or textiles. Other finds include kits of blacksmiths’, bronzeworkers’, shoemakers’, and wood-and bonecarvers’ tools, and specimens of their production. Objects from Scandinavia, the Baltic littoral, the Mediterranean, and the Orient bear witness to the extensive trade carried on by Staraya Ladoga, situated as it was at the crossroads of Eastern Europe’s important waterways. At the same time Staraya Ladoga furnishes valuable material that facilitates the solution of a series of important problems arising from research into the Slav-Varangian relations, and the settling of the Slavs over the northern region of the Old Russian state.

Among the remains of Russian culture of the tenth to thirteenth centuries, articles of the handicraft industry are particularly noteworthy. These are mainly temple rings, cast and chased in varied forms, characteristic of the areas settled by such Slavs as the Krivichi, Radimichi, Poliane, Severiane, and others. Most of these adornments come from barrows excavated in village cemeteries. The hoards buried by the urban nobility, many of which were interred during the Mongol invasion, contained gold and silver diadems, kolt pendants, bracelets, rings, chains and torques, and reliquary crosses, all decorated with niello, filigree work, enamels, and patterns of granulation.

This is only a brief, by no means exhaustive description of the famous collection that continually draws the attention of experts in many countries of the world.

G. Smirnova

1

Idol

Copper. Galich hoard. 2nd millennium B.C.

2

Clay statue tie of a seated woman

Southern Turkmenia, Kara-Depe. 3rd millennium B.C.

3

Fish

Stone. Chance find from the right bank of the Angara River, Irkutsk Region. 3rd millennium B.C.

4

Gold panther

Kelermes Barrow 1. 6th century B.C.

5

Gold plaques of a sword scabbard

Kelermes Barrow 1. 6th century B.C.

6

Saddle cover

Felt, leather, horse-hair. Pazyryk Barrow 1. 5th century B.C.

7

Head of a she-elk Horn.

Shigir peat-bog. 2nd millennium B.C.

8

Bronze pin in the form of a pole-axe

The Caucasus. 1st millennium B.C.

9

Bronze pole-top with a bull’s head

Ulsky Aul, Barrow 2. 5th century B.C.

10

Bronze pole-top with a sculptured goat

Minusinsk Region. 5th century B.C.

11

Bronze buckle with representations of a tiger and an ibex

Mongolia, Olen-Souli. 6th or 5th century B.C.

12

Gold buckle shaped as a coiled-up panther

Peter the Great’s Siberian Collection. 6th century B.C.

13

Pole-top with a stag Wood, leather.

Pazyryk Barrow 2. 5th or 4th century B.C.

14

Bronze cauldron with horse-shaped handles

Burial near the village of Troyany, Odessa Region. 1st century

15

Head of a beast

Horn. Staraya Ladoga. 9th or 10th century

16

Diadem

Gold, almandine, chalcedony, pearl

Khokhlach Barrow near Novocherkassk. 1st century

17

Gold comb

Solokha Barrow. 5th or 4th century B.C.

18

Pole-top with a gryphon’s head

Wood, leather. Pazyryk Barrow 2. 5th or 4th century B.C.

19

Bird-like idol

Bronze plate. Chance find from the village of Ust-Kishert, Perm Province

20

Gold bull-calf

Maikop Barrow. 3rd millennium B.C.

21

Chamfron in the shape of a horned tiger and goose

Horn. Pazyryk Barrow 2. 5th or 4th century B.C.

22

Piled rug

Wool. Pazyryk Barrow. 5th century B.C.

23

Stone women

Krasnodar Region. 11th or 12th century