Hermitage Museum Research Articles

Монетные сплавы Херсонеса Таврического периода независимости

This paper presents the results of X-ray fluorescence analysis of the composition of alloys of the two largest collections of coins of ancient Chersonese residing in the State Historical and Archaeological Museum Preserve of Tauric Chersonese and the Yevpatoria Regional Museum. In total, about a thousand coins studied, which, together with the 400 coins previously examined from the State Hermitage Museum, constitutes a solid basis for conclusions. The given paper analyses the data obtained for coins of Chersonese in the Period of Independence, that is from the emergence of local coinage in the early fourth century BC to the wars of Diophantos in the late second century BC. For the first time it has been determined that big dichalkoi were minted from a special coin alloy, two-component high-tin bronze, in the period of economic prosperity of Chersonese in the second half of the fourth and third centuries BC. These coins served as the financial basis for important transformations in the near and distant chora: the land division system of vineyards and territorial expansion of Chersonese into the north-western Taurica. Only in the third century BC, in the period of an unprecedented consolidation of land properties and the transformation of the wine production into a commodity industry, the minting of large silver coins of full metal value began probably for big financial deals and payments in international trade. The crisis in the minting of Chersonese in the late second century BC touched silver drachmae, the overwhelming majority of which were minted from a low-grade silver alloy with the copper comprising more than a third of the composition. Thus, full-weight coins turned to conditional money.

«Шестиноги» носителей Пазырыкской культуры

The article deals with problems of publishing little known artifacts made of wood from the explored archaeological sites. The results of studying the so-called “hexapods” kept in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum are discussed. These objects were found in the 1940s during the excavations of elite burial mounds at well-known sites of Pazyryk, Tuekta, and Bashadar of the Scythian period. “Hexapods” constitute whole and fragmented sets of six medium-length shafts, round in cross-section, with the length reaching 1.2 m, diameter up to 0.3 m, and conical thickenings at the ends. They were made with well-sharpened knife from thin trunks of coniferous trees (cedar pine). Round and square through holes were drilled with a chucking drill and cut with a chisel at the upper ends of the shafts at a small distance from the flat ends. Felt cape-covers and bronze vessels for burning incense were found together with the shafts. A comprehensive technical and technological analysis of these wooden items has made it possible to identify several variants of functional purpose which the sets of “hexapods” might have had: ritual and commemorative as a tent for shamanic rituals; “Scythian bath” for cleansing and ablutions, or medical tent for treating colds and lung diseases. Physical parameters of “hexapod” shafts (material, size, and shape) are provided. The type of wood with specific physical properties which preconditioned its choice for making the object was established from anatomical features of its cell structure. Tools, techniques, and methods of producing these objects have been identified.

Primorye State Art Gallery as the center of the Far East art space

The article is devoted to the last decade of exposition and exhibition activity of the Primorye State Art Gallery. The focus is on art projects that have become the result of increasingly strong inter-Museum contacts: “guest”, exchange and joint exhibitions. They are born as a result of searches for interested partners and sponsors, agreements with the heads of various institutions at forums and seminars. The patronage of Central museums is of great importance: the State Hermitage Museum, the state Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and others. The Primorye State Art Gallery organizes international exhibitions in order to promote Far Eastern fine art in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, to open new names for these territories in the artistic sphere of the region and the district. The experience of the the Primorye State Art Gallery can be useful for museum workers in the Far Eastern and Siberian regions, and the information obtained can become an incentive for establishing new inter-museum contacts. The Primorye State Art Gallery is a relatively young museum formed in 1966 on the basis of the art collection of the Primorsky Regional Museum of Local Lore (now the Museum of the History of the Far East named after V. K. Arsenyev). Over five and a half decades, the gallery's funds have grown immeasurably, and it has become a methodological center for art museums in the Far East: the State Hermitage Museum has held six master classes on restoration and conservation of works of art in the gallery, and specialists from the State Russian Museum have been conducting scientific and practical seminars for the Far Eastern Federal district in recent years here. Статья посвящена последнему десятилетию экспозиционно-выставочной деятельности Приморской государственной картинной галереи. В центре внимания — арт-проекты, ставшие результатом все более крепнущих межмузейных контактов: «гостевые», обменные и совместные выставки. Рождаются они как итог поисков заинтересованных партнеров и спонсоров, договоренностей с руководителями различных институций на форумах и семинарах. Большое значение имеет шефское внимание центральных музеев: Государственного Эрмитажа, Государственной Третьяковской галереи, Государственного Русского музея и других. Международные выставки Приморская картинная галерея организует с целью продвижения дальневосточного изобразительного искусства в страны Азиатско-Тихоокеанского региона, открытия для этих территорий новых имен в художественной сфере края и округа. Опыт Приморской государственной картинной галереи может быть полезным для музейных работников Дальневосточного и Сибирского регионов, а полученная информация — стать побудительным импульсом для установления новых межмузейных контактов. Приморская государственная картинная галерея — сравнительно молодой музей, образовавшийся в 1966 году на основе художественной коллекции Приморского краевого краеведческого музея им. В.К. Арсеньева (ныне Музей истории Дальнего Востока им. В.К. Арсеньева). За пять с половиной десятилетий неизмеримо выросли фонды галереи, она превратилась в методический центр для художественных музеев Дальнего Востока: Государственный Эрмитаж провел в стенах картинной галереи Владивостока шесть мастер-классов по реставрации и консервации произведений искусства, специалисты Государственного Русского музея в последние годы выезжают с научно-практическими семинарами для зоны Дальневосточного федерального округа.

Печати Константинополя из собрания Государственного Эрмитажа

The collection of Byzantine seals of the State Hermitage Museum includes over 12.5 thousand pieces. For the purpose of the paper the author distinguished seals, which legend indicates a toponym related to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. As a result, 122 seals, the majority of which were never made public before, were selected. Most of them date back to the 6–12th centuries and include the seals of Patriarchs of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom), churches and monasteries of Constantinople: monasteri­es of Panagia Acheiropoietos, Panagia Peribleptos, Chalcoprateiois, Didim, Kosmidion, Lips Monastery, Myrelaion, the New Church, Monastery of Christ Philanthropos and others, as well as diaconica (St. Athansius, Dexiokratous, Eusebius), St. Zotikos Brotherhood, St. Sampson Hospital. However, the majority of the selected seals belong to civil servants: eparchs of the city, commerciarioi, curator of the Pigi Palace and Eleutheria. The discoveries made significantly added to the scientific understanding of historical and, above all, ecclesial geography of Constantinople between the 6th and the 11th centuries, as well as listed the names of the civil and ecclesial servants. The paper discovered several specifics of church-state relations in the
 Byzantine Empire, exemplified by the churches of the capital city. The findings made allow to trace the historical changes in seals of Constantinople patriarchs.

Mystery and history: when did Catherine the Great purchase the Lyde Browne collection?

Abstract Documents preserved in the Russian State Historical Archives shed light on the acquisition by Empress Catherine II of the renowned collection of classical sculpture assembled by the antiquary Lyde Browne (d. 1787) – its purchase, arrival and first display in the pavilions of the imperial summer residence in Tsarskoe Selo near St Petersburg. The date for the sale, once assumed to have been 1787, is most widely accepted as 1785, or, as recently suggested, 1784. In fact, there are two dates – 1783 and 1784 – as established by Catherine’s payments (a total sum equivalent to £22,630) for the sculptures as delivered. The archival lists show considerably more items than does the catalogue of Browne’s collection from 1779, while the dispersal of Catherine’s collection of antiquities by her son, Paul I, a partial export to Poland, the formation of the Imperial Hermitage Museum, and later events all contribute to the complex history of the Lyde Browne sculptures in Russia.

Kulaiskaya Culture Settlement Krugloe Ozero (Based on the Materials of the State Hermitage Museum)

The article introduces into scientific circulation previously unpublished sources obtained by M.P. Gryaznov during the study of sites in the area Blizhnie Yelbany in the Altai Krai. Despite the fact that the settlement Krugloe Ozero (translated as “round lake”) is often mentioned in the scientific literature, the materials from it have not been published up to the present day. Primarily, cultural and chronological attribution of the collection was referred to the Sarovskii stage of the Kulaiskaya culture and dated to the 1st century BC - turn of the 2nd - 3rd centuries AD. On the basis of recent studies (single-layer settlement complexes), the signs of ceramic complexes of the Fominskii stage of the Kulaiskaya culture were identified, which allowed us to separate confidently the Fominskii and Sarovskii materials. The identification of complexes of the Sarovskii stage of the Kulaiskaya culture in the forest-steppe Altai leads to rethinking in a new way the process of settling of the Kulaiskaya culture population in this territory.

The CCTV Headquarters—Horizontal Skyscraper or Vertical Courtyard? Anomalies of Beijing Architecture, Urbanism, and Globalisation

The CCTV Headquarters—Horizontal Skyscraper or Vertical Courtyard? Anomalies of Beijing Architecture, Urbanism, and Globalisation

Persian Miniatures as Textual Unconscious: Illustrations of Layli va Majnun in the 1431 Hermitage Khamsa

Nizami's love story Layli va Majnun is frequently depicted in medieval Islamic manuscripts. The poem operates on two simultaneous levels: the plane of earthly desire and the realm of spiritual pursuit of the Beloved. One particular illustrative sequence of the story, found in the 1431 VR-1000 Khamsa manuscript kept by the State Hermitage Museum, is more than a merely mimetic reflection of the text. Taking up American medievalist Stephen G. Nichols' conceptualization of the textual unconscious, this article examines the text/image relationship in VR-1000 to reveal how the images exceed, undermine, and ultimately allegorically reinforce the textual narrative.

Реставрация и хранение буддийской живописи из коллекций Хара-Хото XII–XIV вв.

The paper is devoted to the conservation and early stages of maintenance and storage of the unique collection of Buddhist painting that was gathered by P. K. Kozlov in Mongolia in 1907–1909, 1926 and now belongs to the State Hermitage museum. History of its primary conservation is reconstructed using previously unexplored archival data. Of special interest are conditions of maintenance and actions taken to protect the monuments before they were given to the Hermitage. The article also analyses reasons why damage was caused to them. All this information is essential for fi guring out modern methods for their restoration that is a job of the Laboratory of scientifi c restoration of eastern painting of the Hermitage. The research goes beyond local museum practices as it helps to defi ne general problems in restoration of Buddhist painting

Anthropological reconstruction of the physical appearance of the «king» and «queen» from the early Scythian burial and memorial complex of Arzhan-2

Arzhan-2, the archaeological site of world significance, a national treasure of peoples of Tuva and Russia, located in the «Valley of Kings» (Piy-Khemsk District, Tyva Republic), was investigated in 2001–2004 by the Central Asian Archaeological Expedition of the State Hermitage Museum headed by K.V. Chugunov. The sites has been dated to the 7th c. BC and attributed to the Scythian-Siberian cultural community. When exploring the «royal» burial of the early Scythian site of Arzhan-2, the scientists faced the questions of the origin of the buried, periodization and chronology of the monument, its archaeological-cultural attribution, the autochthonous nature of the population that left it, and its relationship with other Eurasian early nomadic cultures. The present study is addressing the most important issue of the appearance of the buried people and characteristics of their anthropological type. The material for the study was comprised of male and female skulls from burial 5 of Arzhan-2 mound. The article describes in detail the process of reconstruction of the physical appearance of the deceased and provides examples of calculating ante mortem parameters based on craniometric measurements. The complex stages of preliminary work related to the restoration of skulls and manufacturing of their exact copies are highlighted. The results of the physical appearance reconstruction are presented in the form of visual museum objects — sculptural portraits. The scientific reconstruction of the ante mortem appearance on skulls of the «king» and «queen» was carried out in the Laboratory of Anthropological Reconstruction of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences by anthropologists Drs E.V. Veselovskaya and R.M. Galeev. In anthropological terms, the buried show a peculiar mosaic of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. They are characterized by brachycephaly and dome-shaped head, with notably developed rugosity of the supercilium in the man and its absence in the woman. For the man, an average width of the face and a narrow forehead of medium height are noted. The woman has broad face and forehead, the height of the forehead is average. Both portraits are characterized by prominent position of eyeballs and large eyes. Man’s nose is short, prominent, with convex dorsum. Woman’s nose has a wavy dorsum, and is slightly prominent. On the male portrait, the cheekbones are moderate, on the female one — high and prominent. Faces of the «royal» persons are flattened in the upper part, with a certain degree of alveolar prognathism. The lower jaw of the man is medium in size, narrow in the corners. For the woman, some gracility of the lower jaw can be noted.

Поселение Ближние Елбаны-IV (по материалам Государственного Эрмитажа)

Поселение Ближние Елбаны-IV (по материалам Государственного Эрмитажа)

Bone inventory from sites of the Classical time in the Northern Black Sea region: Technology relating to the manufacture and functions of the tools

This paper analyses a collection of bone tools from Classical sites (cities, villages and the necropolis) of the Northern Black Sea region (excavations of 2002–2016 were conducted by archaeologists from the State Hermitage Museum, the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg and the Demeter Non-Profit Foundation, Kerch). According to archaeozoology, the main sources of raw materials for these tools were bones of domestic large ungulates: sheep/goat bones were used less often, and there are only isolated examples of items made from red deer antlers. Thanks to experimental and use-wear analyses, it was possible to describe the technology for processing bone by craftsmen of the Classical period and also to establish the functional purpose of these artifacts. Special attention should be paid to such artifacts as rasps for hard limestone or marble, anvils for fashioning denticulated working edges of iron sickles and a grinding tool for ochre. For the first time in the academic literature their specific use-wear traces are described, and the work process itself has been reconstructed with the help of written sources and ethnographic data. This study provides new sources for the description of the Classical time production complexes.

The section of history and everyday life in the Russian Museum: establishment, development, and liquidation

The subject of this research is activity of the section of history and everyday life of the State Russian Museum established in 1918. The department devised a new theme – history of everyday life and its visualization in museum expositions, which was natural development of the Russian historical science. Intended to preserve and actualize the history of everyday life of different social classes, it shared fate of multiple national museums of everyday life: exhibitions that tool place in the 1920s were cancelled; in the late 1930s, the collections were transferred to museums of different categories, such as the State Museum of Revolution, the State Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. However, the section of history and everyday life did not cease to exist, and in 1941 merged into the State Hermitage Museum as an independent structural department of the history of Russian culture. Leaning on the new archival sources, an attempt was made to elucidate the work of the department of history and everyday life along with its branches in conditions of difficult political situation in the country during the 1920s – 1930s. Initially, the primary task of the department consisted procurement of the funds with the items from nationalized manor houses; later in consisted in exposition of the collection; and then due to the absence of the unified state institution for regulation of questions of preservation of historical and cultural heritage, the activity was focused on preventing scattering of the collections. After the First Museum Congress in 1930, the museums were recognized as the means of political-educational propaganda, which let to countrywide stagnation of expositional and exhibition activity of the museums. The museums of history and everyday life, being the mixed type museums, were incapable of resisting new realities, and thus re-specialized into museums of history and art or liquidated completely.

Кухонная керамика в ритуальных и погребальных комплексах Боспора

The author considers the finds of fragments of profiles and whole pieces of ancient wheel made cooking ware from territories of sanctuaries and necropoleis of the Bosporan kingdom. The purpose of this paper is to try to highlight similar contexts and define the reason of existence of cooking ware which is not related to attri- butes of religious and burial practices in these contexts. Objects of cookware were found in sanctuaries of Demeter and “patron gods of sailing” in Nymphaion, Aphrodite’s sanctuary in Kepoi, burials and pyres of necropoleis of Nymphaion, Pantikapaion and Phanagoria. The author of this article highlights basic categories of vessels and pos- sibly imported units. The article’s text is supplemented by photos and drawings of cooking vessels from Nymphaion necropolis kept in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum.

О фрагменте греческой ойнохои из кургана у с. Болтышка

The paper deals with the fragment of an East-Greek painted oinochoe kept in the State Hermitage Museum. It was discovered in the Scythian mould near Boltyshka village in Cherkasy region of the province of Kiev in 1863. B.V. Farmakovsky published it in 1914. The fragment is a neck with a completely preserved vertical handle. It is decorated with paintings in the “Wild Goat Style”. It can be dated to 640–630 BC. The vessel came to a local forest-steppe population as a result of contacts between the Greeks and the barbarians in the second half of the 7th century BC.

РЕЦЕПЦИЯ АНТИЧНОСТИ В ШПАЛЕРАХ ФЛАНДРИИ XV ‒ XVI вв. (на примере собрания Государственного Эрмитажа)

The problem of reception of the antiquity through tapestries in the Russian historiography was considered. Using as an example the Flemish tapestries of the 15th–16th centuries from the Collection of the State Hermitage Museum, the transformation and popularity of ancient motifs in this art form were demonstrated, as well as their special role in the propaganda of power, high social status, and wealth. The following main elements of tapestries were analyzed: subjects, characters, costumes, and Latin banderoles. The methodology of tapestry analysis is similar to the one used by structuralists: an additional link (customer) is introduced in the author – text – reader research field. The subjects of the tapestries were compared with the plots of the corresponding ancient literary sources. As a result, it was concluded about different perception of the antiquity in the literature and fine arts. Tapestries reflect the attitude of customers to the political reality of that time. The Northern Renaissance and how it was influenced by the ideas of humanists embodied in the tapestries was discussed.

Боги в облаках: «эстетика картины» и балет екатерининской эпохи

“The tableau aesthetics” in relation to the theatre means the resemblance of a mise-en-scène to areal or imaginary painting and the resemblance of the acting techniques and facial expressions to a sculpture or painting. It also involves the general principle of the “pictorial vision” of the stage. “The tableau aesthetics” characterizes the invention of ballets and the actors’ dancing skills — many choreographers, starting from the Jean-Georges Noverre, advised the dancers to imitate good pictures or statues. The other side of the interaction between the theatre and visual arts was defined by P. Francastel as a “material sign”. He wrote about the transfer of the theatrical property of the sacred representations from performance to the picture.Clouds made from cotton, fabric, or wood, which masked the theatrical machinery were among such props. It allowed the ‘saints’ to ascend above the earth or descend from heaven. The motif of Gods in the cloudsis the most obvious and recognizable for the understanding of interactions between visual arts and theater in 18th-century Russia. The paper presents the 18th-century Russian allegorical paintings, on which clouds have a great similarity with theatrical props. The direct interaction between performing and visual arts has been analyzed on the painting “Allegory of Victory over the Turks” by Heinrich Buchholz (1777, The State Hermitage Museum), which most probably shows us the fragment of the scenography of the ballet “The New Argonauts” (1770, choreographer Gasparo Angiolini).

Image of St. George as Dragon-Slayerr on the Seal M-8759 from the State Hermitage Museum Collection

This paper addresses the history of research of a Byzantine seal dating from the twelfth century and analyzes of its iconography. In 1884, Gustave Schlumberger first published an anonymous Byzantine seal from his private collection in the famous Byzantine Sigillography (p. 502). Between 1905 and 1910, Nikolai P. Likhachev acquired a part of G. Schlumberger’s collection. This anonymous seal attracted Likhachev’s special attention, as evidenced by the inventory card written by his hand that survived. When entering the State Hermitage Museum collection, this seal got the number M–8759. Later on, it became a subject of the research by Valentina S. Shandrovskaia. According to the legend on the reverse, the seal belonged to an official of unknown name with the rank of protospatharios ἐπὶ τοῦ Χρυσοτρικλίνου, who held the position of the domestikos tes ypourgeias (δομέστικος τῆς ὐπουργείας) at the Christ-loving despotes (i. e. emperor). The front side of the seal features St. George spearing a dragon. It has been noticed that the scene showing this saint performing the feat rarely occurs on the tenth-to-twelfth century Byzantine seals with similar iconography.

The magnetic survey of the early Scythian burial site and settlements in the Turan-Uyuk valley in Tuva

In 2019, Polish archaeologists took part in an expedition of the Hermitage Museum, led by K.V. Chugunov, in Chinge-Tey cemetery, Tuva (Russian Federation). This paper presents the results of magnetic surveys carried out within the so-called western chain of barrows and around the princely barrow of Chinge-Tey I. This method of non-invasive research is very well suited to the landscape and has produced a significant body of information. Among others, the survey of the western chain identified a stone mantle in barrow 8, which makes it different from other barrows from this group, whose mounds were built of earth. Another important result is the identification of a stone circle surrounding a cult feature (certainly associated with eschatological rituals) known as the northern complex. The presence of the circle came as a surprise for the investigators of the site, as it does not manifest itself at all on the surface of the site. On the other hand, worth noting is one negative result, which nevertheless allows for some conclusions, namely the lack of detectable anomalies connected with one of the tombs in the vicinity of Chinge-Tey I (barrow 15). Despite being clearly discernible in the landscape, and even more evident in LIDAR images, the barrow is invisible on images produced with a magnetometer. This means that one cannot rule out a possibility that other structures undetectable by magnetic surveys may be present within the investigated part of the cemetery. Nevertheless, one cannot but arrive at the conclusion that the results generated by the magnetic research provide significant information concerning the spatial arrangement of the cemetery and are helpful in planning of archaeological excavation.

Aquatic biota response to climate and habitat changes from the Valdai Glaciation to the Meghalayan (Serteya region, Western Dvina Lakeland)

The Serteyka River valley is one of the most important archaeological localities in North-Western Russia. The State Hermitage Museum has conducted research in Serteya since the 1970s. The pile-dwelling remnants located within the Great Serteya Palaeolake Basin (GSPB) are the most prominent excavation. The investigation using precise underwater techniques recovered many exceptional remains of the Neolithic settlement that were preserved below the groundwater level in biogenic deposits. The large-scale studies focused till now primarily on relicts of the human settlement and only scarce environmental data were available before the last decade. A broad environmental archaelogical project using cores of organic deposits has been conducted since 2016 in the framework of Polish-Russian cooperation. The 8 m long STIIa core from the deepest lake point has been investigated. It gives a full sequence of the lake history from the Late Valdai Glaciation to the Middle Ages. Multi-proxy analysis of the STIIa core aims at the reconstruction of regional and local habitat conditions (e.g. climate, hydrology, trophic state, water chemistry, and plant communities) at the lake side during the MIS1.