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.