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