Wonderful wooden and birch-bark wares represented in our collection have been preserved only due to the unique permafrost conditions in Altai barrows. Various subjects from Skythian Epoch show the richness of art forms and also the styles of their embodiment and the ways of their processing. Having been created more than 2.500 years ago, numerous original objects still make us happy, demonstrating the highest style of artistic skills.
In ancient and Middle Age time people would widely use the things made of leather such as clothes, shoes, bags and vessels, bridles and belts. There are many samples among them decorated with bright geometrical and vegetable designs. The art of applique is magnificent; the craftsmen would use various types of fur or felt, combining skillfully the ornaments and colors. Splendid samples of artistic processing of leather from Pazyryk barrows are given in the collection.
From the most ancient times a mammoth tusk used to be the most popular material for artists. Later a deer horn took its place. Archaeological finds in Siberia gave to the world many articles made of ivory and horns. We can find here half the "world reserve" of the most ancient ivory carved women statuettes - so called "palaeological Venuses". Our collection represents various samples of carving sculpture and engraving within the range from palaeolyth to middle age. Among them there are the famous "Venuses" from Malta and Bureti...
Stone was the most favorite material for ancient craftsmen. They usually used soft sorts of stone for miniature statuettes whereas for decorations they took different semi-precious stones. The collection of stone objects is not so numerous but it contains the samples that are the real masterpieces of ancient art (e.g. Fish made of slate or Shanks in a form of women heads)
Collection offers ornamented ceramic vessels, clay statuettes and funeral masks. There are the unique exibits in each group: A Fragment of vessel from Voznesenovks, Kondonskaya Nefertiti, Mummified head with funeral mask.
Collection also represents the symbolic stone sculptures and monuments. The symbolic stone sculptures are the stone Stella with the images of different animals, decorations and weapons. They are dated from II-I BC Monumental antropomorfous sculptures started extending widely with the beginning of Turkic kaganat in the middle of VI AD Stone statues are the gallery of notable different images of Middle-Age Siberian nomads.
Petroglyths are the ancient pictures painted or engraved on the walls and ceilings of the caves and also on the cliffs as well as on the surfaces of the stones. The richest "galleries" of ancient or Middle-Age petroglyths have been preserved in Siberia and Central Asia. Many of them have been discovered due to the persistent labour of archaeologists in the places difficult to access. Now these discoveries are accessible for you. Welcome to the most interesting world of petroglyths!
Siberian archaeologists can boast the sensational discoveries of mummies in the barrows of the Altay mountains which are from VI-III B.C. The mummy of a Pazyryk warrior keeps the picture of a mythic animal - that of a deer with the beak of a gryphon. This animal is thrown over the shoulder of the warrior. The same tattoo picture but somehow of a more complicated composition was found on the body of a young woman from Ukok. These unique samples of tattoo are given in our collection.
The most ancient in the world woolen fabrics and carpets have been preserved in Pazyryk barrows due to the unique nature conditions of the Mountain Altai. They are dated from V-VI BC and belong to the Middle Asia and the Front East. The Iran fabrics of the akhemenid time and the China silks found at Altai witness of wide links between Siberia and the civilizations of the ancient world.
Toreutics represents the applied-decorative metal samples. The art figures out of bronze, silver, gold, iron and various alloys form the largest part of web-museum. There are more than 500 exhibits from different museum of Russia. Siberian toreutics is amazing due to the high skill of the art processing of metal objects and the extraordinary fantasy of their creators inhabited the boundless expanses of Siberia in ancient and Middle-Age time.
|