The State Hermitage Museum opened an exhibition of archaeological treasures of Saudi Arabia from various museums of this country - more than 300 artifacts: pottery, coins, jewelry, funerary stelae, etc.

State Hermitage Museum, May 17 - September 4, 2011

The State Hermitage Museum (Halls 351-356, 359, Winter Palace), an exhibition "Ways of Arabia. Archaeological treasures of Saudi Arabia. " The exhibition includes over three hundred unique archeological finds, discovered in Arabia in the past decade, archaeologists from different countries and for the first time united in a truly great exhibition.

• Neighborhoods al-Ula, Madain Salih-Time
  Sandstone National Museum, Riyadh
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org
• Taruta, al-Rufaya, found together with the cat. 1939 Limestone
  National Museum, Riyadh
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Monuments from various museums of Saudi Arabia, including ceramics, coins, jewelry, funerary stelae, colossal statues of kings, utensils of silver and jewels, reflect the multi-millennial history from Paleolithic Arabia and up to XX century. The exhibition includes seven sections: the first five represent the artifacts of pre-Islamic times, the last two are devoted to the birth of Islam and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, as well as the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

main theme of the exhibition - the roads, shopping path and the path of pilgrims, from antiquity to the present day Arabia connecting with the outside world and its parts among themselves. In the prehistoric period through Arabia took one of the ways of settlement of primitive man from East Africa to Eurasia. In the historical era of the Arabian States grew and prospered largely due to contacts with the great civilizations of antiquity, sometimes giving them a level of development. Presented at the exhibition sites show existed for millennia lively communication Arabia with Mesopotamia and Egypt, with the countries of the ancient Middle East from the Indus Valley to the Mediterranean, and later - with the ancient state, and later - with all countries in the Muslim world.

• Taima, excavation of the Saudi-German archaeological mission, site E, was found at the base of the temple E-b1
  Sandstone (restored)
  Regional Museum, Taima. Saudi-German archaeological mission
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org
• Saji, Tall al-Zayer
  Gold
  National Museum, Riyadh
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org

trade routes crossed the Arabian Peninsula in all directions - from north to south and from west to east. On them for centuries caravans transporting the objects of luxury and exotic goods from South Arabia to the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. Oasis, located on trade routes, gradually became major centers of international trade - they formed the city and the kingdom of wealth and power are known from various sources, including from the Bible: Taima, Madyan, Najran, the Nabataeans.

• Karyat al-Faw, residential area (the palace)
  Painted black, red and yellow paint on the white plaster
  National Museum, Riyadh
  Source: hermitagemuseum.org

on the territory of the Arabian Peninsula in ancient times, said more than ten different languages. Constant movement on trade routes to link its various Arabian tribes, cultural and religious influences on one another, it gradually led to confusion pantheons, languages ​​and scripts, artistic traditions. It also paved the way for the rapid spread of Islam, which originated at the beginning of VII century BC. er. in northwest Arabia in the Hejaz. In Islamic time, trade routes have become a pilgrimage, connecting major cities of the Muslim world to Islamic shrines in Mecca and Medina. And a thousand years later on the same path went political unification of the country under the rule of Al Saud dynasty.

• Turkey (?)
  Mecca Wood, silver, gilding, chasing, engraving
  National Museum, Riyadh
  Source : hermitagemuseum.org

Much of the exhibits had been found and put into scientific circulation in recent decades. In the early 1970's Department of Antiquities and Museums in the Saudi Committee for Tourism and Antiquities has developed a program investigation of archaeological sites in six regions of Saudi Arabia: Eastern, North Eastern, Northern, Western, Southwest and Central. The results obtained during the execution of this program are on display at the Hermitage, which is the fruit of years of efforts of archaeologists and historians, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the world and an excellent example of international scientific cooperation.

curator of the exhibition - Natalia Kozlova, Head of Department of East State Hermitage Museum. By the State Hermitage Publishing House catalog has been prepared under the editorial direction of the Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky.

Source: hermitagemuseum.org