The Hermitage exhibition in the year of cultural exchange in Germany and Russia. Submitted by about 1,700 sites

State Hermitage Museum, June 22 - September 8, 2013
St. Petersburg, General Staff Building

The State Hermitage Museum opened an exhibition of "Bronze Age. Europe without borders. Fourth - the first millennium BC ».

sculpture figurine bull Gold, casting Maikop barrow The State Hermitage Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Exhibition "Bronze Age. Europe without borders "is the first time the Russian audience stages of development of cultures in the Bronze Age from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural mountains, stages in the development of European cultures - the future of European unity. Russian researchers for this project is the opportunity to learn together with German colleagues and the Western European average materials, and for German colleagues - to get acquainted with the materials of the steppe and forest-steppe cultures of Eastern Europe, to identify cross-cultural communication and borrowing. For the general public - the first opportunity to present the "first pan-European era", the development of different cultures in the European territory during the Bronze Age.

The vessel kubkovidnoy form with a rosette Silver; knockout Maikop barrow State Hermitage Source: hermitagemuseum.org

vessel kubkovidnoy form a rosette. Detail Silver; knockout Maikop barrow State Hermitage Source: hermitagemuseum.org

than 1,700 monuments in the exhibition, located in Europe, from Spain to the Urals, and the chronological framework of their existence span the time from I to IV millennium BC. e.

For Central European Bronze Age begins in the 2600/2300 years. BC. e. and ends in 800 BC. e. But the cultures of Southern Europe Bronze Age begins much earlier (V - IV millennium BC. E.) Under the influence of the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia. Therefore, the lower limit for display materials early stages of development of metallurgy in southern Europe, we have determined IV millennium BC. e., including for individual items, even older than this time horizon.

«true» bronze, new technical material, an alloy of copper and tin, has appeared in Europe relatively late, only in the middle of II millennium BC. e. The epoch of the increasing use of the metal era, which permeates the use of metal in everyday life. The Bronze Age was the first pan-European age (B. Hensel), during which, thanks to new materials (bronze, and later - the hardware), new means of transport (carts, chariots) and the use of a new draft animals (horse) strengthened the connection of all the regions of Europe.

Western materials display are from the so-called "displaced Collections" caught in the Soviet storage as a result of the Second World War, from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the State Museums of Berlin.

Bowl. Gold Among the objects displaced during the Second World War Treasure of Eberswalde Pushkin Museum. Pushkin Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Bowl. Detail. Gold Among the objects displaced during the Second World War Treasure of Eberswalde Pushkin Museum. Pushkin Source: hermitagemuseum.org

Among the exhibits are items from famous collections: proceedings of the Maikop burial mound and the tombs of the village Novosvobodnaya, the objects of the so-called "Treasure of Priam" from Troy, Galich and Borodino hoard treasure trove of Eberswalde, bronze Koban culture (North Caucasus), hoards of weapons and household objects from the territory of present-day Poland and Germany, and many other items of Western European and Eastern European Bronze Age cultures. Some of the collections for the first time after a long break are fully.

members of a new project: The State Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin, Moscow, State Historical Museum, Moscow, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the State Museums of Berlin (Museum Vor-und Fruegeschichte), Berlin, with the participation of the Museum of Ancient Assembly (Antikensammlung) Berlin State Museums . Great support at all stages of the project had the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

The exhibition illustrated catalog. The curators of the exhibition with the Russian side - Yuri Piotrowski, deputy head of the Department of Archeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia of the State Hermitage, Natalia Shishlina, head of the department of archaeological sites of the State Historical Museum, Vladimir Petrovich TOLSTIKOV, Head of the Department of Art and Archaeology of the Ancient World of the State Museum of Fine Arts. Alexander Pushkin. The curator of the German side - Alix Hensel, deputy director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the State Museums of Berlin.

Source : hermitagemuseum.org