‘Classical’ antiquities in Siberia and the Black Sea in the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuryAs seen in Chapter 2, from the early eighteenth century Russia’s desire to
emulate its neighbours to the far west of Europe led to an interest in classical
antiquities. As a result, under Peter the Great a new capital was built following
the Italian model. In the Gulf of Finland he built Peterhof, a palace inspired by
Versailles. Also, in St Petersburg aWrst museum was opened in the Kikin
mansion in 1719. Classical antiquities had not been the only archaeological
items to arrive in St Petersburg. Despite their being given priority, from 1715
other ancient objects of high artistic quality and with evident Greek inXuence
originating from Siberia were added to the royal collections. This had started
thanks to the gift brought by a rich businessman, Nikita AkinWevich Demidov
(1724–89), to the empress. Soon after, the Russian occupation of the North-
ern Pontic area and the Crimea would also make available the archaeology of
other nomad groups which were connected with those that were being studied
in Siberia, among them the ancient Scythians. The Scythians were only one of
several groups named in theWfth centurybceby Herodotus. The Greek
author referred to horse-riding nomads who had interacted with classical
Greece and Achaemenid Iran, the others being the Sauromatians, the Sarma-
tians and the Saka. Related to the earlier Scythians there were what archae-
ologists denominate the Altai culture group, living in southern Siberia and
having closely related arts dated from the sixth to the fourth centurybce. The
arrival of the Scythians in the Black Sea area is today dated by archaeologists
to the eight centurybceand it is thought that they originated from Central
Asia. They dominated the area politically for four centuries. Regarding the
Sauromatians, Herodotus described them as mobile herders living on the
northern shore of the Black Sea. The Sarmatians were a group of tribes of
cattle-breeding and farming people from the Don who from the fourth
centurybceinvaded the areas inhabited by the Scythians. They would have
contacts with the Greeks and then with the Romans and were used by the
latter as paid soldiers. The third group mentioned by Herodotus, the Saka,
lived in northern Iran around the middle of the fourth millenniumbce.
Finally, the Sassanians lived in Central Asia between the third and the seventh
centuryce. Exceptional silversmiths, they tradedWne metalworking along the
fur road into northeast Asia (Aruzet al. 2000).
Fortunately for archaeologists, the identiWcation of sites with great poten-
tial in terms of ancient jewels was relatively easy in the case of most of the
groups mentioned in the previous paragraph. The Scythians and the other
groups connected with them buried their dead in visible kurgans or mounds.
250 Colonial Archaeology