collections belonging to the Tsar and to the state was non-existent at this time.
Everything was considered royal property.
During the reign of Tsar Nicholas I (r. 1825–55) the most spectacular
discovery was that of the fourth centurybceroyal Scythian burial mound
at Kul Oba (Kul’Oba Kurgan), near Kerch. It was excavated in September 1830
by Colonel Ivan Stempkovsky, himself a keen amateur archaeologist, who
invited Dubrux to see the work (Norman 1997: 77). The excavationWred the
imagination of the learned strata in Russian society and started a ‘gold-rush’
among Russian collectors (Stolba 2003). The objects from Kerch would also
become one of the most popular exhibits of the New Hermitage after its
opening in 1852. There were about 1500 items arranged by type: gold objects,
bronzes, vases, terracottas, stone sculptures, and jewellery, the latter upstairs
in Alexandra’s rest room where about eighteen crowns, four diadems and the
gold death mask of a queen had been placed (Norman 1997: 79).
The European powers also became interested in the areas just colonized by
the Russians, or in which the Russians were about to colonize. Afghanistan, a
land disputed over by the British and Russians, wasWrst explored in the
eighteenth century. In aHistory of the Greek kings of Bactriain 1738, Bayer
informed his audience regarding the Greek coins of Eukratides and Theodo-
tus in Afghanistan. This led to a trade of Bactrian (and Sogdian?) coins that
reached collectors in France, Britain and Italy (Hammond & Allchin 1978: 4)
as well as, presumably, Russia, if we are to believe the comments made by the
British artist and adventurer, James Fraser (1783–1856) in 1821. Fraser
aYrmed that the Bukharan oasis in Uzbekistan would
aVord a richWeld to the antiquarian, for there are several sites of ancient cities
scattered over it, among the ruins of which, gems, coins, medals, and various antique
utensils and arms are to be found. One person who was himself a dealer in such
articles, mentioned to me a city called Khojahwooban, which he described as having
been overwhelmed by sand, under which extensive ruins lie buried; in this place after
rain, people go to dig for such articles, andWnd a great many; particularly plate, and
utensils of gold and silver, for all of which theyWnd a ready market with Russian
merchants, who, he assured me, would giveWve times their weight for such articles of
metal, and a very high price for all carved gems. I should indeed have doubted greatly
the rates he quoted for such things, and would have believed that it was a trick to
induce me to make purchases, had it not been for the prices actually demanded by
others in Mushed, and those which he himself oVered for individual articles, which
convinced me that the merchants of Bockhara had found ready, and probably
ignorant purchasers for things of which they could hardly be judges.
(Fraser in Naymark 2004).About thirty thousand coins, many of them Greek, were subsequently
collected between 1834 and 1837 by Charles Masson (1800–53), another
254 Colonial Archaeology