Oriental Department of the Hermitage comprises nowadays one of the world’s greatest collections representing culture and art of the peoples of the East. It was created in 1920, being formed of some 7 000 separate items distributed among different sections of the Museum, and has not ceased to grow since that time, numbering nowadays 136 000 exhibits. Of outstanding importance are its collections of Byzantine art and Sassanian silver, the Greco-Bactrian collection, ancient Chinese textiles, cultural memorials from Urartu, Dagestan bronzes and reliefs, Coptic textiles. The collection is divided into two major sections devoted to the history of culture and art of the peoples of t h e Soviet East and Foreign Countries of the East. The first starts with the exhibition relating to the HISTORY OF CULTURE AND ART OF THE PEOPLES OF CENTRAL ASIA FROM THE 3rd millennium Ð’. C. TO THE 19th century A. D. Hermitage, ground floor, Hermitage, rooms 34- 40, 46—54).
During this long period of time many state formations followed one another on the territory of Central Asia. Part of Achemenian Persia in the 6th—4th centuries В. C, it falls under the rule of Alexander the Great in the 4th century В. C; the 3d century В. C. marks the rise of Greco-Bactrian kingdom; in the 1st — 4th centuries A. D. the peoples of Central Asia consolidate in a mighty Kushan Empire; the Kushan Empire having collapsed in the 4th century. Central Asia was invaded by warlike nomadic tribes, and in the 6th century it fell under the rule of the nomad Turks; in the 8th century Central Asia is conquered by the Arabs, in the 13th — it becomes part of the Golden Hord — the State of the Mongols, which in its turn was conquered by Timur (Tamerlane) in the second half of the 14th century; the period covering the 18th and early 19th centuries witnesses the formation of Bokhara, Kokand and Chiva Khanates.
It is therefore not surprising that art and culture of the peoples inhabiting Central Asia in those days exhibit a most peculiar interlacement of local and foreign traditions which can be traced in a great number of architectural fragments; magnificent wall-paintings; rare coins; bronze- and silverware; pottery; a magnificent range of tiles astonishing by their intense colours, almost infinite fantasy of ornament, and variety in the methods of execution; jewellery; armour and weapons; a fine set of Turkmen and Uzbek carpets; Kirghiz and Kazakh embroideries and many other objects of which some comfort the scientists with historical information, whereas the others give pleasure to the eye by the peculiarity of their outlines or the blaze of colours which seem to have absorbed the very Sun of the South.
Among the most remarkable possessions of this section especially should be singled out: the frieze from a building in Airtam, near Termez (1st century Ð’. C.) presented to the Hermitage by the Government of the Uzbek S. S. R. . Hermitage, room 34;
Fragment from a wall painting from the “Red hall” of a palace
in the town of Varakhsha (Uzbek S. S. R.). 7th — 8th centuries A. D.
specimens of sculpture from Khoresm (3rd — 4th century A. D.) (room 35); a group of materials found in excavations in Pyandjikent, Tadjik S.S.R., including a sculptural frieze of clay representing fantastic sea-creatures (room 35) and fragments from wall paintings of the 7th — 8th century A. D.. Hermitage, room 37). Noteworthy are finds from the castle on the mountain Mug in Tadjikistan, of which a fragment from a shield with the representation of a warrior on horseback should be specially mentioned (early 8th century) . Hermitage, room 36. Great interest present fragments from the mural paintings (7th — 8th centuries) in the so-called “Red hall” of the Bokhara rulers’ palace, found in Varakhsha, Uzbek S.S.R. (room 36). Notable is the collection of Central Asian ceramics of which specimens may be found almost throughout t h e whole exhibition; those manufactured in Afrasiyab and Muntchag-Tepe (10th — 12th centuries) are of especially high workmanship (rooms 38, 39). Among the bronzes attracts attention an enormous cauldron from a mosque in the city of Turkestan, Kazakh S.S.R., made to the order of Timur in 4399 (room 48 ).
Some rooms of the Oriental Department are set aside for the CAUCASIAN SECTION, ( Hermitage, ground floor, rooms 55 — 60), which comprises archaeological material, pottery, bronzes, textiles, jewellery, etc., dating from the Bronze Age to the 9th century A. D. and illustrating both the national traditions and the close cultural ties of the peoples of the Caucasus with Iran, and Roman Empire, and some other countries. Most interesting part of the collection is that comprising the objects from excavations on the territory of the ancient State of Urarty (Armenia) of which those found on the site of Karmir-Blur stronghold near Erevan and dating from the 7th — 6 th centuries В. C. are of great historic interest.