Siberian Collection of Peter the Great
Complete Siberian Collection of Peter the Great in the State Hermitage Museum. The right half of the display is for objects dated to the 6th-4th centuries BCE, while the left part covers the 3rd-1st centuries BCE.[1]
Location
Approximate locations of the finds of the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great. Per Pankova and Simson ( , British Museum),[2][3][4] and per the State Hermitage Museum ( ).[5]

TheSiberian Collection of Peter the Great is a series ofSakaAnimal art gold artifacts that were discovered in Southern Siberia, from funeralkurgan tumuli,^[6] in mostly unrecorded locations in the area between modernKazakhstan and theAltai Mountains.^[7][8] The objects are generally dated to the 6th to the 1st centuries BCE.^[7][9]

The artifacts belong to the broadly defined ScythianAnimal style, and are relatively late examples of this kind of ornaments.^[7] They are generally attributed to theSaka culture.^[10]

Many of these artifacts were part of the archaeological presents sent byMatvey Gagarin [ru], Governor of Siberia based in the then capital of Siberia inTobolsk, toPeter the Great inSaint-Petersburg in 1716.^[8] They are now located in theHermitage Museum inSaint-Petersburg.

Many Saka kurgans were excavated in the 17th-18th century in theIngala valley, and helped establish the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great. Most of the objects initially obtained by Peter the Great were looted from the area ofTobolsk, the capital of Siberia, just north of the Ingala valley.^[11]

The first explorers of the valley were so-calledbugrovschiki [ru], robbers of ancient graves. In 1669, the governor of theTobolsk rank [Wikidata]Petr Ivanovich Godunov told tsarAlexei Mikhailovich that gold, silver items and utensils were extracted from "Tatar graves" near theIset River. As a result of the tomb robbers, many treasures of the Siberiankurgans were lost forever.^[12] Some of the treasures extracted bybugrovschiki tomb robbers appeared in private collections abroad. The most famous was the collection ofAmsterdam mayorNicolaes Witsen; a part of it is known only from tables drawn in the third edition of his bookNoord en Oost Tartatye (1785), and the collection was lost after 1717.^[13][14]

In 1712, a commander ofShadrinsk, prince Vasily Meshchersky, began excavations of kurgans to get gold, silver and copper items to replenish the state treasury by order of theSiberian governor prince Matvey Gagarin. During the years 1715-1717 governor Gagarin sent Siberian treasures toPeter the Great four times. 250 ancient gold jewelry pieces sent by Gagarin became known as the Siberian collection of Peter the Great, which is now available in theState Hermitage at the gallery of jewels called "The Scythian Gold".^[15][16]

An ornate belt buckle from the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great, and its watercolour drawing from the 1730s.

Several of the objects from the Collection were painted in watercolor during the 1730s, which is helpful in setting up a chronology of the Collection, and refines ideas about provenance. Many of these early objects are known to have been sent by M. P. Gagarin, governor of Siberia inTobolsk, in 1716.^[3]

Daniel Messerschmidt, whose expedition into the Siberia Governorate took place in 1719–1727, was the first scientist to get acquainted with findings of the Ingala Valley. ButGerhard Müller, who visited Siberia in 1733-1743 together with theGreat Northern Expedition, stated that tomb-robber activity was finished because the kurgans had been totally depleted.

The Imperial archives of the discoveries were kept inTobolsk, but they were lost in a fire in 1788.^[17]

Large grave robbing activities by military commanders in the areas ofTomsk andKrasnoyarsk are also recorded.^[17]

After the initial complement from the area of Tobolsk, a large portion of the objects now in the Collection may then have come from the area of theAltai steppe, between the riversOb andIrtysh.^[18]

• 
  Boar hunter (Hermitage Museum). Circa 200 BCE. Sent by M. P. Gagarin, governor of Siberia in Tobolsk, 1716. Inventory number: Si 1726 - 1/69, 1/70.^[19]
• 
  Belt plaque from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great, probablyIngala Valley: it was sent by M. P. Gagarin, governor of Siberia in Tobolsk, in 1716. Dated circa 300 BCE.^[20]
• 
  Torque with beasts of prey (2nd-1st century BCE)
• 
  Aigrette
• 
  Belt plaque
• 
  Bracelet
• 
  A torque

Saka kurgans[21]
Salbyk Arzhan Pazyryk Issyk Boralday Taksai Eleke Sazy Tasmola Ingala Tillya Tepe
Arzhan-1 c. 800 BCE Shilikty c. 700 BCE Arzhan-2 c. 650 BCE Bes Shatyr c. 550 BCE Taksai c. 500 BCE Ingala c. 500 BCE Tasmola 7th-5th centuries BCE Boralday c. 600-400 BCE Salbyk c. 600-400 BCE Eleke Sazy c. 600-400 BCE Berel-1 c. 350 BCE Pazyryk-1,2 c. 300 BCE Berel-11 c. 300 BCE Issyk c. 400-200 BCE Tillya Tepe 1st century BCE
v t e

• Pankova, Svetlana; Simpson, St John (1 January 2017).Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia. British Museum exhibition catalogue.
• Volkov, Eugene (2006).Комплекс древних и средневековых памятников Ингальская долина [A complex of ancient and medieval monuments the Ingala Valley] (Thesis) (in Russian). Tyumen, Russia: Institute of Northern Development of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

• Hermitage Museum Gold Room (3D Tour)
• Listing of the Siberian Collection (Hermitage Museum)

• 1712 archaeological discoveries
• Archaeological discoveries in Russia
• Saka
• Archaeological collections of the Hermitage Museum
• Peter the Great

• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• CS1 Russian-language sources (ru)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Russian-language text
• Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images