The STaTe hermiTage muSeum annual reporT

archaeological expediTionS
inTegraTed anTiQuiTy expediTion
Head of expedition: Sergei Solovyov
Excavation works on the Zavetnoye-5 settlement in the
vicinity of the ancient Greek city of Acra (Zavetnoye Village,
Crimean AR, Ukraine) were continued jointly with
Donetsk National University (Head: L. Shepko) and Krakow
University (Head: Ye. Papuci-Vladyko). The excavations
formed part of the research programme “Acra:
Ancient City and Its Environs” (2002–2010) focusing on
the archaeological sites in the rural districts of this
Ionian colony on the European shore of the Cimmerian
Bosporus. The field work was performed to the north-east
Terracotta protome of Demeter
of the ancient city on the plateau where a large manor
house (dating from the last quarter of the 4th – first third
of the 3rd century B.C.) with a basement facility, a courtyard,
living rooms and household pits had been explored
in 2005–2007 and where a large monumental structure
dating back from the same period had been discovered
in 2009. A geophysical survey carried out on a 0.8 ha area
prior to the excavation works revealed the remains of antique
buildings as well as overlying military facilities dating
from the Second World War. The principal achievements
of the 2010 field season were exploratory works on
325 sq. m of the settled area, with the occupation layer
reaching 1.20 m in some places; the uncovering of a large
proportion of a monumental religious building, possibly
a village temenos from the last quarter of the 4th century
B.C., and a large soil structure (a dwelling dugout built in
the first half of the 4th century B.C); the retrieval of multiple
and various fragments of Greek and local containers,
tableware and kitchenware, bone, stone and metal
articles as well as fragments of terracotta figurines.
The part of the temenos unearthed in Zavetnoye-5
in 2009–2010 consists of a 15-m long platform with a pad
paved with large well-processed stone plates to the north.
Initially the pad may have measured at least 6.5 × 7 m.
Adjacent to the platform on the east were at least four
rooms sized 4.8 × 6.3 m; 4.8 × 4.5 m and 3.8 × 4 m, arranged
in a line. One of the rooms was found to contain
a large number of ceramic articles on an area of c. 4 sq. m.
The findings included large fragments of at least four amphorae
produced in Sinop, Thassos and Cnidus, pieces
of red clay and black lacquer table dishes, numerous
fragments of pottery and a whole kalypter. One remarkable
find is a fragmented red clay dinos covered in red
engobe, with white plant-shaped patterns painted over
it. In the same area seven terracotta protomes and their
fragments representing similar images of Demeter were
found. Judging from these articles, the unearthed monumental
building complex was a ground consecrated
to Demeter.
archiTecTural and archaeological
expediTion
Head of expedition: Oleg Ioannisian
Works continued on the territory of the Tithes Church
of the Virgin in Kiev. A gross area of about 50 sq. m was
excavated. Additional exploratory works were conducted
on the north-west corner of the main four-pillar space; the
corner was found to have had large protrusions on the
basement level. This allows to conclude that the original
facades had lesenes, which have previously gone undetected
by researchers. The pylon located 2.65 m to the
west of the south lesene of the west wall’s central curtain
was explored. The surviving parts include the foundation
(1.8 m thick; 3 × 3 m) and the lower part of the stone wall
which used to have a 1.7 m protrusion on the east side.
The masonry technique and the plinth of the pylon are
similar to the previously explored repair stonework found
in the south-west corner of the ancient church galleries
and can be dated by the first third of the 12th century.
Only one pylon had been constructed as the occupation
layer in the symmetric area to the north was found to be
intact. This structure, unprecedented in sturdiness, served
to reinforce the west wall or the thrust of the slab in the
BereZan (lower Bug) expediTion
Head of expedition: Dmitry Chistov
Excavations continued on Site O located in the north-west
part of Berezan Island. A total of about 400 sq. m was excavated
over the past two seasons. The traces of residential
and production activities detected on the site (dating back
to the second or third quarter of the 5th century B.C.) were
of immense interest. Three household pits were found on
the level explored, one of them filled with waste containing
large fragments of several dozens of broken tare amphorae
of the third quarter of the 5th century B.C.
The key achievement of the past season was the uncovering
of a complex of buildings dating from the late 6th –
first third of the 5th century B.C. In the past three years,
remains of two closely situated similarly aligned buildings
BuKhara expediTion
Head of expedition: А. Torgoyev
excavaTionS in paiKend
Head of unit: A. Omelchenko
The expedition continued excavations in Paikend. Works
were conducted on two sites: the Citadel and the South
Suburb.
Similarly to the previous seasons, excavations in the southwest
sector of the citadel were conducted on barrack-type
rooms adjacent to the south wall of the fortress and opening
into a single corridor. By present, a total of eleven
rooms have been unearthed. The building complex is
the first monumental structure in this part of the citadel.
central compartment of the west gallery after the southwest
corner of the church was destroyed by a natural disaster
(earthquake).
In 2010 surveillance over ground works in the courtyards
and interior facilities of the State Hermitage was conducted.
Remains of an eighteenth-century brick collector
dismantled during the construction activities in the first
quarter of the 19th century were explored in the General
Staff building. In the Reserve House (Zapasnoi Dom)
of the Winter Palace at 30 Palace Embankment, some
structures and the early eighteenth-century brick floor
were stabilized; the thickness and makeup of the occupation
layer in the courtyards were explored.
Fragment of the capital. Peter I’s Winter Palace
archaeoloGIcal expeDItIons
were examined. Judging by the layout, structural features,
location within a fenced area and different alignment
compared with the rest of the complex, these facilities
were intended for public or religious rather than residential
purposes.
The cultural deposits and building remains of the previous
periods were examined on the 2009 site (gross area
c. 200 sq. m). It was found that these buildings had been
added to earlier structures destroyed by fire in the last
quarter of the 6th century B.C.; although badly damaged,
traces of several surface pillar (possibly wattle) structures
of unclear purpose were discovered. Following the exploration
of the earliest layers of the archaic Berezan settlement,
a series of complexes dating from the first half of the
6th century B.C. was unearthed, including round-shaped
half-dugouts and household pits.
Imitation of Euthydemus tetradrachm (type: “Ruler wearing a tiara”)
Silver. Diameter 2.7 cm. Room 7
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