When was the Turkestan Circle of Amateur Archaeologists founded?‌‌

For more than 20 years, they made archaeological surveys and excavations, collected various items and studied the relics of the past. N. P. Smirnov, I. T. Poslavsky, V. A. Callauer, M. S. Andreev, E. T. Smirnov, N. G. Mallitsky, A. A. Divaev, N. N. Pantusov, A. A. Semenov and others took an active part in activities of the Circle. On the 4th of November 1899, the members of the Circle transferred collections to the Archeological Department of the Tashkent Public Museum. Among the transferred items, an amulet depicting two snakes found in 1893 or 1894 by residents of the village of Sokh, Kokand district during earthworks and donated to the Tashkent Museum by G. S. Bagatyrev should be noted. Scholars have dated this unique artifact to the Bronze Age, the late 2nd millennium BC.

You can learn more about this topic in the book-album “The Collection of the State Museum of the History of Uzbekistan” (part one) (Volume XXVI) from the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".

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