Objects from pre-Islamic Central Asia have also found their place among the Hermitage collections. Most of them were collected in 1884-1985 by the famous archaeologist N.I. Veselovsky during his scientific trip to Turkestan.
Especially fruitful was the collaboration of N.I. Veselovsky with the collector of antiquities Mirza Bukhari, from whom he acquired several thousand items: mainly coins,
terracotta, gems.
In 1902, the special Committee was organized in St. Petersburg to study Central and East Asia. A huge role in the study of the cultural heritage of Turkestan was played by the Secretary of the Committee V.V. Barthold. In 1904, he carried out excavations at the site of Afrasiab. Some of the materials found during the excavations were transferred to the Archaeological Commission, and then to the Hermitage.
A native of Samarkand A.Yu. Yakubovsky also made a great contribution to the study of the culture and history of Central Asia. He was one of the founders of the Leningrad scientific school of Central Asian archeology, as well as the organizer of the archaeological expeditions of the Hermitage to Central Asia.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album"The Collection of the State Hermitage" (VIII volume) in the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the Collections of the World".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
