Scythian Treasures Go on Display in the Kremlin

To celebrate the year of Kazakhstan in Russia, the exhibition "The Golden Warrior. The Treasure of Saka Burial Mounds" has opened in the Kremlin's Armoury.

For the first time, rare gold artifacts of nomads, which archeologists discovered during excavations in Kazakhstan, will be displayed in Russia. The exhibition will also feature jewellery from the 18-19th centuries. Both the treasures from the burial mounds and the pieces crafted by the Kazakh masters, preserving age-old traditions, have been brought to Moscow from the museum of the Presidential centre of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Museum of Gold (Astana).

Kazakhstan's Minister of Culture Mukhtar Kul-Mukhammed and Russia's First Deputy Minister of Culture Natalya Dementyeva opened the exhibition.

The items on display, which are the result of joint research carried out by Russian and Kazakh archeologists, serve as vivid confirmation of the ties between Russia and Kazakhstan, Natalya Dementyeva said. Russia's cultural and scientific influence on this country remains significant today.

Two groups of nomad tribes in Eurasia in the Scythian-Saka period, the 7-6th centuries B.C., gave the world what is now known as the "Scythian-Siberian wild animal style." The name came from the fact that many parts of clothing and weaponry were discovered among the gold artifacts. These were decorated in animal pictures: tigers, deer, snow leopards and horses. The wild animal style can also be found in the exposition of ancient jewellery. This is the Golden Warrior from the digs at the Issyk burial mound near Alma-Ata, which is a unique array of golden insignia dating back to the 5-4th centuries B.C., as well as the Zhalaulin treasures discovered in the Berel burial mound. Of no less interest is the Kargalin diadem, a most valuable set of ornaments in the polychrome style of the 3rd-2nd centuries with encrusted jewels. It was found in the Kargala Gorge near Alma-Ata in 1939.

Along with the antique masterpieces, a whole range of Kazakh women's jewellery pieces will be on display: bracelets, rings, earrings and amulets. A bride's headdress, ornaments and decorations for her plaits and waist, as well as good luck charms, are also particularly highly valued.