Gold – tone complexes we found in 1996, they have become for us a complete surprise, says Zaitsev. – Went in the summer on an expedition, working out the plot, and discovered rich burials with gold and garlands, earrings, bracelets, buckles. In that year, we found two non-devastated tomb and one subjected to looting in antiquity. There are several hundreds of items of precious metals.
the Ust-Alma necropolis, Dating back to the first century BC – III century ad, was opened on the site of Scythian settlement in Bakhchisaray district in 1964. From 1968 there were held annual excavations. But the 1990-ies made their adjustments in the history of archaeological study. Barbaric looting of ancient burial grounds. Scientists had to act in front of black diggers. The robbers were well prepared: read the scientific works, studies, had expensive equipment. The fact of the matter is, there have been reports that Rob, once a burial ground.
Gold jewelry from the Ust-Alma necropolis was transferred to the Bakhchisaray Museum-reserve became the pride of his collection.
– These items have now become hostages of the political situation in the Netherlands. It’s all bitter and unpleasant to watch, – said Yuri Zaitsev. What we pulled out of the ground, no one is needed at the state level. Drove our own cars, worked, we can say, on pure enthusiasm. But now it has become a matter of high policy. These things should get back to us, where they are found. Were divided not only the Museum collection but also items. We found a ruined wooden bowl, she took the most beautiful fragment and taken to an exhibition in Holland. This is just crazy! One piece there and the rest here. And such examples there are several.
in Addition to gold jewelry, the exhibition in the Netherlands went another unique finding of Ust-Alma necropolis – Chinese lacquer boxes, which were miraculously preserved, having lain in the earth for two thousand years. They became a sensation and for the first time proved that China traded with the Roman Empire and the Crimea was on the trade route between East and West. Boxes in 2008, was sent for restoration in Japan, in 2011 they were first shown in the Museum of Bakhchisarai. But after two years went to an exhibition in Germany, and then to the Netherlands. Since then, the inhabitants of the Peninsula did not see them.
In the “Chersonese Taurian” has opened today the exhibition “Restless neighbors,” which first presented the unique findings from the Ust-Alma necropolis, stored in the collections of the “Scythian Naples” and the Bakhchisaray historical and cultural Museum-reserve. Primarily, this wood sarcophagi, small wooden trinkets, details, everyday objects. For the first time whileto do a burial Scythian warrior in the first century as it was discovered by archaeologists. These items are valuable because “organics” are usually absent in archaeology, wood is rapidly destroyed.
– These two elements – organic material and partially intact burial facilities to derive Ust-Alma necropolis in the category of first-class archaeological sites not only of the Northern black sea, but of the whole world, – said Yuri Zaitsev.
