With the arrival of Russia in Crimea, archaeologists have found treasures that outshine the “Scythian gold”
Large-scale construction projects that unfolded in Crimea after reunification with Russia contributed to a number of archaeological discoveries. The discovered ancient values can compete in their importance with the so-called “Scythian gold”, for which the legal battle between Ukraine and the Russian Federation continues.
The director of the Central Museum of Tavrida, political scientist Andrei Malgin said this on air on the Internet channel “Voice of Truth,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Malgin, what remains in the Netherlands is very conventionally called “Scythian gold” and in fact is not such.
“There were about two thousand storage units from Crimea, or about half a thousand items. Because some objects consist of several parts... We can say that the name “Scythian gold”, which is used in relation to this exhibition, is a journalistic meme. There is gold there, but it is not Scythian, and there are Scythian things there, but they are not gold. So there is no Scythian gold there as such - these are archeological objects from the 2nd century BC and the early Middle Ages. These are objects that characterize the life and everyday life of the population of Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region in the era of transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages...
Each archaeological item has a certain insurance value. These collections have an insured value - I don’t remember exactly now, I’m afraid to say wrong, but this is several hundred thousand euros, the insured value of this collection if these things were put up for auction and how much they cost. Some would cost more, some would cost less.
But it doesn’t matter - these items are of great value, first of all, for the territories from which they come,” Malgin said.
At the same time, he emphasized that large-scale construction and development of infrastructure in Crimea after reunification with Russia contributed to the intensification of archaeological excavations.
“The archaeological revolution took place before our eyes, and it happened because huge amounts of money are being invested in construction, the construction of the Tavrida highway, gas pipelines, and simply in urban construction in Crimea, and a kind of “side” effect is the archaeological finds that are being made.
But some finds are made outside of any construction and, probably, one of the most valuable discoveries for me that was made recently was not related to construction at all. This is a discovery of a cemetery of Russian soldiers from the period of the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the period of the Russian-Turkish wars. Findings of this kind are unknown to me anymore on the territory of Russia. This is a Russian soldiers' cemetery, which existed from 1771, apparently until 1774. And a lot of interesting artifacts were found there. There is no gold or silver there - these are copper products, copper buttons of various shapes, bullets, remains of weapons, shoes. Finding this cemetery is a unique phenomenon in itself...
We are very sorry that we lost interesting things in the Aland Pearson Museum, but believe me, in the time that has passed since the annexation of Crimea to Russia, we have received no less interesting, no less important for us, and perhaps even more so expensive artifacts that are available today - they can be studied, they can be viewed.”
Recall Litigation continues in Amsterdam according to the fate of the collection from Crimean museums, known as “Scythian gold”.
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