One of Russia’s foremost geologists, Inostrantsev worked with archeologists in making determinations about the Stone Age in Russia. As a student, he worked originally in chemistry under Dmitrii Mendeleev, but a passion for rocks displaced chemistry and in 1868 be began curating the newly founded Geological Cabinet at the Academy of Sciences. In 1869 he defended his dissertation on his geological research in northern Russia, where he had uncovered numerous skulls around Lake Ladoga, which he turned over to anthropologists, who overlapped with archeologists in the Stone Age in particular. With A. P. Bogdanov, Inostrantsev helped to found the Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Anthropology and Geography. Bogdanov’s foremost mentee and activist in the IMAO Dmitrii Anuchin discovered the bones of domesticated dogs at Ladoga and named them canis inostrantsev. Inostrantsev merits mention as an archeologist because of his work in helping to decipher the prehistory of civilization.
Theme: Ethnography
Kertselli moved straight into the bureaucracy from his Moscow gymnasium, and developed into an ethnographer. He ended up at the Dashkov Ethnographic Department of the Rumiantsev Museum, having received a silver medal at the 1867 exhibition. He excavated in numerous kurgans in the Moscow vicinity, and later in the Caucasus. Moreover, he had a special interest in the material culture of Buddhist ceremonies among the Buriat tribes.
A geologist of international renown and credited as the founder of soil science in Russia, his pivotal role in the evolution of archeology was to bring attention to the importance of understanding types of soils in which artefacts, especially from the Stone Age, were excavated.
Gorodtsov combined two careers; he served in the Imperial Army, 1880-1906, and became one of the foremost archeologists of both the Stone and Bronze Ages. His primary headquarters were in Iaroslavl, where he also served on the Archival Commission. He wrote the textbook on prehistory for the Moscow Archeological Institute. he was also a member of the Riazan and Iaroslavl Archival Commissions. After 1917 he was a leading member of the Insititute of Material Culture, which was the transformed Imperial Archeological Commission.
Alexandra Efimenko came to the profession by way of her husband Peter, though ultimately made more significant contributions than he. A native of Arkhangelsk Province, she met and married Peter there in 1870, where he had been exiled from Little Russia for nationalist-oriented activities related to his work as an ethnographer. They returned in 1874, first to Chernigov and then Kharkov; his poor health, and their five children, kept the family dependent upon her publications and lectures. Working extensively in archives, she focused on the evolution of economic and social structures of peasants in various parts of European Russia. Invited to St. Petersburg to teach Ukrainian history in Betstuzhev Female courses, 1907—1917, in 1910 Kharkov University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of History; she was the first female recipient. Ironically, she was murdered by the Ukrainian nationalist Petliura Army in December 1918. One daughter became a Silver Age poet, and one son an important Soviet archeologist.
Another of the founding members of the IMAO, Gattsuk, who identified as Little Russian rather than Ukrainian, taught at the Richelieu Lyceum, and then developed his interest in archeology. He demonstrated particular interest in distinguishing racial/ethnic parameters of theremains in the kurgans he excavated. A contentious amateur, he enjoyed participating in the debates that arose at the congresses, even when he was not well versed in the scientific details.
Quite likely the first female graduate of the Moscow Archeological in 1910, she defended her thesis on Slavic Radimichi tribe on the Dnepr. Of Swedish heritage, she wasaPetersburg native.Most of her career was as a Soviet archeologist, studying the Stone and Bronze Ages largely in the Samara region. She died during the blockade of Leningrad.
The most important anthropologist in Imperial Russia, Anuchin provided the link between ethnography and archeology. A moderate Darwinist, and a translator of John Lubbock’s work, he never made that a credo of archeology, such as the latter did in London. Always extremely active in the congresses, he also edited the IMAO’s “Zapiski” in the 1890s. Although he never succeeded in professionalizing anthropology in Imperial Russia, today’s Institute in Moscow bears his name, as do a crater on the moon, a Kuril island, a glacier, and a mountain. For decades after Alexei Uvarov’s death he served as Praskovia’s righthand man.
Bogdanov measured skulls. He did not so much as participate in excavations himself as take the measurements of the skeletons that others sent to him, and tried to define the contours of race and ethnicity. Bogdanov provided the inspiration for and organization of the Russian Ethnographic Exhibition of 1867. Moreover, he mentored Dmitrii Anuchin, Russia’s principal ethnographer-archeologist.
Artemev is difficult to classify because he spent many years working on Kazan’s history. He was a great bibliographer and statistician, and Nikolai Miliutin made him a member of the the Emancipation Commission. Wounded during a near ship wreck when in 1868 he was touring the Caucasus, Athens, and the Mediterranean with Grand Prince Alexei Alexandrovich, he died from it six years later.