This was the first Stone Age site, discovered by Alexei Uvarov, near the so-named village where his family had an estate. In the Murom district of Vladimir Province, high on the left bank of the Oka River, it figured prominently in the Uvarovs’ turn to prehistory. He invited Antonovich, Dukachev, and Poliakov to confirm his findings in 1877; Dukachev later spoke out against Uvarov’s interpretation that men had killed mammoths at this site. The excavation of mammoth bones, tools, and weapons “refute[d] the mistaken supposition that European Russia was not inhabited during the Paleolithic era.”
Philosophical Context: Stone Age
This exhibit is included as an excavation because its guiding theme was prehistory. Moreover, it provided a place to display the assembly of skulls collected from kurgans around the empire. Members of the organizing committee included A. S. Uvarov, leaning with both arms on the table, who headed the archeological commission. Specialist in prehistory A. I. Kel’siev sits next to him, and A. P. Bogdanov stands positioned over the table. Held between April and September of 1879, it attracted more than 100,000 visitors but was nonetheless a financial calamity.
One of the earliest East European Cultures, 6000-3500 BCE. It goes as far as Hungary, and discoveries are still being made today.
Dating back 45,000 years, this still active site remains one of the most valuable sources for recapturing the material culture of the Stone Age.