"From the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages": a Russian scientist on the country's first participation in the European Days of Archeology

- Marina Viktorovna, you are one of the organizers of the European Days of Archeology, and your institute is the curator of this international project from Russia. What is the history of this event?

- At the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, we have established close scientific and friendly ties with the Paris organizer of the European Days of Archeology. This is the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, which deals with the preservation of the country's heritage and conservation excavations in France. In 2008, they held Archeology Days in their country for the first time, and since 2019 the event has taken on an international scale. It is now held annually on the third weekend of June across the continent. This year, the French have turned to us with an offer to participate. We have planned a series of lectures, excursions and offline master classes, and connected other institutions throughout the country. There was not much time for preparation, and now life has also corrected us - because of the pandemic, we had to transfer everything online. 

- How is it all organized?

Do people from all over the continent have the opportunity to get acquainted with the archaeological heritage of different countries, with different cultures, artifacts?

Or does each country work for its own audience?

- Before the pandemic, the event was held as full-time pan-European archaeological days.

On the project portal there is an interactive map where places, dates are marked, the program of all events is laid out.

When there was an opportunity to move between states, one could visit and see anything.

• Excavations in Zaraysk.

  View from a quadcopter

• © Institute of Archeology RAS

Now we will try to do all this online.

In any case, our Moscow events have already been transferred to this regime.

You can choose something on the event map posted on the Internet, enter the event and watch, listen, ask questions.

- Will Europeans also be able to learn something new about Russia?

- Now for this they need to know Russian, because we are participating in this project for the first time - we did not have time to prepare in advance for the online regime and accompany the events with translation into English.

Next year, I believe, we will have events that will be broadcast with translation.

- Is this project educational, not commercial?

- Of course, this project is public, free of commerce.

Sometimes museums join in, which host expensive exhibitions.

Then someone cancels the visit fee, someone makes discounts.

The purpose of the event is to reach as many people as possible with stories about archeology, to popularize the archaeological heritage, to convey the meaning of archeology to the children's audience.

• The work of the Russian-Palestinian expedition in Jericho

• © Institute of Archeology RAS

We talk about both field and cameral work: how finds, settlements are investigated, what new methods archeology uses, where it is generally present - in cities and not only in them.

Outside of the pandemic's limitations, site visits were to be conducted.

- Let's take a closer look at the events that are taking place in Russia these days.

After all, not only Moscow venues participate, but the whole country as well?

- Exactly.

In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, large regional archaeological centers have appeared: Pskov, Tula, Pereslavl-Zalessky, two Altai museums, the Kulikovo Pole museum from the Tula region, and the Institute for the History of Material Culture in St. Petersburg, the second largest archaeological institute in Russia.

All cities planned to participate in an offline mode, excavation trips, children's master classes, exhibitions were planned.

Now, some of these events should go online, and some will go as planned.

• Hellenistic necropolis, tomb of a wealthy woman.

  Contents of a wooden box found in a stone burial at Phanagoria

• © Institute of Archeology RAS

A photo exhibition of archaeological finds has been organized in Pereslavl-Zalessky, and the long-awaited stationary archaeological exhibition has just been opened.

It took shape for a long time - with feeling, with sense, with constellation.

In the future, it will be a permanent archaeological exposition of the museum-reserve.

The participation of the Moscow State Historical Museum, the owner of one of the largest archaeological collections in Russia, has also been announced.

The State Historical Museum has made two breakthrough, major archaeological exhibitions, and it is very disappointing that now everyone has been transferred online.

I hope that these exhibitions will operate for a long time, but, unfortunately, they are no longer within the framework of our Days.

Such large museums as "Kulikovo Pole" and two museums in Barnaul present their expositions and events.

They also have some of the events to take place offline. 

- What major and interesting events can you definitely see online?

- We quickly transferred the events of the Institute of Archeology to the YouTube channel, where you can ask questions to speakers.

We have formed a series of lectures covering the period from the Early Paleolithic to the Middle Ages, according to the approximate principle "from each archaeological period - by lecture."

Leading experts in an accessible popular form will talk about the Middle Ages, about the ancient Russian village, about anthropology in archeology.

About how bones can tell: what a person was sick with, where he came from, what he ate.

After all, ancient man lived on our land not only several centuries ago, but also several millennia.

- In prehistoric times ...

- Prehistoric including.

We will have a lecture on the Fatyanovo culture of the Bronze Age (III millennium BC), the so-called "battle-ax culture".

Its most recognizable, marking feature is the amazing stone axes that were produced within this culture.

The lecture will be delivered by the Deputy Director of the Institute of Archeology, organizer of rescue operations and researcher of the Fatyanovites Asya Viktorovna Engovatova.

There will also be a lecture about the Scythians from our young researcher Semyon Alekseevich Volodin.

About the traces that the Scythians left in the archaeological cultural layer.

Another lecture - about the most ancient period of mankind, will be read by Sergei Yuryevich Lev - the man who discovered and presented the world with the Zaraysky bison, which is now one of the symbols of the Stone Age.

And our young employee Varvara Anatolyevna Chaukina will tell about the art of the Stone Age.

The master class for children had to be canceled, but a lecture on the art of the Stone Age, on petroglyphs and images on stone will certainly be read.

• Modern methods are used to study bones, including isotope analysis

• © Institute of Archeology RAS

- You said that bones can tell a lot.

What modern research methods are used now?

What new can you learn from the same bones that were studied earlier, and now are, for example, in a museum?

- There is a whole range of new analyzes, new studies that provide completely unique data.

Isotope analysis allows us to tell where and how people moved in ancient times.

Where did the ancient man who died in this territory come from originally, where he was born.

We also have studies on the paleo diet - the diet of hunter-gatherers.

So we find out what people were sick with, how they were treated and recovered.

This is also the most complex genetic research that archaeologists carry out in collaboration with biologists, geneticists and anthropologists.

Of course, we hope that soon, not only online, but also live, everyone will be able to see these wonderful finds and learn about the discoveries made.