Archaeology

The grounds of the actual Chair of Archaeology were established for about 30 years ago. At that time there was founded the Laboratory of Archaeology Researches under the leadership of h. s. c. A. I. Martynov in the Kemerovo Pedagogical Institute. Many students worked there, including V. Bobrov, A. Kulemzin, Yu. Borodkin, V. Bobkov, N. Pokrovskaya, Ye. Popov, A. Vasyutin, S. Markin.

Archaeological materials were accumulating in the Institute. An archaeology lecture-room was created on the fourth floor of the building № 2, and anthropological collection was placed in a small wooden house in the yard.

The formation of a scientific archaeological school starts since the beginning of 60-s of the last century: field researches results and publications started to appear. In 1959-60, 1968 archaeologists excavated a Tagar burial ground on the Yagunya River, and in 1964-66 the Tissul burial ground was discovered. In 1970 the excavations of the Mikhaylovo kurgan burial ground were finished and the excavations of a settlement on the river Kiya in Chebula district started; in 1969 the Serebryakovo burial ground was excavated, in 1968 – the Shestakovo kurgans, in 1970 –the Nekrasovo kurgans. All this created excellent archaeological materials repositories by the moment of the opening of the University and predetermined the foundation of the Chair of Archaeology in a new University.

The first exposition of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of South Siberia was opened in 1980, on the first floor of the building № 2 of the Kemerovo State University (KemSU). The museum was included into the structure of the Chair of Archaeology. A young worker of the Chair of Archaeology N. A. Mavrina (Belousova) became the first head of the museum. The basic aspects of the museum work were educative and scientific activity.

In 1983 All-Union seminar of restoration and conservation of archaeological ceramic was organized on the materials of the Museum.
At the end of 1984 the Museum moves to a new building on 77 Sovietsky avenue, and the second exposition is established in an academic variant.

Since 1994 visitors can see the third exposition of the museum which represents five departments: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Scythian Age, Huns Age and Middle Age. The base of the scientific and artistic conception of the exposition was the idea of figurative perception of history from ancient time till the Middle Age. The artistic organization of the expositions was intended and made by the workers of the museum E. A. Mikloshevich, E. M. Sosipatrov, N. A. Belousova. The exposition of the Archaeology department consists of 1856 authentic exhibits from excavations of Archaeology department scientists: professors A. Martynov, V. V. Bobrov, Ya. A. Sher, A. M. Kulemzin, historic sciences candidates A. S. Vasyutin, B. N. Pyatkin, G. S. Martynova, I. O. Okuneva, A. M. Ilyushin, scientific workers V. V. Ivanchuk, E. M. Rabinovich, a teacher of local lore M. G. Elkin.

The forming of the petroglyph collections began in 1970-s, with the organization of a special group of petroglyphists under the supervision of B. N. Pyatkin as a part of the South Siberian Archaeological expedition, which started to explore the rock art complexes of the middle Enissey. The research workers of the archaeology department of KemSU Ya. A. Sher, A. I. Martynov, O. S. Sovetova, E. A. Mikloshevich explored many rock art sites of Tuva, Altay, Kyrgyzstan. The unique copies of rock art representations in the museum are the results of their work. The largest collection among them is the collection of middle Enissey petroglyphs. The illustrations on the copies are varied and represent different ages. The chronological range extends from the Neolithic to the present. The museum also possesses a collection of mycalent copies of representations from Tagar burial mounds gravestones in Khakassia. Petroglyphes are included in the museum exposition. The copies by E. A. Miklashevich are made as close as possible to the natural color.

Scientific archive contains field drawings, pictures, field researches reports, negatives, historical faculty students’ researches, and microfilms of archaeology and ethnography scientific works.