On stone sculptures from Tuva (based on the materials of the expeditions of Aleksandr Danilovich Grach)

Abstract

The article briefly examines the history of the discovery in Tuva, the arrival and movement in The State Hermitage museum of stone sculptures found by the expedition of A. D. Grach in 1953-1960. Currently, the museum houses 12 stone sculptures transferred by A. D. Grach in 1967, of which 11 are on permanent exhibitions of the State Hermitage museum.

Earlier, A. D. Grach and other archaeologists believed that all 12 statues belong to the “Ancient Turkic time.” According to a number of archaeologists, not a single statue of the Bronze Age has yet been discovered in Tuva, which distinguishes this region as a “white spot” among cultures with stone sculptures on the archaeological map of Southern Siberia. Currently, the author of the article came to the conclusion that in the Hermitage's collection only 9 sculptures belong to the Ancient Turkic period, and 3 statues were probably created in the Bronze Age. The article also analyzes a medieval sculpture from Tuva, located on the monument to the poet Velimir Khlebnikov in Moscow, and also raises the question of where this statue should be in the future. Article materials can be useful for scientific publications, for exhibition projects, as well as teachers and students of universities.