"Iranians and Greeks After 90 Years: A Religious History of Southern Russia in Ancient Times”, Ancient West & East 10 (2011) 75–93. (original) (raw)

Greco-Scythian Art and the Birth of Eurasia: From Classical Antiquity to Russian Modernity, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Since their discovery in nineteenth-century Russia, Greco-Scythian artefacts have been interpreted as masterpieces by Greek craftsmen working according to the tastes of the Scythian nomads and creating realistic depictions of their barbarian patrons. Drawing on a broad array of evidence from archaeology, art history and epigraphy to contextualize Greco-Scythian metalwork in ancient society, this volume confronts the deep confusion between ancient representation and historical reality in contemporary engagements with classical culture. It argues that the strikingly life-like figure scenes of Greco-Scythian art were integral to the strategies of a cosmopolitan elite who legitimated its economic dominance by asserting an intermediary cultural position between the steppe inland and the urban centres on the shores of the Black Sea. Investigating the reception of this 'Eurasian' self-image in tsarist Russia, Meyer unravels the complex relationship between ancient ideology and modern imperial visions, and its legacy in current conceptions of cultural interaction and identity.

“Russian Encounters with Classical Antiquities: Archaeology, Museums and National Identity in the Tsarist Empire”, in Z. Martirosova Torlone, D. LaCourse Munteanu and D. Dutsch (eds.), A Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017

This chapter explores the opportunities which displays of classical antiquities offer for understanding Russia’s conflicted self‐identification as a nation. The study of Russian archaeological collecting derives its interest from the multiple associations of classical antiquities, evoking potential genealogies in Roman imperialism, Byzantine Orthodoxy, and Russia’s “native” antiquity on the Black Sea shore—the symbiotic relations between Greek colonists and Scythian nomads. The survey contrasts two currents in display practice, distinguished by the strategies deployed to resolve the perceived lack of organic continuity in Russia’s past. Eighteenth‐century collecting rationalized Greco‐Roman marbles in allegorical terms, as embodiments of the Enlightenment values that justify imperial rule. In response to Slavocentric nationalism, the court’s antiquarians discovered in the nineteenth century an alternative ancestry for the cosmopolitan empire in the Scythian monarchies of South Russia. This analogical conception of antiquity has its legacy in the current theories of cultural convergence in Eurasianist historiography.

Izmailov I.L. (Kazan, Russian Federation). Archaeology and Islam in the Middle Volga Region in 10th – first third of 13th centuries: n experience of a complex analysis. Povolzhskaya Arkheologiya. №2 (16). 2016.

Статья посвящена проблеме происхождения и распространения ислама в Среднем Поволжье. Данная тема уже более двух столетий привлекает внимание исследователей. В настоящее время нет сомнений в том, что Волжская Булгария была мусульманским государством со значительным распространением ислама среди населения страны. Но остается дискуссионным вопрос о характере и интенсивности этого процесса. Для из-учения данного вопроса использовались главным образом нарративные источники. Археологические материалы (в основном погребальные памятники) привлекались спорадически. В данной статье для анализа ситуации привлечен весь имеющийся кор-пус археологических источников, что позволило сделать ряд важных выводов. Судя по этим данным, ислам был широко распространен среди городского и сельского насе-ления. Никаких следов языческих погребальных обрядов с начала XI в. в Булгарии не зафиксировано. Представления о существовании некоего массива языческого «финно-угорского» населения следует считать ошибочным, основанном на манипулировании некоторыми видами археологических находок, в первую очередь украшениями, кото-рые, очевидно, не несли ни этнокультурной, ни конфессиональной нагрузки, а их рас-пространение являлось результатом господствовавшей тогда своеобразной моды. Ис-лам среди населения средневековой Булгарии был единственной религией, не считая, видимо, христианских общин, которые жили обособленно. Мусульманская культура составляла неразрывное целое с булгарской археологической культурой. Ключевые слова: археология, история, Волжская Булгария, ислам, мусульманская культура, средневековый мусульманский город, погребальный обряд, мечети, бани.

Inventing the Past: Russia, the Crimea, and the Byzantine Heritage in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, in: Byzantium and the Heritage of Europe: Connecting the cultures (Skopje 2016): 81–88.

This paper analysis the growth of interest to the Byzantine heritage of the Crimean Peninsula after its annexation by Russia in 1783. The cases of “cave towns,” Prince Vladimir’s baptism, and alleged Rus’ raid on the Crimea in the eleventh century allows to trace how late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries intellectual travellers and historians used to discuss narrative sources’ accounts and material monuments related to the Byzantine past of the Crimea. Conceptualizing the Crimean Peninsula as a part of Byzantine heritage, they tried to make its history a component part of complicated narratives, which covered the entire history and civilization of Russia. Some of the ideas produced in the period in question, such as those related to the origin of “cave monasteries” by runaway Byzantine monks, to eleventh-century Rus’ attack on Kafa, or to the Crimea’s especial role for Russian religion and culture appeared to be extraordinary strong and survived in scholarly and public discourses to these days.