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Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire The exhibition Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire is devoted to the history and culture of the Mongol nation and chronologically embraces the period of the rule of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan (1155 – 1227) and the founding by his grandson Khubilai the Chinese Yuan dynasty which influenced strongly the modern scientific and cultural world. The exhibition was organized by the Inner Mongolian Museum, the Mongolian National Museum, the China Cultural Relics Bureau and the State Hermitage Museum from the collection of which 84 artifacts are presented. During the last years a lot of exhibition projects in the biggest world museums were devoted to the history and culture of the period of Genghis Khan’s rule. This exposition is the first one to present on such a scale Genghis Khan’s empire, his conquering quests, treasures of the ancient cities, palaces and yurts, rare objects created by the Mongolian craftsmen in the 13th century which have never been exhibited before. Genghis Khan in the Western culture is often incorrectly referred to as a barbarian. Here he is presented as an inspired reformer, popularizer of literacy and printed word. His life is the realization of the ideas of the development of nation, language, governmental system and public relations, creation of safe international trade, embodiment of artistic and religious freedom. This idea became the reason for the existence of the Mongolian nomadic culture for 800 years after Genghis Khan’s death. The exhibited artifacts made by the Golden Horde craftsmen which were mostly discovered in the settlement of Gyulistan attract a big interest. The collection of sgraffito glazed clay ceramics is made up of finds from the State Hermitage Museum Golden Horde Expedition (founded in 1977) at the medieval settlement of Solkhat. The Ulus Jochi treasury is presented at the exhibition with items made from gold and silver. Belts, belt bowls and belt cups, horse adornments are the symbols of the nomadic elite. These items were part of the system of traditional presents given by the senior noyons to their juniors and were considered to strengthen the suzerainty of the leaders of the steppe elite. In the majority of cases these things were prepared in nomadic quarters. But with the development of city habitation in the steppes, new customers for such items appeared. These were members of the municipal elite - administrators of all ranks, civil servants and merchants. Jewelers and metal workers served wealthy city residents, and worked at the markets in the city. As one of the largest states with developed international trade, the Golden Horde was reflected in medieval cartography. The famous Catalan Atlas (1375) of Abraham Cresques contains a large section for geographic information for the Golden Horde. Without such information life in the final third of the 14th century would have been impossible for any body involved in trade, including merchants, sailors and travelers. A large section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Crimea and Northern Caucasus in the 14th-15th centuries, as parts of the right wing of the Golden Horde. Most of the exponents for this hall have been found during the excavations undertaken by the State Hermitage Golden Horde Archaeological Expedition (founded in 1977) at the medieval settlement of Solkhat and excavations which were conducted in 1896-1907 by N.I Veselovsky near the Cossack village of Belorechenskaya on the Belaya River, by the left tributary of the Kuban River (84 burials beneath barrows in the second half of the 14th century to beginning of the 15th century). The Belorechenskaya burial ground belongs to the Adygean elite, possibly from a single clan, belonging to the feudal domain of Chremuch, based on the middle region of the Kuban River. The unusual wealth and variation of the sepulchral inventory of the Belorechenskaya burial, which has been chosen for the burial of the Adygean elite allowed presenting at the exhibition a large part of mediaeval imports of the late Golden Horde. Here there are jewels from colorless glass from Genoese Kaffa(?), glass with colored enamel from the workshops of Murano (Venice), examples of Italian and Egyptian textiles, silverware produced in the dominions of Italian city-states on the Northern Black Sea Littoral, sets of belts from the Sultanate of Rum and craftsmen centres of East Crimea. All exhibit items of architectural decor and embossed headstones with Arabic, Turkic and Armenian inscriptions were found in the medieval settlement of Solkhat and belong to craftsmen relocated to Crimea from different areas of Asia Minor, including Anatolia. One of the largest communities in Crimea during the middle ages were the Armenians, many of which lived in Solkhat (including the family of the famous artist Nater), or in Genoese Kaffa. It was here in Crimea under the rule of the Golden Horde, that immigrants from the Armenian Kingdom of Cicilia founded the scriptoriums in order to rewrite and illuminate the religiouns manuscripts. The Berdyansk treasure gives us some idea of Armenian culture in the areas around the Kama River and the Azov Sea during the 14th century. |
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Hermitage Museum |
