On 28 February 2021, the State Hermitage held a grand closing ceremony for the exhibition “The Iron Age. Europe without Borders. First Millennium BC”.
The large-scale exhibition, which was prepared as part of the Year of Germany in Russia 2020/2021, was the latest step in the international cultural collaboration between museums in Russia and Germany. For the first time ever, the exhibition brings together archaeological complexes that ended up in museums in different countries after the Second World War. The exhibition is unique in the breadth of the material featured: the Iron Age in Italy, the Hallstatt Culture, antiquities of Celtic culture, the famous treasures of Scythian burial mounds in the steppes, artefacts from the Classical World, well-known hoards, antiquities of the Koban culture of the Northern Caucasus and of the cultures of the Eastern European forest belt. To read more about the exhibition "The Iron Age. Europe without Borders. First Millennium BC" follow this link.
Participating in the closing ceremony were Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage; Johann Saathoff, Bundestag deputy, Coordinator for Inter-Societal Cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership Countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, head of the Civil Society working group of the Petersburg Dialogue Forum on the German side, and Mikhail Shvydkoi, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cultural Collaboration. Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, addressed the gathering with a video message.
Also present at the ceremony were Stefano Weinberger, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Saint Petersburg; Georgy Vilinbakhov, Deputy General Director of the State Hermitage for Research; Andrei Alexeyev, Head of the Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia; and Yury Piotrovsky, Deputy Head of the same department.
At the closing ceremony, Mikhail Piotrovsky said: “We opened this remarkable exhibition in the hope of an end to the pandemic. Our hopes were not realized, but nevertheless it has been visited by some 170,000 people and become a huge event in the scholarly life of Russia and Germany, a great example of scholarly cooperation, the parent of a number of museum innovations and a real museum feast. Our exhibition about a Europe ‘without borders’ appeared at a time when borders on the continent have once again become a tangible obstacle, by the will of nature and by the will of people. We are learning how to overcome these new obstacles; and bringing together archaeological complexes and cultures divided by time and politics has been part of this. This joint work of Russian and German colleagues continues the series of exhibitions and projects we have built on the principle of co-ordinating scientific and museum research that, in the interest of learning, is called upon to set aside the problems of politics and ownership, of ‘displaced art’, which do not go away but should not prevent ordinary citizens and scholars from having access to important materials, wherever they might be located.”
“This exhibition offers a new perspective on the early history of our European continent at a time when the current territorial boundaries did not yet exist. This is why it is more important than ever to collaborate in scholarship and curatorship, to go beyond borders, especially when it comes to cultural and historical research on this era,” Johann Saathoff stressed. “Through this exhibition, we gained a unique chance to better understand what influenced and still influences the early development of our common cultural space in Europe. This historical perspective shows us: Europe is much more than the community of states existing today. Europe is rooted in a vast common cultural space. What is remarkable about this research and exhibition project is that all of its participants – the four museums in Moscow, Berlin and Saint Petersburg – have not only crossed geographical boundaries, they have also managed to overcome legal and political obstacles.”
“ ‘Europe without borders’ has been the motto of three exhibitions now, a trilogy: the Merovingian exhibition, the Bronze Age exhibition and now the Iron Age exhibition. It’s a good motto. Precisely in this difficult historical time, a difficult political time, a time beset by the pandemic, I believe, that this ‘Europe without Borders’ trilogy has become a success story,” Hermann Parzinger noted in his video message. “It is a success story of Russian museums – the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Pushkin Museum and the State Historical Museum in Moscow on the one hand, and the State Museums in Berlin and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin on the other. The museums in Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Berlin need each other. And that is important.”
“The exhibition which is closing today in St Petersburg but will continue its existence in Moscow is of enormous scholarly and historical significance,” Mikhail Shvydkoi said. “It broadens the understanding of what was happening in Europe in the first millennium BC. And it becomes clear that that history is not limited to the Mediterranean basin. What was seen as the realm of barbarism actually went on to play a colossal role in European history. Looking at this exhibition, you realize that the formula ‘from Lisbon to Vladivostok’, in this case to the Ural mountains, was not born in the 20th century. And what we regard as European civilization also applies to the part of Eurasia that includes Russia. The inter-relationship of cultures in this space goes back more than a millennium, which is very important. From the viewpoint of eternity, the crisis that relations between our countries are going through today is only an instant. And this instant, too, must be lived through with dignity.”
A richly illustrated scholarly catalogue has been produced for the exhibition in Russian and German: Zhlezny vek, Evropa bez granits. Pervoe tysiacheletie do n.e. / Eisenzeit. Europa ohne Grenzen. 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. (Tabula Rasa publishing house, 2020 – 720 pp., ill.) The publication is devoted to current issues in the study and history of Iron Age artefacts. The texts have been written by leading European and Russian scholars.
The exhibition “The Iron Age. Europe without Borders” has been organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Commission for Culture and the Media of the Federal Republic of Germany. The holding of the exhibition and the publication of the catalogue were made possible through the financial support of the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany as part of the Year of Germany in Russia 2020/2021.
The support of the museum’s partner the Ilim Group made it possible for people to visit the display in the Manege of the Small Hermitage separately free of charge. The exhibition was also part of both fixed routes around the Main Museum Complex.
Over the course of its run, the exhibition was visited by almost 170,000 people. In a poll taken on the spot, over 80% of the visitors questioned gave the exhibition the highest possible mark, 73% said that the main “plus point” was the large quantity, diversity and uniqueness of the items on display.
The exhibition “The Iron Age. Europe without Borders” aroused media interest in Russia and beyond. More than 240 reports about it were published, including television coverage.
Modern technologies make it possible to visit this unique exhibition at any time of the day or night, from anywhere in the world, thanks to the creation of a virtual tour in Russian and English. Now, in order to see all the treasures included in the exhibition in the Manege of the Small Hermitage it is enough to have access to the Internet. A German version of the virtual tour will soon be available as well.
A series of video guided tours of the exhibition “The Iron Age. Europe without Borders” featuring the curators and researchers from the Department of the Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia – Andrei Alexeyev, Yury Piotrovsky, Yekaterina Vasilyeva and Sergei Voroniatov. During the exhibition’s run, users of the social networks were able to view thematic tours of the exhibition – “The Iron Age in Italy” guided by Yury Piotrovsky, “The Koban Culture” by Yekaterina Vasilyeva, “The Zarubinets Culture” and “Sarmatian Culture” by Sergei Voroniatov. Soon these will be supplemented by further video tours – “The Hallstatt Culture” and “The Early La Tène Period” guided by Yury Piotrovsky and “Sarmatian Antiquities” by Yelena Korolkova. In the near future a guided tour in German will be produced for speakers of that language.
The exhibition ran in the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg until 28 February 2021. From 15 April to 15 July 2021 it will be at the State Historical Museum in Moscow.
The exhibition curator was Andrei Yuryevich Alexeyev, head of the State Hermitage’s Department of the Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia.
The authors of the idea for the exhibition in the State Hermitage were Andrei Yuryevich Alexeyev, head of the State Hermitage’s Department of the Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, and Manfred Nawroth, coordinator of research projects with Russia and Eastern Europe for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and chief curator of the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Stiftung Preuβischer Kulturbesitz), with the participation of Yury Yuryevich Piotrovsky, deputy head of the State Hermitage’s Department of the Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia.
The closing ceremony for the exhibition “The Iron Age. Europe without Borders” concluded with the signing of a Memorandum of Intent between the State Hermitage and the German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut), based in Berlin. As part of the agreement concluded, there are plans for the organization of the exchange of experience and knowledge between the staff of the two institutions, for joint research work and the holding of scholarly conferences, symposia, seminars and round tables.
After the signing, Yury Piotrovsky spoke about the exhibition catalogue. Zhlezny vek, Evropa bez granits. Pervoe tysiacheletie do n.e. / Eisenzeit. Europa ohne Grenzen. 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. (Tabula Rasa publishing house, 2020 – 720 pp., ill.).
The closing ceremony can be watched on YouTube.
