^#smrgSAHAF The Hermitage: Prehistoric Culture Art of Classical Antiquity Art of the Peoples of the East Western European Art Russian Culture Numismatics - 1989

The Department of Prehistoric Culture contains a rich collection of archaeological exhibits covering the vast stretch of the history of the peoples which inhabited the territory of the USSR from the earlier Stone Age down to the emergence of the Russian state.

The Department of Classical Antiquity contains unique relics yielded by excavations on the sites of ancient Greek and Roman settlements on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

The Department of the East possesses what is possibly the world's greatest collection representative of the culture of the various peoples and countries of the East beginning with the ancient civilizations of Egypt. Mesopotamia. Parthia, Iran, Byzantium. and India. The Department of Russian Culture is illustrative of the artistic achievements of the Russian people in close association with the history of culture of both the East and the West. The Department of Western | European Art covers the period from the Middle Ages to the modern times. Its world-famous picture gallery boasts works by many great Western European painters.

The Department of Numismatics, one of the oldest in the Hermitage. preserves 1.100.000 items, the best of which are represented in this edition. Reproduced in the book are 336 works of art. many of them in beautiful detail.