Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Categories / Science. Education/Science and Planning Institutions
INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF MATERIAL CULTURE of the Russian Academy of Sciences, situated at 18 Dvortsovaya Embankment. It was founded in 1919 on the basis of the Archaeological Committee established in St. Petersburg in 1859 and reorganised in 1918 as the Russian Academy for the History of Material Culture with N. Y. Marr as the chair. A major contribution to academy activities was made by A. A. Miller, D. N. Anuchin, I. A. Orbeli and A. A. Spitsyn, et al. The academy was renamed as the State Academy for the History of Material Culture in 1926, situated at 5 Khalturina Street. After joining the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1937 the academy was reorganised into the Institute for the History of Material Culture. The management moved to Moscow in 1943 with a branch remaining in Leningrad reorganised as the Institute of Archaeology in 1959. The Leningrad branch became an independent scientific institution in 1991, which received the former name of the Institute for the History of Material Culture. Among its members, B. B. Piotrovsky, M. I. Artamonov, V. I. Ravdonikas, S. A. Semenov and P. N. Tretyakov, et al. have worked at the institute. Its major scientific subdivisions include departments for Slavonic-Finnish archaeology, archaeology of Central Asia, Caucasus, and Siberia, paleolithic archaeology, as well as an antique archaeology group. The institute holds the largest archaeological library in Russia which contained over 200,000 volumes by 2002, an archive of manuscripts and drawings totalling over 70,000 items, and a photo archive containing over 1.2 million items. The institute has been publishing Proceedings since 1999, annual Archaeological News since 1992, and Radiocarbon and Archaeology, a journal in English, since 2000. It is situated in the former Novomikhailovsky Palace built by architect A. I. Stakenschneider in 1857-61.

Reference: Платонова Н. И. Российская академия истории материальной культуры: Этапы становления (1918-1919 гг.) // Сов. археология. 1989. № 4. С. 5-16.

O. N. Ansberg. Anuchin Dmitry Nikolaevich
Artamonov Mikhail Illarionovich
Marr Nikolay Yakovlevich
Miller A.A.
Orbeli Iosif Abgarovich
Piotrovsky Andrian Ivanovich
Ravdonikas Vladislav Iosifovich
Semenov S.A.
Spitsyn Alexander Andreevich
Stakensсhneider Andrey Ivanovich
Tretyakov Peter Nikolaevich
Dvortsovaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 18
Millionnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Платонова Н. И. Российская академия истории материальной культуры: Этапы становления (1918-1919 гг.) // Сов. археология, 1989 Archaeological Committee
Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences