Count Aleksey Sergeyevich Uvarov (Russian: Алексей Сергеевич Уваров; 28 February 1825 – 29 December 1884) was a

Russian archaeologist Russian archaeology begins in the Russian Empire in the 1850s and becomes Soviet archaeology in the early 20th century. The journal ''Sovetskaya arkheologiya'' is published from 1957. Archaeologists Sites major archaeological cultures and s ...

often considered to be the founder of the study of the prehistory of Russia.

Biography

Uvarov was the son of Count

Sergey Uvarov Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov (russian: Граф Серге́й Семёнович Ува́ров; 5 September Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._25_August.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/> O.S._25_August">O ...

, an influential minister of education. He came to know the leading historians of the period,

Mikhail Pogodin Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin (russian: Михаи́л Петро́вич Пого́дин; , Moscow, Moscow) was a Russian Imperial historian and journalist who, jointly with Nikolay Ustryalov, dominated the national historiography between the death ...

and

Timofey Granovsky Timofey Nikolayevich Granovsky (russian: link=no, Тимофей Николаевич Грановский; 9 March 1813 – 4 October 1855) was a founder of mediaeval studies in the Russian Empire. Granovsky was born in Oryol, Russia. He studied ...

, from an early age. He was educated at the universities of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. After his father's death, he commemorated his name by instituting (in 1857) the Uvarov Prize, to be awarded by the Academy of Sciences to distinguished writers and historians. Uvarov's activities as a field archaeologist began with visits to

Rostov Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population: While t ...

Vladimir Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

Chernigov Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative ...

and other centres of

Kievan Rus Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...

. Starting in 1854, he excavated the

Merya Merya may refer to: * Merya people * Merya language, an extinct language * Merya (Tanzanian ward) See also * Meryan (disambiguation) * Merja (disambiguation), pronounced "Merya" * Meria (disambiguation) * Marya The Marya are a tribe in western Er ...

n-Norse settlement at

Sarskoe Gorodishche Sarskoye Gorodishche or Sarsky fort (russian: Сарское городище, literally "Citadel on the Sara") was a medieval fortified settlement in present-day Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. It was situated on the bank of the Sara River (Russia), S ...

. He summarized his findings in ''The Meryans and Their Lifestyle as Shown by

Kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...

Excavations''. Subsequent expeditions took him to

Pontic Olbia Pontic Olbia ( grc, Ὀλβία Ποντική, uk, Ольвія) or simply Olbia is an archaeological site of an ancient Greek city on the shore of the Southern Bug estuary (''Hypanis'' or Ὕπανις,) in Ukraine, near the village of Parut ...

Tauric Chersonesus The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as ''Tauris'', ''Taurica'' ( gr, Ταυρική or Ταυρικά), and the ''Tauric Chersonese'' ( gr, Χερσόνησος Ταυρική, "Tauric Peninsula"), begins around the ...

, and

Scythian Neapolis Scythian Neapolis ( el, Σκυθική Νεάπολις), also known as Kermenchik, was a settlement that existed from the end of the 3rd century BC until the second half of the 3rd century AD and was previously considered a town of the Tauric Che ...

. Uvarov was a towering presence in the history of the

Imperial Russian Archaeological Society The Imperial Russian Archaeological Society (Императорское Русское археологическое общество), originally known as the Archaeological-Numismatic Society, was an archaeological society in the Russian Empir ...

. In 1864 he helped organize the , of which he remained president until his death. During Uvarov's administration, the society would convene one time in three years at some ancient Russian town. More importantly in the long run, Uvarov contributed to the establishment of the

State Historical Museum The State Historical Museum ( Russian: Государственный исторический музей, ''Gosudarstvenny istoricheskiy muzyey'') of Russia is a museum of Russian history The history of Russia begins with the histories of ...

, with the intention of promoting national self-awareness. Although his judgement was not always accurate and his methods of research may appear amateurish to a modern observer, Uvarov's work greatly advanced knowledge of pre-Slavic cultures inhabiting the European part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. Two volumes of ''Russian Archaeology in the Prehistoric Period'' contain his delineation of Eastern European prehistory.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uvarov, Aleksey Archaeologists from Saint Petersburg Counts of the Russian Empire Russian people of Tatar descent 1825 births 1884 deaths 19th-century archaeologists