Exhibition “Ancient Warriors of the Amber Region”

About exhibition

Visitors will see the most striking treasures from the elite burials of the Aesti from the Migration Period and the Dark Ages (late 4th–7th centuries): battle weapons, luxurious elements of horse harness, exquisite jewelry and household items that lay buried for one and a half millennia. The central part of the exhibition is based on materials from the Sambia Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2016–2017 archaeologists investigated the Aleika-7 necropolis in the Zelenogradsky district, where they discovered more than 800 burials. In one of the graves, probably belonging to a chieftain, they found a lavish drinking horn with a terminal in the form of a bird of prey. The gilded horse harness ornaments amaze with their craftsmanship. The exhibition also includes finds from other burial grounds: Gurevsk (Kleinhayde), Mitino (Stantau), Logvino (Klein Medenau), Pervomayskoye (Warnikam), Putilovo-2 (Gauten), Shosseynoe and Langenen. Among the horse equipment that accompanied the burials, the ornamented gilded bridle strap dividers (chetveriki) attract attention. Some of them have inlays of almandine (a variety of garnet) and white matte glass backed with embossed gold foil. Almost every exhibit is a masterpiece created by the hands of craftsmen from the golden age of the Balts.