ANUCHIN, D. and Gr. UVAROV [editors]. Materialy po arkheologii vostochnykh gubernii Rossii. Moscow, Lissner and Roman [vol. III: Sharapov] for the Imperial Archaeological Society in Moscow, 1893-99.
Three volumes, large 4to. Contemporary cloth-backed marbled boards (volume II with gilt lettering and ruling to spine); pp. xiii, 191; [vi], 261; [iv], 259, with 64 photogravure plates, 3 plates in outline, one folding chromolithographic plate and one large lithographic folding map in red and black; lower hinge of volume II with repaired split, otherwise binding minimally rubbed; text with varying degrees of light browning due to paper stock, overall a very good and clean set; provenance: all volumes with armorial bookplates in German of the Library of the Society of History and Antiquities in Riga and their cancelled stamps to titles; later cancelled stamps of a Latvian academic library.
Very rare first edition, all published. The generously illustrated documentation of several archaeological campaigns in Asiatic Russia, including the study of Pre-Scythian kurgans (burial mounds) and their contents. The map shows the distribution of the archaeological sites of the area of Viatsk northeast of Kazan. The first volume is devoted in its entirety to Ural and Altai cultures.
The rapid development of archaeology in Russia and some sensational finds had led to the establishment of the Imperial Archaeological Commission in St. Petersburg in 1859. Count Aleksei Uvarov reorganised the Imperial Archaeological Society in Moscow five years later, which he directed until his death in 1884. His widow Praskovia took over the directorship and continued in his footsteps for the next 30 years.
We were able to locate copies at Cambridge, Harvard and Dumbarton Oaks only.
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