Count Aleksey Sergeyevich Uvarov (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Алексей Сергеевич Уваров; 28 February 1825 – 29 December 1884) was a Russian archaeologist 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 (; – ) was a Russian classical scholar and politician who is best remembered as an influential statesman under Nicholas I of Russia. Biography Uvarov, connected through marriage with the Razumovsky family, ...

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

Timofey Granovsky Timofey Nikolayevich Granovsky (; 9 March 1813 – 4 October 1855) was a founder of medieval studies in the Russian Empire. Granovsky was born in Oryol, Russia. He studied at the universities of Moscow and Berlin, where he was profoundly influenc ...

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

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. 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-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

Vladimir Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology ...

Chernigov Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukrain ...

and other centres of

Kievan Rus Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

. Starting in 1854, he excavated the Meryan-Norse settlement at Sarskoe Gorodishche. He summarized his findings in ''The Meryans and Their Lifestyle as Shown by

Kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus (burial mound) 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 mu ...

Excavations''. Subsequent expeditions took him to Pontic Olbia, Tauric Chersonesus, and Scythian Neapolis. Uvarov was a towering presence in the history of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society. 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 () of Russia is a museum of History of Russia, Russian history located between Red Square and Manezhnaya Square, Moscow, Manege Square in Moscow. The museum's exhibitions range from relics of prehistoric tribes that li ...

, 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 that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

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

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uvarov, Aleksey Archaeologists from the Russian Empire Counts of the Russian Empire People from the Russian Empire of Tatar descent 1825 births 1884 deaths