Museums: The exhibition with faces of far ancestors opened at the State Museum of the East

In the past masks had a more serious purpose, often playing a major role in the ceremonies and rituals of many ethnic groups. The State Museum of the East on July 14 presented its collection of masks and other anthropomorphic images found in archeological excavations on the territory of Central Asia to Chukotka.

Ancient people believed that the souls of ancestors were constantly with them, protected them from harm and help in everyday life. Masks and Idols - an indispensable attribute of ancestor worship. Anthropomorphic figurines placed in graves, took over the function of the carrier of the soul of the deceased. An example of this are the funerary monuments of the Tashtyk culture prevalent in Southern Siberia in the first half of I millennium BC.  

Customs associated with the cult of ancestors and the notion of the afterlife, was widely distributed in the environment and the Iranian-speaking herders in the steppe zone of Eurasia - from the northern Black Sea to Mongolia. One of these idols found in the Southern Aral Sea area are shown at the exhibition.

The exposition is complemented with the anthropomorphic figurines and masks of Eskimos of Chukotka (I thousand BC) and voluminous idols found in the excavations in the Ferghana Manor of Kayragach (IV-V centuries AD).

Few ancient civilizations were able to bring to the present day images of their contemporaries. Thanks to the work of archaeologists of the Museum of the East, to move back to centuries, and look at the faces of the ancestors is now possible.