Messerschmitt's archaeological collection "comes back"

Natalya P. KOPANEVA

Following the order issued on November 15, 1718 by Peter I, Doctor Daniil Gotlib Messerschmitt was commissioned to go to Siberia "to find various rarities and pharmaceutical objects: herbs, flowers, roots, seeds and other medicinal components. "All scholars of the naissant Russian archaeology refer to his name because Messerschmitt was the first to do archaeological excavations in Siberia, in which he was driven neither by mercenary motives nor by curiosity but solely by investigational interests. The collection of Siberian antiquities he brought to St. Petersburg became the gem of the Kunstkamera and marked the beginning of academic research in archaeology.

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