1. Watch "Peacock": In 1777, Prince Grigory Potemkin decided to once again surprise the Empress Catherine. His choice fell on the work of the English mechanic James Cox. Why on him, is unknown. Perhaps the Russian count saw amazing things in the advertising catalogs that the master published. To send a gift to Russia, it had to be taken apart.

They disassembled something, but they could not assemble it - some of the parts turned out to be either broken or lost. So the spectacular gift would have been gathering dust if in 1791 Potemkin had not instructed Ivan Kulibin to “revive the birds”. And the master of the highest class did the impossible: the clock went, and the intricate mechanism set in motion. As soon as the clock starts ringing, the owl in the cage “comes to life”.

To the sound of bells, the cage begins to rotate. Then the peacock “wakes up”: its tail rises, begins to bloom, the bird bows, draws in and throws back its head, opens its beak. At the moment when the tail is fully opened, the peacock turns 180 degrees so that the audience sees it ... behind. The feathers are then lowered and the peacock takes its original position.

Today it is impossible to learn about the true reason for such impartial behavior of a peacock. According to one version, Kulibin failed to make the bird make a full turn. Another legend claims that the master deliberately forced the bird to perform a similar “fuete”, thereby demonstrating his attitude towards the royal court, for which the “bird” was intended.

2. "Tomb of Homer"

Curiosities of antiquity sometimes pose such riddles to researchers that modern science hastens to declare unsolvable.
Everyone probably knows the famous exhibit of the Hermitage - gold earrings with gold grains, which can only be distinguished with magnification. The item dates from the 4th century. BC.

These “gold earrings of filigree work, found during excavations in 1853 in one of the mounds on the outskirts of Feodosia, are one of the brightest examples of the work of Greek jewelers of the 4th century BC. BC. and executed in the so-called microtechnique, which reached an unusually high level in Athens at that time. In the upper part of the earrings there are round discs with a graceful flower in the center, which are bordered by rows of the smallest grain and decorated with an ornament of filigree palmettes and rosettes ... Feodosian earrings were especially famous precisely because of the use of grain, when the smallest droplets of metal are arranged in groups of four and placed in regular rows.

No matter how much the jewelers tried to repeat this result, they failed. The smallest grain melted when heated. Attempts stopped, the art of the ancient Greeks was recognized as unsurpassed.

So how did they manage in the 4th century. BC. to accomplish what could not be repeated in the twentieth century?
In Altshuller's book "Algorithm of Invention" in case of problems with temperature regulation and control, it is advised to use a phase transition. A phase transition, like melting, is hardly acceptable here. But the metal can become liquid in one more case - in an amalgam, an alloy with mercury. Try to imagine this option: the smallest balls of gold (it is not difficult to obtain them, it is enough to melt a shortly cut thin wire on a non-wettable surface, such as charcoal) for a short time immersed in mercury. A thin layer of amalgam is formed on the surface. The substrate on which the grain is applied is also rubbed with mercury. The desired pattern is laid out with grains, after which the entire composition is heated to a temperature that is lower than the melting of gold, but sufficient to remove (evaporate) mercury from the amalgam. The gold grain is firmly connected to each other and to the substrate. This technology of evaporation of mercury from gold amalgam (fire gilding) is the most ancient gilding technique. The Eastern Slavs were familiar with the method of making gold amalgam "from an alloy of gold with mercury" and covering silver and bronze items with it. Working with amalgam requires strict adherence to safety measures, as severe poisoning can occur. So, during the gilding of the domes of St. Isaac's Cathedral in 1838-1841. 60 workers died from exposure to mercury vapor.

It is not surprising that the technology of the Athenian masters was lost for many centuries. After all, the masters strictly kept their secrets, and death overtook such craftsmen as inexorably as two thousand years later - St. Petersburg gilders.

Curiosities of antiquity sometimes pose such riddles to researchers that modern science hastens to declare unsolvable.
Everyone probably knows the famous exhibit of the Hermitage - gold earrings with gold grains, which can only be distinguished with magnification. The item dates from the 4th century. BC.

These “gold earrings of filigree work, found during excavations in 1853 in one of the mounds on the outskirts of Feodosia, are one of the brightest examples of the work of Greek jewelers of the 4th century BC. BC. and executed in the so-called microtechnique, which reached an unusually high level in Athens at that time. In the upper part of the earrings there are round discs with a graceful flower in the center, which are bordered by rows of the smallest grain and decorated with an ornament of filigree palmettes and rosettes ... Feodosian earrings were especially famous precisely because of the use of grain, when the smallest droplets of metal are arranged in groups of four and placed in regular rows.
No matter how much the jewelers tried to repeat this result, they failed. The smallest grain melted when heated. Attempts stopped, the art of the ancient Greeks was recognized as unsurpassed.

So how did they manage in the 4th century. BC. to accomplish what could not be repeated in the twentieth century?
In Altshuller's book "Algorithm of Invention" in case of problems with temperature regulation and control, it is advised to use a phase transition. A phase transition, like melting, is hardly acceptable here. But the metal can become liquid in one more case - in an amalgam, an alloy with mercury. Try to imagine this option: the smallest balls of gold (it is not difficult to obtain them, it is enough to melt a shortly cut thin wire on a non-wettable surface, such as charcoal) for a short time immersed in mercury. A thin layer of amalgam is formed on the surface. The substrate on which the grain is applied is also rubbed with mercury. The desired pattern is laid out with grains, after which the entire composition is heated to a temperature that is lower than the melting of gold, but sufficient to remove (evaporate) mercury from the amalgam. The gold grain is firmly connected to each other and to the substrate. A similar technology of evaporation of mercury from gold amalgam (fire gilding) is the most ancient gilding technique. The Eastern Slavs were familiar with the method of making gold amalgam "from an alloy of gold with mercury" and coating silver and bronze items with it. Working with amalgam requires strict adherence to safety measures, as severe poisoning can occur. So, during the gilding of the domes of St. Isaac's Cathedral in 1838-1841. 60 workers died from exposure to mercury vapor.

It is not surprising that the technology of the Athenian masters was lost for many centuries. After all, the masters strictly kept their secrets, and death overtook such craftsmen as inexorably as two thousand years later - St. Petersburg gilders.

Vladimir Repin

Treasures of the Hermitage.

// M.-L.: USSR Academy of Sciences and State. Hermitage. 1949. 352 p. (Popular science series.)

Feodosia earrings (M.I. Maksimova)

Gold. 8.8×2.5 cm (shield diameter). 4th century BC. Received in 1854

[ The book contains a black and white photo. See cat. 200 in Greek Gold. ]

Filigree gold earrings were found during excavations in 1853 in one of the mounds on the outskirts of the city of Feodosia in the Crimea. Together with a luxurious gold necklace, they made up the headdress of a woman buried there. Unfortunately, the incorrect method of conducting excavations did not make it possible to establish whether the deceased belonged to the local Hellenized nobility, or whether she was a representative of the wealthy strata of the Greek population of ancient Theodosia. Both the Scythians and the Greeks widely showed love for luxury in funeral rites.

As shown by images on coins and a few items related to Theodosian earrings, most of which were found in our south in dated burials, the earrings are a product of Greek jewelry art of the 4th century BC. BC. They can be called the most striking example of the exquisite works of Greek jewelers - works relating to the period when the culture of the Greek city-state reached its full flowering and already began to decline.

Feodosian earrings consist of a round shield with a hook and loop on the reverse side and a crescent placed below it. These are two types of ear ornaments that existed independently in Greece, and here an attempt was made to combine them into a single whole by hanging the moon from the shield on two chains. To this complex form of earrings, more

three rows of various pendants on woven chains of various lengths, and, moreover, the whole product is decorated with an ornament completely covering and wrapping around it from all sides. In order to consider all the details of the various motifs used by the master, it is necessary to look at his work for a long time and repeatedly, striking both with the richness of imagination and the accuracy in conveying the smallest details. So, the moons are covered with rows of grains so small that it is difficult to grasp with a simple eye, but upon closer examination it turns out that each grain is composite and is composed of four tiny grains. A floral ornament, arranged in the form of individual flowers and leaves, as well as bouquets, garlands and complex fantastic patterns (for example, on a shield), is made of thin wire, smooth, twisted or granulated, and strewn with grain, and openwork rosettes and palmettes are sometimes superimposed on each other. on top of each other, forming weaves like golden lace.

But the master was not satisfied with this. In the free space between the shield and the moon, he placed a multi-figured group - a sculptural monumental composition reduced to a minimum size. This is a chariot driven by four fast galloping horses and controlled by the goddess of victory - Nike. Next to the horses, showing them the way, winged Geniuses fly, and on the edge of the chariot stands a warrior with a large shield in his hand. This is the so-called apobat - a warrior-athlete, who, at full gallop, had to jump from the chariot to the ground, after which he continued the competition with his comrades already on foot. Apobate competition is one of the most difficult types of athletic exercises among the Greeks, originating from ancient times, when warriors fought each other from war chariots and the outcome of the battle often depended on the skill of the driver and the dexterity of the combatants. In the IV century. BC. this type of competition was still held only in a few Greek cities. He was especially popular in Athens, which allows us to suggest the Athenian origin of the master of Theodosian earrings. When considering what he

of the miniature group of the victorious chariot of the apobat, attention is drawn to the fact that, despite the tiny size of the figures, the master managed to model a naked body, transfer the feathers on Nike's wings with notches, and even decorate the shield of the apobat with grain and geometric patterns.

The Greeks, as you know, glorified the winners at the games by setting up statues of them. In accordance with this custom, sculptors developed the theme of the victorious chariot even in the archaic period. Parts of such monumental sculptural groups (for example, from Delphi) and their numerous images on reliefs and monuments of artistic craft have survived to this day.

Ancient literary sources tell of several Greek masters who were fond of overcoming the technical difficulties associated with the transfer of monumental forms in microscopically small sizes. This direction of art even had a special term in the Greek language and was called "microtechnology" - the art of small forms.

Strict connoisseurs of art treated this direction with some irony, and even contempt. Playing with words, they called it "matanotechnics", i.e. trivia art. However, even major Greek masters, such as those who worked in the 6th century BC. on the island of Samos, at the court of the tyrant Polycrates, the architect, sculptor and torevet Theodore, tried their hand at this genre. Ancient writers tell the story that Theodore cast his own statuary image from bronze: in one hand the statue had a file, and with the fingers of the other hand it supported a tiny image of a chariot drawn by four horses and driven by Nike. The viewer got a visual idea of ​​the size of the group also due to the fact that the master placed a figurine of a fly with open wings over it, and the fly completely covered the entire chariot with horses. They also talk about other achievements of microtechnologists made in precious metals, bronze or bone: about ships in full gear

bee-sized insects, which could only be seen when placed on black matter, about Homeric hexameters inscribed in golden letters on sesame seeds, etc.

These and similar stories could be mistaken for guild legends about ancient “left-handers” if the Feodosian earrings and related items did not show us with their own eyes to what extent the art of ancient Greek masters, inaccessible to modern jewelers, reached the limits of sophistication and refinement, although the latter did not possessed many of the improved devices of our time and did not even know magnifying glasses.

So, in 1853 the famous Feodosian artist - marine painter I. Aivazovsky received official permission from the Ministry of the Imperial Court and the Udelov to carry out archaeological work in the area of ​​Feodosia. The purpose of the archaeological research was allegedly to search for "old, ancient Feodosia."In the middle of the 19th century, scientists from all over the world were allegedly arguing about the location of the medieval Kafa-Feodosia. Someone placed it on the slopes of Tepe-Oba, in the area of ​​​​Cape St. Elijah, someone at the foot of Karadag, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200btoday's Koktebel, but someone in all seriousness attributed ancient Kafa 70 km to the east, to Cape Opuk. But once the famous archaeologist of that time Siberian A.A. , walking along the slopes of Tepe - Oba, discovered an ancient Greek coin, presumably from the 5th century BC. The archaeologist shared his find with the famous Feodosian artist I. Aivazovsky, expressing his opinion about the existence of an "ancient city" in the area of ​​Cape St. Elijah on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge. The artist fully supported the ideas of Sibirsky A.A. and took a direct part in the organization of the archaeological expedition.

Already in the spring of 1853, prospecting work was in full swing on the slopes of the ridge, almost immediately 5 barrows- burial grounds. Four barrows turned out to be completely empty, but in the fifth...! In the fifth, a burial of a woman was discovered, presumably from the 4th-5th centuries BC, a lot of exquisite ceramic items, as well as a whole galaxy of interesting jewelry, including the unique FEODOSIAN EARRINGS. The news of the unique Theodosian find spread all over the world, attracting the attention of numismatists, antiquarians and goldsmiths. Jewelers from all over the world tried to copy the jewelry, but to no avail - the technologies of ancient Greek masters were irretrievably lost. Even famous Carl Faberge, who tried to repeat the "Feodosian earrings", suffered a complete fiasco.

Encouraged by the incredible find, I. Aivazovsky continued his archaeological searches with tripled energy, and during the summer-autumn of 1853. opened more than 80 mounds in the vicinity of Feodosia, and luck again smiled at the artist - one of the burial grounds on the Tepe-Oba ridge was also full of jewelry. Naturally, all the jewelry found was counted, described and sent to St. Petersburg, where they were put on public display in the Hermitage.
According to the results of an archaeological expedition led by I. Aivazovsky, the following conclusion was made - on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge there was a Greek Necropolis, approximately 4-5 centuries BC.

This beautiful tale about "Feodosia earrings" can be heard from Feodosia guides or read on numerous "historical" sites. The reality, however, is much harsher and dirtier.

In fact, the number of so-called "antique jewelry" that cannot be copied is quite large and includes hundreds and thousands of jewelry. Naturally, this group also includes the so-called "Scythian gold", jewelry found in Scythian burial mounds. The geography of the finds of "Scythian gold" is very extensive - from Altai to the Danube from east to west, and from the White Sea to North Africa from north to south. Many of the "Scythian ornaments" are truly unique, and technologies that are unknown even at the present time were used to create them. The photographs below ("Feodosia earrings on the first") show a small part of the "gold female earrings" discovered during excavations of Scythian burial mounds in completely different places: Southern Siberia, Tavria, Taman, Dnieper, Volga. These unique products will be united by one thing - they are really unique, it is extremely difficult, and often impossible, to fake them, and they are works of art of ancient Greek antique jewelry masters, whose technologies are irretrievably lost.

Exactly - in the Scythian barrows lay "ancient Greek gold" !!! Including in Siberian and Altai! How it got there, modern "historical science" is absolutely not interested - but you never know - they bought it at the market, at a sale!

The only argument of these "fighters for ancient Greece" is the assertion that the Scythians are nomads, and nomads are not able to create unique masterpieces.
But back to the "Feodosia earrings". So, on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge, an archaeological expedition led by I. Aivazovsky discovered some burial mounds in the amount of about 90 pieces, which were identified as the Greek Necropolis of the 4th century BC. However, 50 years later, some German forester F. Siebold, on the same slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge, discovered about 30 objects of the medieval hydraulic system of Feodosia, as well as a significant number of ceramic water pipes. Naturally, ceramic plumbing was not created in the 4th century BC, but much later, in the 15th-16th centuries.

It turns out a very interesting picture - a medieval hydraulic system was built right on the ancient Greek necropolis! There is one of two things - either our ancestors, who built ceramic plumbing, had no idea about hygiene and sanitation, or someone is frankly and blatantly lying. But I don’t think that our ancestors would have built a hydraulic system in the middle of burial mounds, so it’s something else!

By the way, it is known that the Siberian-Aivazovsky expedition uncovered about 90 burial mounds on the Tepe-Oba ridge, that's just where they are, and why haven't they survived to this day? And as a rule, all burial mounds, where something worthwhile was found, has its own name (Kul-Oba Mound, Solokha Mound, Tsarsky Mound, etc.) What is the name of the mound in which "Feodosian earrings" were found? "? No way.

The same F. Siebold, describing the Tepe-Oba ridge in 1900, mentions, in addition to hydraulic structures, numerous stone ruins of other structures, but these were definitely not burial grounds.

By the way, the big question is why the gentlemen historians of the mid-19th century, who allegedly talked about the location of "old Feodosia", did not see these ruins and hydraulic structures, as if they did not exist? Were they struck by sudden blindness?

But after all, I. Aivazovsky, who was allegedly born in 1817 in Feodosia, must have known for sure about some ruins on Tepe-Oba, which at that time could have had a completely different look.

In the picture of C. Bossoli, depicting Feodosia in 1842, we can observe a rather interesting landscape - fortifications and structures of unknown purpose in the foreground and the city itself in the background, in the valley. It is quite obvious that the Italian artist painted the picture while on the slopes of the Ridge - you will not find another similar angle. The question is - what happened to these structures after 15 years? Disappeared without a trace or turned into burial mounds?

It must be admitted that no Greek Necropolis, consisting of Scythian burial mounds, NEVER EXISTED on the Tepe-Oba ridge, there were constructions on the ridge of a different nature, absolutely incompatible in their purpose with the City of the Dead.

But where in this case and when exactly was the archaeological expedition of Sibirsky-Aivazovsky carried out?

Indeed, in the vicinity of Feodosia there are a lot of incomprehensible hills that can be easily identified as burial mounds, but they are mostly located in the north and northeast of Feodosia, i.e. in the opposite direction from Tepe-Oba. There are several mound-like hills to the south of the ridge, in the valley of Dvuyakornaya Bay, but these may well be the remains of fortifications.

In any case, in the vicinity of Feodosia for the period of the middle of the 19th century, there were quite a lot of interesting monuments of antiquity, which, I would venture to suggest, had not yet been plundered and desecrated.

Undoubtedly, the archaeologists-treasure hunters were waiting for a very rich profit.

And here comes a very interesting point. The age of many Crimean burial mounds in the Crimea is about 2000 years or more. According to the official history, during these 2000 years, dozens of tribes and peoples passed through the Crimea, but for some reason no one had a desire to see what was stored in these very pyramid mounds until the 19th century, when research and development of ancient monuments began . Therefore, it should be recognized that from time immemorial only one people lived on the Crimean Peninsula - the descendant of the Tauro-Scythians - Russians, in any other case, all burial grounds and barrows would have been destroyed long before the 19th century. In the 19th century, the owner of the peninsula changed - it became part of the Russian Empire, which, despite its name, did not at all represent the interests of the Russian people, rather the opposite. Therefore, without exception, all archaeological expeditions on the Crimean Peninsula pursued, by and large, only two goals - to destroy the monuments of the past of the Great People and, if possible, enrich themselves as much as possible, tearing apart and appropriating the wealth accumulated for thousands of years in the territories of the Tauride Peninsula.

Aivazovsky's Archaeological Expedition is no exception. It is enough to take a closer look at the personality of the chief archaeologist of the expedition, and part-time antiquary and numismatist - Sibirsky A.A., as well as the personalities of his patron friends J. Reichel, B. Kene, I. Bartolomey, P.-Yu. Sabatier. All these gentlemen clearly not of Russian origin stand at the origins of the creation of the Imperial Archaeological Society, the curator of which was directly the House of the Romanovs. Naturally, all these people had the largest collections of jewelry and old gold coins in Europe. I think it is not worth proving where this wealth fell on their heads from. This happened in the order of things - most of the stolen jewelry and antiques simply remained in the hands of the people who led the "archaeological search" and then settled in numerous private collections, a smaller part went to museums.

By the way, I. Aivazovsky also had a fairly large jewelry collection, which, after the death of the artist in 1900, was left to his widow - A. Burnazyan - Sarkisova. After the October Revolution, the collection of the widow was arranged the real hunt, and since power in Crimea changed several times a year, literally everyone hunted for Aivazovsky's jewelry collection - both the occupying Karaite-German government of Solomon Solomonovich Crimea, a former friend of I. Aivazovsky, and the White Guard "black baron" Wrangel, and Dzerzhinsky's Chekists . The latter, it must be said, have succeeded the most. A. Burnazyan was arrested by the Cheka and spent at least half a year in prison, from which she left only after handing over her jewelry collection to the new authorities.

It is possible that A. Burnazyan managed to save some part of the collection, since it is known that during the Great Patriotic War, some jewelry from the artist's collection somehow ended up with the Germans who occupied Feodosia. The further fate of I. Aivazovsky's jewelry collection is unknown, because it came from the darkness, it went into the darkness.