• The Museum “700 Years - Landskrona, Nevskoye Ustye, Nyenskans”
  
• Institute For The History Of Material Culture Of Russian
• Academy Of Sciences
  
• State Hermitage Museum
  
• Northwest Institute Of Heritage
  
• St.Petersburg State University

Archeological materials from the excavations of St. Petersburg archeological expedition (headed by P.E. Sorokin) are exhibited. The works are as follows: excavations of Ekateringofsky palace conducted in 2003, excavations of the late medieval burial ground dated XIV – XVII on the bank of the Fontanka river (in the yard of the Sheremetev’s palace) and the palace of the Peter the Great with the Dutch garden in Dubki (Sestroretsk).

In the course of the archeological works the palace foundations dated from the Annensky and Elizabeth periods, as well as remains of stilts being primary structure for original palace together with brick collector around were studied.

The exhibition presents the following pieces of art: picture of the palace of the various time as well as its interiors early in the ХХth century, photos of the archeological excavations together with the ruins which survived up to now. The archeological finds are stove tiles of XVIII, druggists (lipstick) pots from stone mass and porcelain of the XVIII-XIXth centuries, fragments of the Dutch pipes, window hardware from the Ekateringofsky palace, a candlestick, a bullet, a gun flint, coins of Ekaterina the second, Pavel the first, Alexandra the first; bone, porcelain, bronze and amber buttons, fragments of the plate with Chinese motifs.

The park and the palace in Dalnye Dubki which are almost ruined now are among the least studied monuments of the time of the Peter the Great in the Petersburg suburbs.

The Construction of Dalnye Dubki nearby the Sestroretsky armory started in 1719 and continued till 1724. The mansion house existed till the death of the Peter the Great. Later the mansion premises were used as a store. At the end of the XVIIIth century it was pulled down.

Lay-out of the palace and the park was made by the Dutch architect Stephan van Zviten in 1722, palace craftsman Fransua de Vaalem carried out the drafts (The State Hermitage Museum). The exhibition offers copies of these drafts, photos of the stilt structures of the coastal fortifications in front of the palace in Dalnye Dubki, sites identified in the course of the archeological excavations. The finds are represented by a wall board nail, bone collar buttons, buttons, a bullion, a bronze coin of 1812, a hone stone, a hammer firing mechanism, a plot light, a flint stone, fragments of porcelain and Dutch crockery, a fishing load, fragments of stove tiles, flagons, glasses, a salt caller.

Nearly 35 burials were found at the Sheremetev’s palace. All of them were Christian orientated as they were located along the line west - east with the heads to the west or slightly deviated from this direction. The bodies were buried in wooden coffins in the wooden gouged chunks. There were no traces of any funeral construction. Tombs cut out in the sand were buried from the level of ancient day surface to 60 sm length. In the funeral cover there were found accompanying things such as fragments of vessels made of gray clay. Hollows in the sand filled with charcoal were found at the very edge of some tombs. Nearby the sand was annealed up to saffron or even black coloring.

Four iron knives dated from late medieval time, a square iron buckle and a round belt ring, tetrahedral nails and crutches are among individual finds from the burial things. Rare archeological evidences are bronze things such as two U-shape fibulas and an ear-ring decorated with three rings at the end made in the shape of plaiting of the XIV-XVth centuries. A Sweden ¼ ore coin of the Queen Christina is dated to the 1630ths. Shoes fragments from the same burial ground are related to the typical west-European boots of XVII - the first half of XVIII.

Ceramic materials are rather fragmented and represented mainly by the walls of cookware. There are some whisks and vessel bottoms, which may be dated XVI-XVII. However, some issues are dated from earlier periods - up to XIV.

The burial ground is the first cemetery of the pre-Peter the Great time on the territory of St. Petersburg. It was likely to belong to the big settlements Pervushino and Usadische at the place where modern Mikhailovsky castle and the Summer Garden are situated. The above discovery allows to look at the time of development of the Neva coasts again and understand the urbanized region much better.

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