Boris Piotrovsky

Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky (; also written Piotrovskii; – October 15, 1990) was a Soviet Russian academician, historian-orientalist and archaeologist who studied the ancient civilizations of Urartu, Scythia, and Nubia. He is best known as a key figure in the study of the Urartian civilization of the southern Caucasus. From 1964 until his death, Piotrovsky was also Director of the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Biography Piotrovsky was born in Saint Petersburg in 1908. He specialized in the history and archaeology of the Caucasus region and beginning in the 1930s, he began to acquaint himself with Urartian civilization. He was the head of 1939 excavations that uncovered the Urartian fortress of Teishebaini in Armenia (known in Armenian as Karmir Blur, or Red Hill). Evidence found there has been key in understanding the Urartian civilization. Piotrovsky lead further excavations in Armenia in the ancient settlements of Tsovinar, Redkig-lager, Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and Aygevan until 1971. These were not Piotrovsky's sole contributions in the archaeological field, however. Piotrovsky worked elsewhere in the Caucasus, especially on the Scythian culture. In 1961, he was placed at the head of an expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences to study Nubian monuments in Egypt. He also spent 26 years as Director of the Hermitage Museum, which has been run by his son Mikhail thereafter. He was also the supervisor of the renowned Armenian archaeologist Gregory Areshian. The Hermitage holds an annual conference in his honor. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Leningrad in 1990 at the age of 82. He was married to Hripsime Djanpoladjian, who was an archaeologist and epigrapher.