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 Virtual
museums are not novelty in INTERNET. There exist already some sites of this
kind (www.museum.ru). But though
original and high-qualitative, these expositions are still comparable with traditional
museum editions of artistic albums, catalogues, monographies, while INTERNET
makes it possible to create qualitatively new expositions, realizing methods
of presenting monuments of historical and artistic inheritage, impossible or
incompatible before. What makes the originality of the museum, you are "entering"?
The main peculiarity is that exhibits actually kept in quite different museums,
in different countries and even on different continents are gathered here as
if in one museum. Another important feature is that our "museum" combines an
exposition of a traditional museum with an open-air museum-reserve. It allows
to present historic- archaeological monuments in their natural landscape and
to show them in section, at different angles and in different hypothetic
reconstructions.
The
idea of creation of this site had arisen on the Chair of Archaeology of the
Kemerovo State University (KemSU)
during the preparation to the international conference on rock art, which
took place in Kemerovo in August 1998. More than a hundred of specialists took
part in the conference, half of them came from different countries (Australia,
Great Britain, Netherlands, Italy, Kirghistan, USA, Uzbekistan, France,
Estonia, South Africa and others). A web-site devoted to
Siberian Association of Prehistoric Art Researchers (SAPAR),
the organizer of the conference, was the first trial (www.kemsu.ru/org/SAPAR).
The general conception of the site is developed by Ya.A.Sher,
he has also written all the texts. A.V.Fribus and
N.A.Belousova took part in the project. Translators:
L.V.Karnarukova and A.A.Smirnova.
The project was supported by the "Open
Society Institution". The work had to be separated into stages.
In 1999 we plan to start virtual expositions devoted to the Stone Age
rt, to Scythians and to the Museum of archaeology and ethnography of KemSU.
In general expositions of a virtual museum can be expanded practically
unlimitedly.
Some
more words concerning the exposition of the museum. What is "prehistoric art"?
Is it different from the modern art? If so, what
are these differences?
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The authors
of the site will welcome any constructive critical remarks and
suggestions concerning the site development and improvement. We hope that
your acquaintance with our "expositions" will be interesting for you.
See "Picture Acknowlegements".
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If
you are interested in the period, preceding the appearance of art (more than
3 millions years), start with "Anthropogeny" link
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