T he Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography was established 33 years ago from a tiny department in the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy. The Institute carries out joint researsh projects together with scientific centres of the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and China. International conferences and symposiums are often held here. The Institute's scientific production runs to hundreds of monographs and collective works. More than 700 paleontological, archaeological and ethnographical exhibits have been demonstrated in Korea, Australia, Finland, Yugoslavia and already three times in Japan.
Paleontological section includes skeletons of mammoth and ancient bizon.
Mummies of a sable and a glutton, well-preserved bodies of which were found by scholars after 20 thousand years in Nizhneudinskaya cave are also presented at the Exhibition. Archaeological relics constitute a significant part of the collection. Excavations in Gornyi Altai have resulted in surprising finds relating to the Scythian Epoch. Thanks to a number of geologicaland climatic factors fragments of ancient felt carpets, male and female woolen cloths, unique leather, wooden and golden subjects, decoration of horse harness in form of mythological birds, saddles with depiction of fishes and wolves, ritual wooden shields, bronze mirrors. T he centre of the exposition is beyond doubt a reconstruction of a noble Scysian woman burial place.