Cornucopia 28

Cover story

The Caucasus
The peoples that time forgot
by Robert Chenciner

With commentary on the beautiful images of Caucasian peoples from the Russian Ethnographic Museum.,St Petersburg exhibited at the Hessenhuis, Antwerp in 2001

The Russian love affair with the Caucasus has been long and cruel, though the outside world knows little of the multitude of ethnic groups who for millennia have inhabited this remote strip of land the size of France.
In 2001, however, a remarkable catalogue was published. It reveals a unique collection of artefacts which for years have stood gathering dust in the vaults of a St Petersburg museum.
Here Robert Chenciner examines the book and introduces a selection of its poignant photographs.