Museums and Society: Interactive museum "Ten Thousand Years before the Tula Kremlin" to open in the Museum Quarter of Tula

The Museum-Reserve "Kulikovo Field" will soon launch a new "Archeology" space, which will tell about the Tula settlement before the Kremlin's construction.

The "Archeology" space is on 8 Metallistov Street in a house built in 1909 by the merchant Yakov Likhosherstov. Now it hosts the central exhibition of the interactive museum "Ten Thousand Years before the Tula Kremlin''. Tula has been located in its present area for over 500 years. The first settlements appeared there in the Stone Age - ten thousand years before the city's establishment. The new exposition of the Museum-Reserve "Kulikovo Field'' tells about natural resources that attracted people, the history of their exploration and the economy of the first settlers. The foundation of Tula at this particular place is not accidental. Its developed metallurgical and weapons industry, ceramic and gingerbread production were a logical continuation of the history of human life on a broad fertile floodplain of the forest banks of the Upa River.

Scientific data about the past of Tula is the result of research of the Tula archaeological expedition. This enterprise founded the Museum-Reserve "Kulikovo Field" and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The exposition features archaeological finds discovered in the historical centre of the city, on its outskirts and in the vicinity (in the villages of Torkhovo and Malaya Strekalovka). These are flint tools of the Stone Age, fish hooks, ceramic dishes, weapons and agricultural devices, metal items and hidden treasury of the Ryazan State coins.

The "Archeology" space of the State Museum-Reserve "Kulikovo Field" comprises a hall for temporary exhibitions. The first project "If God Is with Us, Who Is against Us!". Prince Dmitry Donskoy - Life and Deeds" will be launched together with an interactive space. The exhibition will portray the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo not only as a warrior and leader but also as an orphaned son, brother, husband and father. It reveals the milestones in the life of the Moscow Prince, the history of his main battles and the tradition of veneration as a hero and saint.

A lifetime portrait of Dmitry Donskoy does not exist. The museum provides ancient images of the Prince by Russian and foreign artists based on chronicle descriptions. Also, visitors will see historical agreements from the Russian State Archives of Ancient Documents. These are copies of Dmitry Donskoy's treaties with the Lithuanian Prince Olgerd, the Tver ruler and Oleg of Ryazan, the last will by his father Ivan the Red and his own. The agreement with Ryazan of 1382 includes the first mention of Tula.