National Museum of Gold and Precious Metals
In accordance with the Order #190 by the Council of Ministers of Kazakh SSR from August 21, 1990, the Museum of Gold and Precious Metals was established in Kazakhstan.
On May 24, 2000 the resolution #779 ‘On additional measures for the conservation of some objects of historical and cultural heritage of Kazakhstan people’ was adopted by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Under that resolution, the Museum of Gold and Precious Metals was converted into the National Museum of Gold and Precious Metals.
In October, 2000 due to relocation of country’s capital, the museum was moved to Astana and situated in the Presidential Cultural Center.
By the nature of museum’s work, the museum is classified as the mass cultural institution for scientific research – the main repository for the complexes of Kazakhstan’s jewelry art from the times of early nomads up to the modern ethnographic collections. The funds are annually replenished with the new, unique exhibits. The Museum promotes its collections through mass media.
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The museum does scientific research of the history and culture of the Scythe-Saka Civilization period and history of Kazakh artistic metalwork and decorative applied arts.
The goal of the National Museum of Gold and Precious Metals is to occupy its rightful place among 5 leading gold museums of the world, such as Diamond Fund in Moscow, the Treasury of the British Crown in London, the Gold Museum in Bogota (Columbia), the National Museum of Jewelry in Tehran (Iran) and the Kievo-Pechorskaya Lavra in Kiev (Ukraine).
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Famous complex ‘The Golden Man’ is the main treasure and the basis for the funds and expositions of the museum. It was found by a group of archaeologists led by Kemal Akishev in the diggings of the Issyk Kurgan in Almaty Region in 1969-1970. The find is dated by V-IV centuries BC. The kurgan is located in 50 km from Almaty and is 60 meters in diameter and 6 meters high. Over 4000 gold items were crafted using different techniques like forging, stamping, engraving, granulation and others.
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One of the world’s monuments of the Saka epoch – the Issyk Kurgan – is a part of the Issyk Complex of Burial Mounds that stands on the left bank of the mountain river Issyk 50 km east of Almaty.
In 1969, under the leadership of a famous archaeologist Kemal Akishev, a burial chamber with a tomb of a young Saka leader was discovered in one of those mounds. The diameter of the mound was 60m, height 6m.
Over 4000 gold items and various burial accessories of the young leader were laying there untouched in the same order as they were made for the ceremony of farewell into the eternal world. That allowed archaeologists, culturologists and restorers (A.Sadomsky, A.Tanabayev, K.Altynbekov) to recreate the unique model of the Golden Man.