Piotrovskii, Boris

Born Feb. 1 (14), 1908, in St. Petersburg. Soviet archaeologist and orientalist. Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1970) and the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR (1968). Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1964). Member of the CPSU since 1945.

From 1953 to 1964, Piotrovskii directed the Leningrad section of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1964 he became director of the Hermitage, and in 1966 he assumed additional responsibilities as head of the sub-department of the history of the ancient East at Leningrad State University. In 1930 he began investigating archaeological remains in Transcaucasia, the northern Caucasus, and Middle Asia. From 1961 to 1963 he led an archaeological expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Nubia (the Arab Republic of Egypt). Of particular importance were his excavations, conducted between 1939 and 1971, of an Urartian city and fort on Karmir-Blur hill, near Yerevan.

Piotrovskii’s principal works are devoted to the history, culture, and art of the Caucasus and ancient East, in particular, the Urartu kingdom, and to the origin and ancient history of the Armenian people. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1946 for his work The History and Culture of Urartu (1944). Piotrovskii is a corresponding member of various foreign academies, including the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the British Academy of Sciences, and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. He has received the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and a number of medals.