Sergey Nikitin Chief Specialist of the Russian Federation in Anthropological Reconstruction. Anthropological reconstruction of the portraits of the "Kremlin wives
Photo of an anthropological reconstruction (sculptural bust) of a head on the skull of a man from the Eneolithic era from the settlement of Gladunino 3 / Kurgan region.
Reconstruction of the face from the skull of a man from mound 4 of the Taldy II burial ground. The burial ground is located near the village of Kasym Amanzholov, 300 km. from the city of Karaganda of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The burial corresponds to the Tasmolinian culture of the early Iron Age. The author of the excavations A.Z. Beisenov.
Sungir 1 - plastic reconstruction on the skull of a 40-50 year old man, whose remains were found at the Upper Paleolithic site of an ancient man in the Vladimir region. The parking lot is located on the eastern outskirts of Vladimir at the confluence of the stream of the same name with the Klyazma River, a kilometer from Bogolyubovo. Discovered in 1955 during the construction of a plant and investigated by O. N. Bader.
The Atlasovskoe 2 burial was discovered in 2014 in the area of the Botanical Garden of the North-Eastern Federal University, also by accident. In the grave pit there were iron stirrups and a bit, a knife in a birch bark sheath, iron scissors, metal parts of a headdress, an earring, and leather parts of a bib with sewn metal plaques. The remains belonged to a woman who died at the age of 30-40. The burial dates back to the XIV-XVII centuries. (carbon dating), refers to the Kulun-Atakh late medieval culture, which was widespread in Central Yakutia and Vilyui in the XIV-XVI centuries.
Brusnitsyn Lev Ivanovich (1784/86 - 1857) - the son of an artisan, from 1795 he began working at the Yekaterinburg gold mines, as a washer at a gold crushing factory. For his zeal in 1813 he was approved by the Chochsteiner. For many years he was searching for loose gold, in 1814 he discovered the existence of gold-bearing layers in the valleys of the Ural rivers (in contrast to the ineffective tray-based diligent washing on the banks). He invented mechanisms and worked out the technology of industrial extraction of loose gold. He went to all regions of Russia, where he taught and implemented his method of prospecting and mining, which led to a revolution in the gold mining industry and allowed Russia to come out on top in the world in gold mining by 1830. In 1814 he received the rank of Oberchsteiger, and in 1835 - the rank of Ober-Steiger. In 1845 he retired and was awarded a silver medal.
A portrait of a 50-60-year-old man from burial 27 of a historical and cultural object near the village of Zeleny Yar (Salekhard, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Region), including burials of two periods of the early Middle Ages (VIII-IX centuries and XII-XIII centuries). The restoration of the appearance of the mummified man was carried out using computed tomography and 3D printing.
The Sergelyakhskoye burial was found in the area of the Sergelyakhskoye highway, Yakutsk, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). According to AMS dating, the age of the burial is from the middle of the 15th to the beginning of the 16th centuries, i.e. it refers to the Kulun-Atakh late medieval culture, which was widespread in Central Yakutia and Vilyui in the XIV-XVI centuries.
The remains in the burial belong to a man who died at the age of 35-45. Injuries to the skull indicate the death of a person from wounds inflicted by a bladed weapon.
Sculptural reconstruction based on an artificially deformed skull of a woman from the Mandesarka-6 burial mound (Chelyabinsk region). Late Sarmatian culture II - III centuries AD The author of the excavations is Maria Makurova. Author Alexey Nechvaloda. Reconstruction tinting Elena Nechvaloda. Material: plastic, acrylic paints. Exhibiting: Museum-reserve "Arkaim".
A sculptural reconstruction from a manual model of skull no. 34640 (presumably identified as belonging to the last Inca emperor Ataulpa (?)) At the Museum of Man in Paris. Photo of the skull provided by the Museum of Man.
A sculptural reconstruction based on the skull of a woman from the Urzhar region of the East Kazakhstan region, where in one of the burial mounds was found an unbroken burial of a woman of the Saki period. Ceramic and wooden vessels and bones of a sacrificial animal, a sheep, were found at the buried. On the bones of the human skeleton, the remains of fabric from blue and green clothing have been preserved. At the head of the buried woman, gold earrings and a stone altar were found - an indispensable attribute of female burials of that time. The most valuable is a pointed gold headdress, richly decorated with floral patterns and zoomorphic ornaments. The headpiece also has arrow-shaped tops decorated with a spiral of gold wire. The lower part of the item was decorated with fluted pendants by ancient zergers. In form and ornamental embodiment, the find resembles folk Kazakh women's headdresses saukele and borik. Photo: O. Belyalov
A sculptural reconstruction based on the skull of a man from the Tashla-I burial mound. Timber-Alakul syncretic burial ground. Excavations by Yanina Rafikova. Author Alexey Nechvaloda. Material: tinted plaster. Exhibiting: National Museum of the Republic of Bashkotostan.
A sculptural reconstruction based on the skull of a man with an artificially deformed skull from the Tanabergen II burial ground. Late Sarmatian culture of the 3rd century n. NS. (Western Kazakhstan). Arman Bisembaev's excavations. Author Alexey Nechvaloda. Material: tinted plaster. Exhibiting: Aktobe Museum of History and Local Lore.
A sculptural reconstruction based on the skull of a man from mound 16 of the Berel kurgan necropolis (Kazakh Altai). Pazyryk culture of the 5th-4th centuries BC NS. Excavations by Zainulla Samashev.
Author Alexey Nechvaloda. Material: plastic, acrylic paints.
Exhibiting: National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
A sculptural reconstruction based on the skull of a man from mound 16 of the Berel kurgan necropolis (Kazakh Altai). Pazyryk culture of the 5th-4th centuries BC NS. Excavations by Zainulla Samashev. Author Alexey Nechvaloda. Material: plastic, acrylic paints. Exhibiting: National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
A sculptural reconstruction based on the skull of a woman from mound 16 of the Berel kurgan necropolis (Kazakh Altai). Pazyryk culture of the 5th-4th centuries BC NS. Excavations by Zainulla Samashev. Author Alexey Nechvaloda. Material: plastic, acrylic paints. Exhibiting: National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Natalia DAVYDOVA
Since 1993, a large group of researchers has purposefully and thoroughly studied the female necropolis of the Moscow Kremlin. As a result, a museum of "Kremlin wives" will appear in the annex of the Archangel Cathedral (about what scientists have discovered and what will be shown to us in the new museum "News" wrote on August 11). The most unusual part of the project was the anthropological reconstruction (restoration from the skull) of sculptural portraits of famous women from the Kremlin past. This is done by Sergei Nikitin, chief specialist of the Moscow forensic medical examination bureau.
Forensic expert Sergei Nikitin spoke about why he undertook the reconstruction of the faces of historical characters in an interview with the observer. Izvestia Natalia Davydova.
question: How did you decide to start exploring the necropolis? Themselves once said that it is not humanly to open graves, disturb the dead.
answer: It was not just that we wanted to open the tombs, look inside and dig in the bones. God forbid. It was simply planned to reconstruct the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral and restore the sarcophagi of the royal wives that have been there since 1929. It is impossible to restore the stone sarcophagus with the remains buried in it. It was necessary to get them, make an inventory. So there was an opportunity to study the remains and recreate the appearance of famous women. There are no portraits of these historical characters left, in fact, nothing, except for mention in the annals. And here - a unique opportunity to see faces. Isn't that interesting? But the research will end, we will return everything to the sarcophagi, and no one else will touch them. By the way, the Egyptians also opened ancient burials and even put their pharaohs on public display. True, it is difficult to imagine the appearance from the shrunken mummy, there is practically no face there, only a skull covered with leather. There are rather conventional images of the pharaohs - by the way, it would be interesting to compare how much they correspond to the skull. Today it is quite possible: you can make a tomography, using it - a plastic copy of the skull (of both a mummy and a living person) and reconstruct a portrait from the skull.
v: Those working in the Kremlin tell in a whisper that in the burial place of Anastasia Romanovna, the first wife of Ivan IV the Terrible and the first Russian tsarina, when it was opened, there were "two heads". Sounds ominous.
O: But it could be so. Apparently, the second skull ended up there in 1929, when the Bolsheviks decided to demolish the Ascension Convent. The workers of the Kremlin Museums managed to save his royal female necropolis: they described and transferred to the Archangel Cathedral heavy stone tombs with the remains of famous women. Some sarcophagi, for example, the Grand Duchess Evdokia, the wife of Dmitry Donskoy, collapsed when they were dug up. As it turned out in the course of our research, the second skull belonged to Evdokia. Apparently, in 1929 he was placed in the nearest whole sarcophagus, which turned out to be just the sarcophagus of Queen Anastasia. There was a great commotion, an emergency, everything was done by hand. In general, a monument to the staff of the Kremlin Museums should be erected for this scientific, cultural and human feat.
v: Why did you manage to make a sculptural portrait of Evdokia, the founder of the Ascension Monastery and the first buried in its necropolis in 1407, but not Anastasia Romanovna, who died in 1560?
O: From the skull of Queen Anastasia, only a heap of ashes and a pigtail remained. From the remains of it, we were able to determine only its age - 25-30 years, and for the restoration of its external appearance, it turned out to be unsuitable. But it happens that losses, if they are not so significant, do not interfere with reconstruction. You see, the amazing plasticity and organic nature of the skull allows you to restore many of its missing parts. So, in particular, it was possible to restore the skulls of Emperor Nicholas II, his daughters, valet of the Emperor Aloysius Troupe, the remains of which were discovered near Yekaterinburg. Now I am finishing a monograph summarizing my more than 30-year observations. It will be applied. I myself am a practitioner and I understand that this work will be in demand by forensic experts and anthropologists.
v: Failed to restore the portrait of Grozny's second wife - Kabardin Maria Temryukovna?
O: Yes, and that's a shame too. But the facial part of the skull of his third wife, Martha Sobakina, is perfectly preserved.
v: Probably, when they created her portrait, they kept in mind all the time that she was, in fact, the winner of one of the first beauty contests in Russia, held by tsarist decree.
O: She really was of amazing beauty. But before the wedding, she began to get sick, and two weeks after the wedding she died, in fact, without becoming a wife - such was the fate of the young beauty, and this was recorded in church documents. Since we have a forensic service, we decided to establish the cause of her death. In this sense, the Kremlin history is especially interesting. Before Martha, they poisoned the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, Anastasia Romanovna, with mercury salts, in the course of research it was proved absolutely for sure. The remains of Martha Sobakina were also checked for the presence of metal poisons. However, the analysis showed nothing. Perhaps a plant poison was used that did not lend itself to chemical research, or maybe her husband did something to her.
v: How long have you worked on the portrait of Martha?
O: From May 2002 to December 2003, about one and a half years. In such cases, haste is inappropriate. And then - this is not my main job. In fact, I do historical reconstruction in my free time - after 6-8 pm and until 2 am. I ponder every detail of the face to be recreated.
v: What does it mean to work on a face?
O: To make the portrait come alive. Here it is necessary to separate the forensic, scientific and anthropological parts of reconstruction and another stage - work on the image. It takes longer than the actual recovery itself.
v: You even have such a term - "animation" of a portrait. And how does "animation" happen?
O: It is necessary to pump out half of the blood from yourself and introduce it into the restored portrait. I have to feel the skull - its eye sockets, its contours. Understand, for example, how to open your eyes. I can sit opposite for two weeks and look at this appearance, while not yet animated. And therefore suddenly understand what and how to do to make a person "come to life". It's easier for sculptors, they sculpt from life. And my "nature" is a skull with empty eye sockets.
v: Which portrait is more difficult to reconstruct - female or male?
O: I think it's female. Even our teacher Mikhail Mikhailovich Gerasimov turned out male portraits much better than female ones. Feminine beauty is more difficult to reproduce than masculine coarseness.
v: Judging by the reconstructed appearance of Sophia Palaeologus, the overseas wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, who had experienced a lot of tragic events in her youth, was a very strong and strong-willed woman. Am I not mistaken that her mustache is visible in your sculptural portrait?
O: Right. And this is not a fiction. When I began to examine the skull of Sophia Palaeologus, I found growths on the inner side of the frontal bone - the so-called internal frontal hyperostosis. In other words, this is an indicator of hormonal disorders, which, by the way, are manifested not only in the "masculinity" of the face. With age, Sophia Palaeologus should have grown noticeably stout. But I didn’t portray it like that, I modeled it closer to the skull. It's amazing how this small woman (her height is about 160 cm) with great hormonal problems gave birth to 12 children.v: Is it true that in the near future you are going to "revive" Natalya Kirillovna, mother of Peter I?
O: Yes. Many, including me, will be interested to see how she looked, to understand what Peter inherited from his mother. Her skull is perfectly preserved. It is realistic to reconstruct both the portrait of the last wife of Ivan the Terrible - Maria Nagoya, and the portrait of his first mother-in-law (mother Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva). I call her the first mother-in-law in Russia. She was a hair-cut of the Ascension Monastery, she went there after the death of her daughter. This is an elderly woman, over 70 years old, I have never done such portraits in this project.
v: Experts say that the Russian Museum seems to have preserved Parsuns (as early secular portraits were called in Russia) with images of Natalya Kirillovna. Are you going to look at them?
O: I’ll finish the reconstruction, and if they really survived, we will compare.
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Sergey Nikitin is an expert of the forensic medicine department of the Moscow City Forensic Medical Examination Bureau. Chief specialist in anthropological reconstruction - restoration of a person's appearance from bone remains. Graduated from the Moscow Medical Institute. Pirogov, he began to engage in anthropological reconstruction since 1972 in the laboratory of Mikhail Gerasimov. He restored portraits of monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery - the chronicler Nestor, the hero Ilya Muromets, the healer Agapit - and the first abbot of this monastery, Varlaam. In the 1990s, he took part in the "tsarist" examination - the identification of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, members of his family and those close to him. With his help, it was possible to identify the remains of Nicholas II, his daughter Anastasia. As part of the "Kremlin" project, he restored portraits of Sophia Paleologue, Elena Glinskaya, Evdokia Donskoy, Irina Godunova, Marfa Sobakina and Masha Staritskaya, daughter of Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, niece of Ivan the Terrible, who died with her parents in 1569 (the whole family was poisoned by order of Ivan Grozny). In 2000, at an international competition for specialists in anthropological reconstruction in the United States, he performed a control restoration of a portrait from the skull with the best result.
What were the first beauties of Russia
By studying folklore and ancient literature, one can draw conclusions about the masculine tastes of earlier times in relation to women. The standard of female beauty in Russia was changing. In the early Middle Ages, the main beauties were considered fat, strong girls with a magnificent bust, wide hips - a clear relic of primitive aesthetics. But already in pre-Petrine Russia, the image of a domestic beauty changed.
The preferred was no longer full, but stately, certainly tall, figure, a white face with a bright blush and high "sable" eyebrows. Even the styles and details of women's clothing were subordinated to the visual creation of a majestic and static image. By the way, inactivity is an important advantage of the Russian woman of the previous era. The nimble giggles were not welcomed by the society.
Kremlin men were restored by Mikhail Gerasimov
Sergei Nikitin is not the first person to restore the portraits of the Kremlin celestials. 43 years ago, Mikhail Gerasimov (1907-1970), a famous archaeologist, anthropologist, sculptor, founder of the Russian School of Anthropological Reconstruction, worked in the Kremlin, who created sculptural reconstructions of primitive people and a number of historical figures, including Yaroslav the Wise and Timur (Tamerlane).
In 1963 Gerasimov studied the burials in the Archangel Cathedral. At that time, the cathedral was undergoing another restoration, work went below floor level, and it was decided to autopsy and study a number of remains. Gerasimov then made three portraits, including Ivan the Terrible, the first to establish for certain what he looked like (the portraits are kept today in the Museum of the History of Moscow). True, the level of science was different then, and there are few materials about those works - no comparison with the current project of studying the women's necropolis, when all the latest methods are used.
On the radio "Echo of Moscow" I heard an exciting conversation with the head of the archaeological department of the Kremlin Museums, Tatyana Dmitrievna Panova, and an expert anthropologist, Sergei Alekseevich Nikitin. They spoke in detail about their latest work. Sergei Alekseevich Nikitin very competently described Zoya (Sophia) Fominichna Palaeologus, who arrived in Moscow on November 12, 1473 from Rome from the most prominent Orthodox authority and then a cardinal under Pope Vissarion of Nicea to marry the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan Vasilyevich III. About Zoya (Sophia) Palaeologus as the bearer of the exploded West European subjectivity and its role in the history of Russia, see my previous notes. New details are interesting.
Doctor of Historical Sciences Tatyana Dmitrievna admits that at the very first visit to the Kremlin Museum she experienced a strong shock from the image of Sophia Palaeologus reconstructed from the skull. She could not move away from the appearance that struck her. Something in Sophia's face attracted her - interestingness and harshness, a kind of zest.
Tatiana Panova on September 18, 2004, spoke about research in the Kremlin necropolis. “We open each sarcophagus, seize the remains and remains of burial clothes. , we do not know much about him, and what diseases people were sick with then. But in general, there are a lot of interesting questions. But in particular, one of such interesting areas is the reconstruction of portraits of sculptural people of that time from the skulls. But you yourself know that we have a secular painting appears very late, only at the end of the 17th century, and here we have already reconstructed 5 portraits. We can see the faces of Evdokia Donskoy, Sophia Paleolog is the second wife of Ivan III, Elena Glinskaya is the mother of Ivan the Terrible. Sophia Paleolog is the grandmother of Ivan Grozny, and Elena Glinskaya is his mother. Then now we have a portrait of Irina Godunova, for example, we also succeeded due to the fact that the skull was preserved. And the last work is t The third wife of Ivan the Terrible is Martha Sobakina. Still a very young woman "(http://echo.msk.ru/programs/kremlin/27010/).
Then, as now, there was a turning point - Russia had to respond to the challenge of subjectization, or to the challenge of breaking through capitalism. The heresy of the Judaizers could well have taken over. The struggle at the top flared up serious and took, as in the West, the forms of struggle for the succession to the throne, for the victory of one or another party.
So, Elena Glinskaya died at the age of 30 and, as it turned out from the studies of her hair, spectral analysis was carried out - she was poisoned with mercury salts. The same thing - the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, Anastasia Romanova, also turned out to have a huge amount of mercury salts.
Since Sophia Palaeologus was a pupil of the Greek and Renaissance culture, she gave Russia a powerful impetus to subjectivity. The biography of Zoya (she was nicknamed Sophia in Russia) Palaeologus was able to recreate, collecting information bit by bit. But even today the exact date of her birth is unknown (somewhere between 1443 and 1449). She is the daughter of the Morey despot Thomas, whose possessions occupied the southwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula, where Sparta once flourished, and in the first half of the 15th century, the spiritual center of Orthodoxy was located in Mystra under the auspices of the famous herald of the Right Faith Gemist Pleton. Zoya Fominichna was the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, who died in 1453 on the walls of Constantinople while defending the city from the Turks. She grew up, figuratively speaking, in the arms of Gemist Pleton and his faithful disciple Vissarion of Nicaea.
Morea also fell under the blows of the Sultan's army, and Thomas moved first to the island of Corfu, then to Rome, where he soon died. Here, at the court of the head of the Catholic Church, where after the Union of Florence in 1438, Bessarion of Nicea firmly settled down, the children of Thomas - Zoe and her two brothers, Andreas and Manuel, were brought up.
The fate of the representatives of the once powerful dynasty of the Palaeologus was tragic. Manuel, who converted to Islam, died in poverty in Constantinople. Andreas, who dreamed of returning the former possessions of the family, never reached his goal. The elder sister of Zoya, Elena, the Serbian queen, deprived of the throne by the Turkish conquerors, ended her days in one of the Greek monasteries. Against this background, the fate of Zoe Palaeologus looks good.
The strategically-minded Vissarion of Nicaea, playing a leading role in the Vatican, after the fall of the Second Rome (Constantinople) turned his eyes to the northern stronghold of Pravolsavia, to Muscovite Russia, which, although it was under the Tatar yoke, was clearly gaining strength and could soon appear as a new world power ... And he led a complex intrigue to marry the heiress of the Byzantine emperors Palaeologus to the widowed Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III shortly before (in 1467). Negotiations dragged on for three years because of the resistance of the Metropolitan of Moscow, but the will of the prince prevailed, and on June 24, 1472, Zoe Palaeologus's large wagon train left Rome.
The Greek princess crossed all of Europe: from Italy to northern Germany, to Lubeck, where the cortege arrived on September 1. Further sailing in the Baltic Sea turned out to be difficult and lasted 11 days. From Kolyvan (as in Russian sources then Tallinn was called) in October 1472 the procession headed through Yuryev (now Tartu), Pskov and Novgorod to Moscow. Such a long way had to be done due to bad relations with the Polish kingdom - the convenient land road to Russia was closed.
Only on November 12, 1472, Sophia entered Moscow, where on the same day her meeting and wedding with Ivan III took place. This is how the “Russian” period began in her life.
She brought with her loyal Greek helpers, including Kerbush, from whom the princes of Kashkin went. She also brought a number of Italian things. Embroideries also came from her, which set the patterns for the future "Kremlin wives". Having become the mistress of the Kremlin, she tried in many ways to copy the images and orders of her native Italy, which in those years was experiencing a monstrously powerful explosion of subjectivity.
Vissarion of Nicaea had earlier sent to Moscow a portrait of Zoya Palaeologus, which made the impression of a bomb exploding on the Moscow elite. After all, a secular portrait, like a still life, is a symptom of subjectivity. In those years, every second family in the same most advanced "capital of the world" Florence had portraits of the owners, and in Russia they were closer to subjectivity in "Judaizing" Novgorod than in more mossy Moscow. The appearance of a painting in Russia, unfamiliar with secular art, shocked people. We know from the Sophia Chronicle that the chronicler, who first encountered such a phenomenon, could not abandon the church tradition and called the portrait an icon: "... and bring the princess on the icon." The fate of the painting is unknown. Most likely, she died in one of the many Kremlin fires. No images of Sophia have survived in Rome either, although the Greek woman spent about ten years at the papal court. So we, apparently, will never know what she was like in her youth.
Tatyana Panova in the article "The Incarnation of the Middle Ages" http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/publishing/vs/column/?item_id=2556 notes that secular painting appeared in Russia only at the end of the 17th century - before that it was under strict ecclesiastical ban. This is why we don't know what famous characters from our past looked like. "Now, thanks to the work of the specialists of the Moscow Kremlin Museum-Reserve and forensic experts, we have the opportunity to see the appearance of three legendary women of the Grand Duchesses: Evdokia Dmitrievna, Sophia Paleologue and Elena Glinskaya. And reveal the secrets of their life and death."
The wife of the Florentine ruler Lorenzo Medici - Clarissa Orsini - found the young Zoya Palaeologus very pleasant: "Small in stature, the eastern flame sparkled in her eyes, the whiteness of her skin spoke of the nobility of her family." Face with antennae. Height 160. Full. Ivan Vasilyevich fell in love at first sight and went with her to the marriage bed (after the wedding) on the same day, November 12, 1473, when Zoya arrived in Moscow.
The arrival of a foreigner was a significant event for Muscovites. The chronicler noted in the bride's retinue "blue" and "black" people - Arabs and Africans, never before seen in Russia. Sophia became a participant in a complex dynastic struggle for the succession of the Russian throne. As a result, her eldest son Vasily (1479-1533) became the Grand Duke bypassing the legitimate heir Ivan, whose early death allegedly from gout remains a mystery to this day. Having lived in Russia for more than 30 years, having given birth to her husband 12 children, Sophia Paleologue left an indelible mark on the history of our country. Her grandson Ivan the Terrible resembled her in many ways. Anthropologists and forensic experts helped historians learn about this person details that are not in written sources. It is now known that the Grand Duchess was small in stature - no more than 160 cm, suffered from osteochondrosis and had serious hormonal disorders, which led to a masculine appearance and behavior. Her death occurred for natural reasons at the age of 55-60 years (the range of figures is due to the fact that the exact year of her birth is unknown). But, perhaps, the most interesting were the works to recreate the appearance of Sophia, since her skull is well preserved. The technique of reconstructing a sculptural portrait of a person has long been actively used in forensic search practice, and the accuracy of its results has been repeatedly proven.
“I,” says Tatiana Panova, “was lucky to see the stages of recreating the appearance of Sophia, not knowing all the circumstances of her difficult fate. And it could not have been - the struggle for her own survival and the fate of her son could not but leave traces.Sophia made sure that her eldest son became Grand Duke Vasily III.The death of the legitimate heir, Ivan Molodoy, at the age of 32 from gout, is still in doubt By the way, the Italian Leon, invited by Sophia, took care of the prince's health. Greek blood also affected Ivan IV the Terrible - he is very similar to his royal grandmother with a Mediterranean type. tsa. This is clearly seen when you look at the sculptural portrait of his mother - Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya. "
As the expert-criminologist of the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medicine S.A. Nikitin and T.D. Panova write in the article "Anthropological Reconstruction" (http://bio.1september.ru/article.php?ID=200301806), creation in the middle of the XX century. Russian school of anthropological reconstruction and the work of its founder M.M. Gerasimov performed a miracle. Today we can peer into the faces of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky and Timur, Tsar Ivan IV and his son Fyodor. By now, historical figures have been reconstructed: the researcher of the Far North N.A. Begichev, Nestor the Chronicler, the first Russian doctor Agapit, the first abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Varlaam, Archimandrite Polycarp, Ilya Muromets, Sophia Paleologue and Elena Glinskaya (respectively, the grandmother and mother of Ivan the Terrible), Evdokia Donskaya (wife of Dmitry Donskoy), Irina Godunova (wife of Fyodor Ioanovich). The restoration of the face on the skull of a pilot who died in 1941 in the battles for Moscow, carried out in 1986, made it possible to establish his name. The portraits of Vasily and Tatiana Pronchishchev, participants of the Great Northern Expedition, have been restored. Developed by the school of M.M. Gerasimov's methods of anthropological restoration are successfully used in solving criminal offenses.
Research on the remains of the Greek princess Sophia Palaeologus began in December 1994. She was buried in a massive white-stone sarcophagus in the tomb of the Ascension Cathedral in the Kremlin next to the grave of Maria Borisovna, the first wife of Ivan III. On the lid of the sarcophagus, "Sophia" is scratched with a sharp instrument.
The necropolis of the Ascension Convent on the territory of the Kremlin, where in the XV-XVII centuries. buried Russian Great and appanage princesses and tsarinas, after the destruction of the monastery in 1929 was saved by museum workers. Now the ashes of tall persons rest in the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral. Time is merciless, and not all burials have reached us completely, but the remains of Sophia Palaeologus are well preserved (almost a complete skeleton, with the exception of some small bones).
Modern osteologists can determine a lot by studying ancient burials - not only the gender, age and height of people, but also the diseases they endured during their life, and injuries. After comparing the skull, spine, sacrum, pelvic bones and lower extremities, taking into account the approximate thickness of the missing soft tissues and interosseous cartilage, it was possible to reconstruct the appearance of Sophia. The biological age of the Grand Duchess was determined by the degree of overgrowing of the seams of the skull and the deterioration of the teeth at 50–60 years, which corresponds to historical data. At first, her sculptural portrait was sculpted from a special soft plasticine, and then a plaster casting was made and tinted to resemble Carrara marble.
Looking into Sophia's face, you are convinced: such a woman could really be an active participant in the events, as evidenced by written sources. Unfortunately, in modern historical literature there is no detailed biographical sketch dedicated to her fate.
Under the influence of Sophia Palaeologus and her Greco-Italian entourage, Russian-Italian ties are intensified. Grand Duke Ivan III invites qualified architects, doctors, jewelers, coin makers and weapons manufacturers to Moscow. By the decision of Ivan III, foreign architects were entrusted with the rebuilding of the Kremlin, and today we admire the monuments, the appearance of which in the capital owe to Aristotle Fiorovanti and Marco Ruffo, Aleviz Fryazin and Antonio Solari. It is amazing, but many buildings of the late 15th - early 16th century. in the ancient center of Moscow have survived the same as they were during the life of Sophia Palaeologus. These are the temples of the Kremlin (the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe), the Faceted Chamber - the ceremonial hall of the grand ducal courtyard, the walls and towers of the fortress itself.
The strength and independence of Sophia Palaeologus were especially clearly manifested in the last decade of the life of the Grand Duchess, when in the 80s. XV century. in a dynastic dispute at the court of the Moscow sovereign, two groups of feudal nobility were formed. The leader of one was the heir to the throne, Prince Ivan Young, the son of Ivan III from his first marriage. The second was formed in the environment of "Grekini". Around Elena Voloshanka, the wife of Ivan the Young, a powerful and influential group of "Judaizers" was formed, which nearly won Ivan III over to its side. Only the fall of Dmitry (grandson of Ivan III from his first marriage) and his mother Elena (in 1502 they were imprisoned, where they died) put an end to this protracted conflict.
The sculptural reconstruction-portrait revives the appearance of Sophia in the last years of her life. And today there is an amazing opportunity to compare the appearance of Sophia Palaeologus and her grandson, Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, whose sculptural portrait was recreated by M.M. Gerasimov back in the mid-1960s. It is clearly visible: the oval of the face, forehead and nose, eyes and chin of Ivan IV are almost the same as those of his grandmother. Studying the skull of the formidable king, M.M. Gerasimov singled out significant signs of the Mediterranean type in it and unambiguously linked this with the origin of Sophia Palaeologus.
In the arsenal of the Russian school of anthropological reconstruction, there are different methods: plastic, graphic, computer and combined. But the main thing in them is the search and proof of patterns in the shape, size and position of one or another detail of the face. Various techniques are used to recreate the portrait. This is the development of M.M. Gerasimov on the construction of eyelids, lips, wings of the nose and the method of G.V. Lebedinskaya concerning the reproduction of the profile pattern of the nose. The technique of modeling the general cover of soft tissues with the use of calibrated thick ridges makes it possible to reproduce the cover more accurately and noticeably faster.
On the basis of the technique developed by Sergei Nikitin for comparing the appearance of the details of the face and the underlying part of the skull, specialists of the Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation created a combined graphic method. The regularity of the position of the upper border of hair growth was established, a definite relationship between the setting of the auricle and the severity of the "supra-mastoid ridge" was revealed. In recent years, a method has been developed for determining the position of the eyeballs. The signs were revealed that allow determining the presence and severity of epicanthus (Mongoloid fold of the upper eyelid).
Armed with advanced techniques, Sergei Alekseevich Nikitin and Tatyana Dmitrievna Panova revealed a number of nuances in the fate of the Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya and the great-granddaughter of Sofia Paleologue - Maria Staritskaya.
The mother of Ivan the Terrible - Elena Glinskaya - was born around 1510. She died in 1538. She is the daughter of Vasily Glinsky, who, together with his brothers, fled from Lithuania to Russia after a failed uprising in his homeland. In 1526, Elena became the wife of Grand Duke Vasily III. His tender letters to her have survived. In 1533-1538, Elena was regent with her young son, the future Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. During her reign, the walls and towers of Kitai-Gorod were built in Moscow, they carried out a monetary reform (“the great prince Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia and his mother the Grand Duchess Elena ordered to remake old money for a new coinage, so that there was a lot of cut money in the old money and a mixture ... "), concluded an armistice with Lithuania.
Under Glinskaya, two of her husband's brothers, Andrei and Yuri, applicants for the Grand Duke's throne, died in prison. This is how the Grand Duchess tried to defend the rights of her son Ivan. The ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire, Sigmund Herberstein, wrote about Glinskaya: “After the death of the sovereign, Michael (the princess's uncle) repeatedly reproached his widow for a dissolute life; for this she accused him of treason, and he unhappy died in custody. A little later, the cruel one herself perished from poison, and her lover, nicknamed the Sheep, was said to have been torn to pieces and chopped to pieces. " Evidence of the poisoning of Elena Glinskaya was confirmed only at the end of the 20th century, when historians studied her remains.
“The idea of the project that will be discussed,” recalls Tatiana Panova, “arose several years ago, when I took part in the examination of human remains found in the basement of an old Moscow house. The NKVD in Stalin's times. But the burials turned out to be part of a destroyed cemetery of the 17th-18th centuries. The investigator was happy to close the case, and Sergei Nikitin, who worked with me from the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, suddenly discovered that he and the historian-archeologist had a common object for research - the remains of historical figures. Thus, in 1994, work began in the necropolis of the Russian Grand Duchesses and Queens of the 15th - early 18th centuries, which has been preserved since the 1930s in an underground chamber next to the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral. "
And now the reconstruction of the appearance of Elena Glinskaya highlighted her Baltic type. The Glinsky brothers - Mikhail, Ivan and Vasily - moved to Moscow at the beginning of the 16th century after a failed conspiracy of the Lithuanian nobility. In 1526, the daughter of Vasily, Elena, who, according to the then concepts, had already sat up in girls, became the wife of Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich. She died suddenly, 27-28 years old. The face of the princess was distinguished by soft features. She was quite tall for women of that time - about 165 cm and harmoniously built. Anthropologist Denis Pezhemsky discovered a very rare anomaly in her skeleton: six lumbar vertebrae instead of five.
One of Ivan the Terrible's contemporaries noted the reddishness of his hair. Now it is clear whose color the tsar inherited: the burial contains the remains of Elena Glinskaya's hair - red, like red copper, color. It was the hair that helped to find out the cause of the unexpected death of the young woman. This is extremely important information, because Elena's early death undoubtedly influenced the subsequent events of Russian history, on the formation of the character of her orphaned son Ivan - the future formidable tsar.
As you know, the cleansing of the human body from harmful substances occurs through the liver-kidney system, but many toxins accumulate and remain in the hair for a long time. Therefore, in cases where soft organs are inaccessible for research, experts do a spectral analysis of the hair. The remains of Elena Glinskaya were analyzed by forensic expert, candidate of biological sciences Tamara Makarenko. The results are overwhelming. In the objects of research, the expert found the concentration of mercury salts, a thousand times higher than the norm. The body could not accumulate such quantities gradually, which means that Elena immediately received a huge dose of poison, which caused acute poisoning and became the cause of her imminent death.
Later, Makarenko repeated the analysis, which convinced her: there was no mistake, the picture of the poisoning turned out to be so vivid. The young princess was exterminated with the help of mercury salts, or mercuric chloride, one of the most common mineral poisons of that era.
So more than 400 years later, it was possible to find out the cause of the death of the Grand Duchess. And thereby to confirm the rumors about the poisoning of Glinskaya, cited in the notes of some foreigners who visited Moscow in the XVI-XVII centuries.
Nine-year-old Maria Staritskaya was also poisoned in October 1569, together with her father Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky, a cousin of Ivan IV Vasilyevich, on the way to the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, at the very height of the Oprichnina, when potential pretenders to the Moscow throne were being destroyed. The Mediterranean ("Greek") type, clearly traced in the guise of Sophia Palaeologus and her grandson Ivan the Terrible, also distinguishes her great-granddaughter. A crooked nome, plump lips, a masculine face. And a tendency to bone disease. So, Sergei Nikitin discovered signs of frontal hyperostosis (proliferation of the frontal bone) on the skull of Sofia Palaeologus, which is associated with the production of an excess of male hormones. And Maria's great-granddaughter was found to have rickets.
As a result, the face of the past became close, tangible. Half a millennium - but as if yesterday.
Graduated. Expert of the highest qualification category, chief specialist of the Moscow Bureau of Forensic Medicine. He developed methods of comparative study of photographic images of the face and skull, as well as graphic construction of a portrait from the skull using computer programs. For 37 years he has been working on improving the methods of reconstructing both the portrait and the skull itself; continues to search for the dependence of the face and its details on the structure of the skull.
He has been working in the Bureau of Forensic Medicine since 1973 after graduating from the institute, where he was trained in forensic medicine at the Department of Forensic Medicine (in a scientific student circle, then in subordination, in 1975 he completed his clinical residency).
In 1972-1975. in the laboratory of Mikhail Gerasimov, he began to engage in anthropological reconstruction (restoration of the head from the skull). In 1973-1982. worked in thanatological departments and in the medico-forensic department of the Bureau, since 1982 he has been working in the medico-forensic department, in 1976-1981. was a consultant to the department of facial reconstruction on the skull of the Central Scientific Research Laboratory of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. During this period, he developed a technique that formed the basis for a combined graphic reconstruction method, which is successfully used to this day.
On the instructions of the Bureau of the SME and the Research Institute of SM of the USSR Ministry of Health, he went on business trips for an expert assessment of the exhumed corpses. He took part in scientific and practical developments with the All-Russian Research Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine. In 1984-2006. carried out research for the Department of Archeology of Moscow State University, Zhukovsky State Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, the scientific department of the history of caves at the Kiev-Pechersk GIKZ, the Institute of World Literature, the Archaeological Department of the Moscow Kremlin, the Dmitry Shparo Club, the Moscow Patriarchate, the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Association "War Memorials", the State Archives of the Russian Federation, trained 5 specialists in the field of anthropological reconstruction.
In 1994, he performed a portrait examination on the discovery of the remains of the royal family, participated in the work of a government commission. In January 1995, on behalf of the Minister of Health and Medical Industry of the Russian Federation, he was sent to Mozdok to organize research on the remains of unknown persons who died at the beginning of the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic. Conducted expert examinations on the facts of terrorist acts in Moscow and Beslan.
Made a presentation at the 52nd Congress of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (USA, Reno, February 2000). At the international competition for specialists in the field of anthropological reconstruction in the USA (March 2000), he performed a control restoration of a portrait from the skull with the best result.
In the Kremlin, in the underground of the Archangel Cathedral, there is the world's only female necropolis. More than 50 sarcophagi with the remains of noble women of medieval Russia.
The names of some have long been forgotten. The names of others are still remembered today.
Among them: the founder of the Necropolis, the wife of Dmitry Donskoy Evdokia. Mother of Ivan the Terrible Elena Glinskaya and his wives: Anastasia Romanovna, Maria Temryukovna, Martha Sobakina, Maria Nagaya; mother of Peter the Great Natalya Naryshkia ... Some of them influenced the course of history, constantly being in the center of political intrigue. Others saw their duty in sacrificial service to their husbands. And almost each of the crowned beauties has its own secret. For example, a study of the remains of Anastasia, the first wife of the Terrible, proved that she was poisoned.
The study of medieval burials allows you to find out what the first ladies of ancient Russia wore, what cosmetics they used, what they got sick and from what they died, what their figures were, their height, weight, hair color. History literally takes on flesh.
Anthropologists-criminologists use the surviving skulls to reconstruct the true appearance of the Grand Duchesses and Queens.
Evdokia Dmitrievna (1353-1407).
Evdokiya Dmitrievna is the daughter of the Grand Duke of Suzdal Dmitry Konstantinovich. At the age of 13, she was married to the 15-year-old Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich, who later received the nickname Donskoy. Known for her philanthropy
Elena Vasilievna Glinskaya (1508-1538).
The wife of the Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich and the mother of Ivan the Terrible, Elena Glinskaya, was poisoned with mercury. In the course of the study, this was proved using spectral and chemical analysis of bone remains and hair.
By the way, the hair is perfectly preserved. That made it possible to determine with an accuracy of 100 percent that Elena Glinskaya had a luxurious fiery red hair.
Sofia Fominichna Paleologue (1455-1503).
nothing is accidental in nature. We are talking about the striking resemblance of Sophia Palaeologus and her grandson, Tsar Ivan IV, whose original appearance is well known to us from the work of the famous Soviet anthropologist M.M. Gerasimov. The scientist, working on the portrait of Ivan Vasilyevich, noted the features of the Mediterranean type in his appearance, linking this precisely with the influence of the blood of his grandmother, Sophia Paleologue.
Recently, researchers had an interesting idea - to compare not only portraits recreated by human hands, but also what nature itself created - the skulls of these two people. And then the study of the skull of the Grand Duchess and an exact copy of the skull of Ivan IV was carried out using the method of shadow overlay, developed by the author of the sculptural reconstruction of the portrait of Sophia Palaeologus. And the results exceeded all expectations, so many coincidences were found.
Marfa Vasilyevna Sobakina is the third, who never happened, the wife of Grozny.
According to legend, the opening of her tomb revealed a striking biological phenomenon. The tsar's bride lay in the coffin as if alive, untouched by decay, despite the fact that she had been in the coffin for 360 years. A few minutes were enough for her face to turn black and turn to dust.
If it was poisoned with mercury salts, then such preservation and rapid destruction of the remains is a completely possible thing.
Tsarina Irina Fedorovna Godunova (1557-1603).
Irina Godunova, wife of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and sister of Boris Godunov, suffered from a serious disease of the bone apparatus, possibly even hereditary.
The real miracle of the underground chamber is Masha Staritskaya.
The girl, who is almost 500 years old, is the eleven-year-old niece of Ivan the Terrible, who was killed by Malyuta Skuratov in 1569. Her face was literally recreated from the dust in 2005.
Anthropologists were shocked by the state of the girl's skeleton - traces of rickets are too clear in it. This is the first reconstructed portrait of a child from the period of the Russian Middle Ages in our country.
Some of the remains have bones in such a state that no reconstruction is possible. But scientists hope to be able to create 4 more portraits. In the near future, Sergei Nikitin will try to "revive" the mother of Peter I, Natalia Kirillovna.
