Nikolay Veselovsky

Nikolai Ivanovich Veselovsky (Николай Иванович Веселовский, November 1848 - 30 March 1918) was a Russian archaeologist and orientalist, specializing in the history and archaeology of Central Asia. Born in Moscow, schooled in Vologda, studied at Saint Petersburg State University. Reader in 1877, extraordinarius in 1884, ordinarius from 1890. He was the first to excavate Afrasiab, the oldest part of Samarkand, as well as several notable kurgans in Southern Russia and Ukraine, notably the Solokha, Kostromskaya and Maikop kurgans. Some of the finest examples of Scythian art, including the Solokha comb, were discovered by Veselovsky and his team.