The second team of the complex expedition of the Northern Fleet and the Russian Geographical Society discovered four hundred-year-old coins in the Arctic.
The researchers on the “Ilya Muromets” icebreaker entered the Simsa Bay in the Laptev Sea and examined the coast. Important historical artifacts have been discovered. In particular, on the cape of the southern coast of the bay, the researchers found nine coins of the 17th century and a turquoise glass bead. According to the expeditionary team historians, these findings testify to the early development of the Northeast Passage by the Pomors. The last time research on the Faddey Islands and on the coast of the Simsa Bay was carried out in the 1940s by a special archaeological expedition. Then, in this region of the Arctic, artifacts of the 17th century were also discovered.
"Based on the results of processing the materials collected by the expeditionary team, the question of organizing and planning a separate archaeological expedition to this area will be raised," commented on the recent find Colonel Sergei Churkin, chief scientist of the complex expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Northern Fleet to the Arctic.
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Earlier, the researchers working on the “Ilya Muromets” icebreaker near the Taimyr Peninsula found traces of Vladimir Rusanov's expedition, clarified the coordinates of artillery batteries on the Kara Sea coast, and, during underwater research, identified the location of several ships that sank in the Kara Sea in the 20th century. Presumably, one of them may be the “Vaygach” icebreaker steamer.
The icebreaker “Ilya Muromets” continues to explore the Arctic while sailing along the Northeast Passage to the east as part of the Joint Complex Expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Northern Fleet to the Arctic archipelagos. Since the beginning of the expedition "Ilya Muromets" has covered more than 2,000 miles along the Barents and Kara Seas. Now a group of scientists and sailors is heading to Tiksi.