Piotrovsky was born in
Saint Petersburg in 1908. He specialized in the history and archaeology of the
Caucasus region and beginning in the 1930s, he began to acquaint himself with Urartian civilization. He was the head of 1939 excavations that uncovered the Urartian fortress of
Teishebaini in
Armenia (known in Armenian as
Karmir Blur, or Red Hill). Evidence found there has been key in understanding the Urartian civilization. Piotrovsky lead further excavations in Armenia in the ancient settlements of Tsovinar, Redkig-lager, Kirovakan (now
Vanadzor) and Aygevan until 1971. These were not Piotrovsky's sole contributions in the archaeological field, however. Piotrovsky worked elsewhere in the Caucasus, especially on the
Scythian culture. In 1961, he was placed at the head of an expedition of the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union to study
Nubian monuments in Egypt. He also spent 26 years as Director of the
Hermitage Museum, which has been run by his
son Mikhail thereafter. He was also the supervisor of the renowned Armenian archaeologist
Gregory Areshian. The Hermitage holds an annual conference in his honor. He died of a
cerebral hemorrhage in Leningrad in 1990 at the age of 82. ==Works==