 OK, thank you. Good morning, everyone. So the collection of Coraline Province Museum, undoubtedly, is an important part of the Latvian cultural heritage. At the time, it was also a notable European-wide cultural and historical repository. However, even today, Latvians have problems in keeping this legacy without hard feelings and suspicions of colonialism or paternalism. The Literature and Art Society of Courland, German-Kurlendische Gesellschaft für Literatur und Kunst in Mietau today, Yalga, was founded by Baltic Germans, their intellectuals, in 1815, about 100 years before Latvia was declared an independent country. The society was one of the very first scientific associations in Latvia, as well as in whole Baltics, being part of Russian Empire at the time. The society was a private organization self-financed based on the 18th century ideals of enlightenment and humanism. There is also an opinion among researchers that the society was just a cover for free nations, who since 1822 were actually illegal in Russian Empire. Founders and members of the society were highly intellectual. All the initiatives were based on their wide interests of the members combining both natural sciences, such as math, chemistry, astronomy, et cetera, and humanities, such as art and literature, and also archaeology. However, the specialization of science was not that strict at the time, for example, professional artist Julius Dering being a librarian in the society who had done several archaeological excavations at his spare time, loved to study chemistry, astronomy, and other sciences. The literature and art society of Courland gathered the most of intellectuals from the region. In fact, today, the Latvian Academy of Science, established in 1946, sees itself as ideological hair of the society. The aim of Courland society was to serve the purposes of science as ultimate goal to research, develop, and cultivate historical, cultural, literal art, historical, social, philosophical, natural, and mathematical sciences to introduce the local history and nature to wider public by maintaining the museum and its collection. The Literature and Art Society of Courland owned the Courland Province Museum and the Atheneum Society, which had the same executive council, but different statutes. In reality, their functions overlapped. In 2018, we celebrate 200 years since the society founded a museum in Yalgava. The monthly meetings of the society and the museum members were initially held at the Yalgava Gymnasium Academy of Petrina Conference Hall, but bigger annual meetings in the Courland Nobility House Hall. Already in 1818, the society rented rooms in Steffenhagen's typography for museum needs. In 1898, a new museum building was erected. This was the society meeting room. But in the statutes of the museum and the Atheneum Society, we can see that their aim was to serve the science by maintaining and enriching the collection of museum and library and making exhibitions. Furthermore, they had legal rights organized or participate in archaeological excavations. The society also had annual budget for excavations. And it seems there was no general plan how to do research nor how to select monuments. The research apparently all depended on personal interests. Mostly, there were small-scale excavations or field surveys. The most widespread were studies of historical geography. Many researchers tried to identify in Hilford's the location of castles mentioned in written sources. Related to that, we studied ethnogenesis and linguistics. The chief interests focused on territory of Latvia, especially Courland. Archive documents showed that the important aim of the society was to do research, develop, and cultivate archaeology, ethnology, and other sciences, always stressing that the collections of museum must be open to wider public. Once a week, it publicly opened. And indeed, the entrance ticket cost 20 kopecks, which was quite much at the time. The pluralism of ideas ruling the archaeological science at the time can be seen in the exposition of Provence Museum. The part dedicated to the ancient indigenous inhabitants of Latvia attempted to sort archaeological objects according to the chronological and typological principles. The Baltic Germans already started the focus on ethnolinguistic research in the archaeology of Latvia by distinguishing and exhibiting later on age finds, artifacts, and monuments, attributing them to particular historical ethnic groups, for example, Cronians or Symmegalians. The descriptions of the exposition make it impossible to discern a single tote-out principle of forming and displaying the collection. Even during the 30s, with its uncritically overpacked space, the museum reminds more of a Kunstkammer, which is unsurprising since, from its beginning, society was acting as such, drawing inspiration for the new museum from St. Petersburg's Kunstkammer and similar collections around Europe. Members of the society had collected quite much archaeological and other material. So soon enough, museum was in necessity. The Baltic Germans in their intelligentsia did not want to stand by, while all across Europe, more and more museums opened. For example, the Fitzwilliam Museum of the University of Cambridge, 1816, National Museum of Prague, 1818, National Museum of Denmark, 1819. The structure of the Curlin Museum included a cabinet of physicalities, natural historical collection, ethnographical collection, archaeological cabinet, and a mathematical collection, and art collection. They officially assembled everything, connected to the culture, history, science, and nature of Curland. But in reality, the museum was without its special collection management policy, besides Latvian archaeology and German art, also antiquities, art pieces, and items from other parts of the world were collected. Of course, it made the museum very, very exciting. The very first inscriptions in museums' archaeological inventory book from 1890 is a bronze Roman figurine and Roman coins found in the territory of Latvia. But for example, here we can see some artifacts from Latvian. We also have some flint tools from Denmark, probably the most distant artifact that has reached the Curlin Province Museum is this stone tool from Florida in North America. Besides artifacts described as archaeological or prehistorical, there were also sculpture originals and replicas from the classical antiquity and Egyptian artifacts which were seen mostly as art pieces. Noblemen loved to take some souvenirs from their travels around the world, which quite often ended up in the museum. Due to private interest and personal contacts of the members, archaeology in territory of Latvia developed under direct influences from the newest discoveries around the world. Society held monthly or more frequent scientific readings, which with discussions in the museum, the reports were published in periodical journals, excavation reports, and most of the received items are mentioned there. Therefore, much valuable information for archaeologists are still left for future analysis. The society exchanged its scientific publications with more than 200 regional and foreign scientific institutions. The archives and correspondence of the society show regular contacts with such institutions as Germanisches National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and many others. Here I've listed only a few of them. For example, the Historical Society of Mecklenburg sent instructions for methodology of archaeological excavations according to the typology of monuments. Besides institutions, society exchanged letters with private individuals amongst whom were many prominent European scientists, sometimes awarded the honorary member titles of the society or the museum. Overall, the Kirlin Province Museum and the whole Kirlin was mainly German and Germany-oriented. After the First World War, Latvians also began to focus on archaeology, but Kirlin Province Museum became an anachronism and unwanted symbol of German superiority. Government tried to find some reason to close the museum. In 1938, both Germans started to repatriate Germany and took some part but not all of the museum collection with them. Museum was fully closed in 1941. The Latvian National Historical Museum received the archaeological collection of more than 5,000 items, which at the time was one of the biggest collections they had. In 1944, the museum was with huge part of the remaining collection was destroyed along the whole city. After many years, the fate of most of the rich collection is still not known. The today's Geder-Teljes History and Art Museum, where I work in Jalgavo, considers itself as a successor to the Kirlin Province Museum. It is located in the same academia between a building where the first meetings were held. Unfortunately, Jalgavo has regained the old inventory books and large part of the collection devoted to the Latvian archaeology. A problem remains the artifacts that are heavily damaged with 200 years old conservation methods that there's not much left of them. As here we see beeswax and metal staples. Today, there are many institutions in Latvian and other countries that have some parts of the former collection like the German Herder Institute has photos. And there was also made descriptions on the collection just before it was destroyed. See, significantly, the photos are luckily preserved. Although many items have lost their inventory designations, I hope it will be able to detect at least some part of them maybe regained. We can also see the drawings in old publications, so there is hope. In Latvian historiography, due to mostly political antipathies and historical resentment, we often criticize Baltic Germans for lack of scientificity and describe their actions as treasure hunting. But lately, there are more those who admit that it is not necessarily true. The context of that age and overall development of science proves that archaeology in Latvian territory kept up to date and was by no means inferior to the Western world. There was also descriptions of stratigraphy made photos while excavations. So we see some scientificity already in the middle or in the beginning of 19th century. One quality that distinguishes treasure hunting from professional science is the attitude towards research object. When the most important for you is not the material value of the find, but rather the historical meaning of it, then we can talk about science. Of course, we can see in the museum collection we can see many beautiful and interesting artifacts as these bronze jewelry, necklaces that are big and noticeable weapons. Even Latvian ethnographical items can be found in archaeological collection. But as we see there also have accurately collected other finds. Also a very, very small ceramics, even coals were gathered. Although members of the society were not professional archaeologists or historians. Their education, experience, and expertise allows recognizing them as the founders of the archaeological science in Latvia. The society provided members with scientific education, literature, and exchange of experience. And it was a very modern and up-to-date project as a great platform for meeting specialists of various fields discussing the latest discoveries. The first discussions about Latvian ancestors, their material culture, appearance, their archaeological heritage, and types of monuments started in the walls of Carlin Pervinus Museum. And although now we can see many errors in their assumptions overall, we can't forget that at the time those ideas on conclusions were a product of up-to-date scientific reasoning. OK, that was very short. Thank you.