Maryam Magomedovna Dandamayeva, our dear colleague in the field of classical Oriental studies, Assyriologist, died suddenly on May 12, 2026. Her research focused on the migration of Greek mercenaries, merchants and travelers to the lands of the Mesopotamian civilization. In her Candidate of Sciences (PhD) dissertation, she examined the preconditions that led to the formation of Hellenism through interethnic contacts between the West and the East.

In 1979, after graduating from the Leningrad State University (Faculty of Philology, Department of Classical Philology), she entered the postgraduate program in 1982 and several years later started working at the State Hermitage. M.M. Dandamayeva was a perfect curator: she managed chronologically and typologically diverse items, such as Greek and Coptic papyri, Sassanid toreutics, artefacts of pre-Columbian America. Since 2003, M.M. Dandamayeva served as the Academic Secretary of the Hermitage.

Research and administrative work revealed the main talents of M.M. Dandamayeva: sincerity, cordiality, readiness to help others. Most of us asked her for a guest ticket to the Hermitage or an extra copy of some catalogue, and she always found a way to help.

Maryam Magomedovna Dandamayeva will be always remembered by her colleagues and friends as an Orientalist and a great person.

Administration and researchers of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS, express their sincere condolences to the family and friends of Maryam Magomedovna Dandamayeva.