Archaeological research conducted in the heart of Asia, in Tuva in southern Siberia, over the past few decades, has brought sensational discoveries. Near the village of Arzhan, on the slopes of the Western Sayan Mountains, a massive Scythian necropolis was uncovered, consisting of over a hundred kurgans arranged in several parallel chains.
While most of the kurgans are made of earth, three of them in the area are constructed of stone. Russian archaeologist M. P. Grjaznov and his team explored one of the largest kurgans (Arzhan I) in the early 1970s, with a diameter of over a hundred meters. Beneath its stone covering, they found an unusual wooden structure resembling a wheel. Although the tomb had been obviously looted, some well-preserved artifacts were discovered. It was determined that this kurgan dates back to the transition from the 9th to the 8th century BC, making it the oldest discovery of Scythian culture, and this area has been identified as its origin. The project was resumed only in 1997, in collaboration with the German Archaeological Institute from Berlin. After thorough preparations, excavations were carried out, revealing a wealth of new information about the Scythians and their burial practices. We set off in the year 2000 to a similar, slightly smaller stone kurgan (with a diameter of eighty meters) called Arzhan II. It turned out that this kurgan was of a later date, from the end of the 7th century BC, but surprisingly, it was found intact! This was the first such discovery since the time of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great (the beginning of the 18th century) when the exploration of kurgans began, and whose findings today form the basis of the Scythian collection in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
In one of the burial pits, fourteen buried horses were found, lying on their bellies with their legs bent at the knees and their heads turned westward. However, the real sensation was caused by the tomb number 5, in which a man and a woman were buried with all the royal splendor and opulence. Over nine thousand and three hundred objects were found in it, of which even five thousand six hundred were masterfully crafted in gold. Stylized depictions and figurines of animals (deer, rams, goats, panthers, wild boars, camels, etc.) are in the foreground, which is rightly considered to be indigenous Scythian design. With their artistic style, the Scythians are well known in history as a nomadic people with a strong sense of beauty, primarily expressed through their exceptional skill in goldsmithing.
This kurgan is not only the richest, but also the most remarkable Scythian archaeological site. Research shows that nothing related to its appearance and construction was left to chance, and it is still uncertain whether these kurgan structures had a cultic significance in addition to burial practices. Namely, around the Arzhan II kurgan, three concentric stone circles, fifteen stone stelae with figural depictions on the eastern or southern side, and traces of sacrificial offerings were found.
However, despite numerous findings, certain cultural aspects and customs would remain a mystery if it weren’t for the discovery of Scythian tombs frozen in their original state for over two and a half thousand years in the Altai Mountains, in Pazyryk. Under the eternal Siberian ice, perfectly preserved mummified human bodies with intact clothing, elaborate hairstyles, and… The tattoos on the bodies of the deceased, which could represent social status. Wooden carts, leather objects, horse equipment, musical instruments, vibrant colored textiles, silk, carpets, various vessels, gold, etc., were found in the graves. These frozen graves in Pazyryk allow for a three-dimensional reconstruction of the findings in Arzhan.
The complex in Pazyryk was discovered in 1865 by academic Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff, excavations began after World War II, but modern multidisciplinary research only started in the 1990s. UNESCO initiated a project to protect them in 2005 due to climate change. The project resulted in a detailed inventory of frozen graves in certain parts of the Altai using modern mapping techniques.
The significant discoveries in Tuva and the Altai Mountains are invaluable due to the light they shed on a still relatively unknown period and the people who lived in the vast Eurasian steppe belt. Therefore, the necropolises in Arzhan and Pazyryk Donkeys play a leading role in uncovering the mysterious history.