Oldest of its kind: Ancient icy tomb of Scythian prince discovered in Siberia

Kastalia Medrano
Newsweek
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 10:02 UTC

© kavehfarrokh.com

Kurgan diagram

Archaeologists working in Siberia have discovered an undisturbed ancient kurgan - a tomb of a Scythian prince. The tomb appears to be both the oldest and largest of its kind ever recorded in southern Siberia, according to a press release from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Gino Caspari, a Swiss archaeologist with Bern University, first identified an intriguing circular structure while studying high-resolution satellite imagery of Siberia's Uyuk River Valley and suspected it could be a kurgan, according to the press release. A collaboration between Caspari and researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as the State Hermitage Museum carried out a preliminary dig over the summer of 2017; they found that Caspari had been right. A paper describing the research was published in the scientific journal Archaeological Research in Asia.

The tomb, Tunnug 1, lies in a southern Siberian swamp that's part of the Russian republic of Tuva. Caspari told Newsweek that the tomb dates to a crucial period around 3,000 years ago, between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, when "radical social changes" began to give rise to a nomadic culture. Little is known about this period, largely because very few archaeological remnants from it have yet been recovered. Tunnug 1, Caspari said, gives researchers a "huge chance" to learn more about this era of Eurasian prehistory.

The fact that the tomb is in a swamp might account for the fact that it was discovered in a completely undisturbed condition; grave robbers would have to travel at least five hours by off-road vehicle to reach it, according to the press release. It's also a crucial find because the Uyuk River Valley features an underground layer of permafrost. In the summer, anything above it thaws and rots. But anything below it is preserved, quite literally frozen in time.

"If it really turns out to be a permafrost tomb, we can hope for an exceptional preservation of objects that are usually not part of the archaeological record," Caspari told Newsweek via email. "Anything organic like wood carvings, felt items, clothing just to name a few. This would result in a much more vibrant look into the past than is usually possible." Other artifacts traditionally included in such tombs would be weapons, horse harnesses and various decorative objects.

The ancient Scythians were a nomadic people who date back to the ninth century B.C. Caspari, who's made a documentary about his quest to find Scythian tombs using satellite data, said that this marked the very beginning of the research. Full excavations should begin in the spring, once the snow melts.

Comment: More from ScienceDaily:

Caspari was able to prove that the burial mound -- referred to as Tunnug 1 (or Arzhan 0) -- was similar in construction to the kurgan Arzhan 1 located only ten kilometres away to the northeast. Arzhan 1 had long been regarded as the earliest Scythian princely tomb in the region, which is also known as the "Siberian Valley of Kings" owing to the numerous kurgans found there. The earliest princely tombs consist of a stone packing with a circular arrangement of chambers. The walls of the chambers are made of larch logs.

Wooden beams found by Caspari during the test excavation date back to the 9th century BC, predating Arzhan 1, which was built at the turn of the 9th to the 8th century BC and excavated in the 1970s. "We have a great opportunity here," says a delighted Caspari, commenting on the results of the trial dig published in the current issue of Archaeological Research in Asia (*).

"Archaeological methods have become considerably more sophisticated since the 1970s. Today we have completely different ways of examining material to find out more about the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age," remarks the SNSF-funded researcher. He also stresses that the way we look at prehistoric times is changing radically thanks to genetics, isotope analysis and geophysical methods as well as developments in geographic information systems and remote sensing.