Archeologists in awe at 2,100 year old iPhone-like belt buckle unearthed in Atlantis grave in Siberia

The Siberian Times
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 10:16 UTC

Ancient Xiongnu-era woman took stylish accessory to the afterlife

To archeologist Pavel Leus the striking new find resembled a modern smartphone.

The black rectangular object was located in a burial site known as 'The Russian Atlantis' in mountainous Republic of Tuva, for it only appears from under water for few weeks a year.

Archeologists jokingly nicknamed the ancient female Natasha, while her accessory was called 'an iPhone'.

''Natasha's' burial with a Xiongnu-era iPhone remains one of the most interesting at this burial site,' Pavel Leus said in a new publication summarising results of several years of recent archeological expeditions to the Ala-Tey burial site.

In fact, the discovery is a large - 18cm by 9cm - chic belt buckle made of gemstone jet with inlaid decorations of turquoise, carnelian and mother-of-pearl.

The woman's belt was decorated with Chinese wuzhu coins which helped the scientists to date it.

They believe it might be up to 2,137 years old because this is when such coins were first minted.

The find was made in 2016 at the Ala-Tey necropolis in the Sayan Sea.

This is a giant manmade reservoir on the Yenisei River upstream of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam, Russia's biggest power plant.

The water drains in May and June each year exposing the vast desert-like floor.

Graves have been found here dating from the Bronze Age to the time of Genghis Khan.

Earlier two partly-mummified prehistoric fashionistas, buried with the tools of their trade were unearthed.

One called 'Sleeping Beauty' - dressed in silk for the afterlife - was at first believed to be a priestess. Now she is thought to have been a leather designer.

The second was a weaver laid to rest with her wooden spindle packed inside a sewing bag.

As many as 110 burials appeared on an island in the reservoir at Ala-Tey site.

'This site is a scientific sensation', said Dr Marina Kilunovskaya from the St Petersburg Institute of Material History Culture, who leads the Tuva Archeological Expedition.

'We are incredibly lucky to have found these burials of rich Hun nomads that were not disturbed by (ancient) grave robbers.'

Pavel Leus is from the Society for the Exploration of EurAsia.

Tuva archeological rescue expedition in flooded areas is possible thank to a grant from the Russian Geographical Society, and help from Society for the Exploration of EurAsia (Switzerland).

Comment: That is one impressive piece of craftsmanship. Jet (lignite) is soft enough to be cut and polished to either a matt or luster finish, but that thing still looks like it was machined!

Reader Comments

Highland Fleet Lute · 2019-09-09T11:04:40Z

Doesn't look like a belt buckle to me.

Bezel Bub · 2019-09-10T00:34:12Z

'We are incredibly lucky to have found these burials of rich Hun nomads that were not disturbed by (ancient) grave robbers.'

LOL...thank God the *right* grave robbers got to it first...

Sal Paradise · 2019-09-10T03:51:46Z

You beat me to it. Modern grave robbers are so much more virtuous than their ancient counterparts.

rewindingpath · 2019-09-10T18:30:04Z

As a registered Apprentice Machinist, (among other skills), I have two quibbles:

-> There are four different sizes of holes in the "belt buckle",

out of a total of twenty-one holes. I find the standardization of the holes suspicious in placement - it looks very mechanical. Like the stand-offs on the bottom of a computer motherboard. Occasionally, the stand-offs need a carnelian colured ring to electrically isolate the motherboard from the case. Those carneian inlays also look as though they were finished / polished with a rotary method. There is a peak on each carnelian.

To have that thing around your neck, you only need one hole for a lanyard / thong of leather.

-> I really want to put this "belt buckle" on some co-ordinate measuring machine, to assess the flatness of the surface in the picture. The surface looks good. But how did they make it? There are no serious visible fluctuations in the surface.

If it is a metal that gives, (is maleable), then you can hammer it until smooth, and rub grit until the surface is smooth. Where are the variances in the light that betray different heights in the surface?

The "before computer" method for making rigid and flat surfaces is to have three nearly flat surfaces, and you grind them against each other, in a sequence, renewing the grit that grinds the big bumps off. When you have all the bi bumps off, you change to a smaller grit, and grind off the next smaller bumps. Eventually you come to the limit of the grit you have.

This thing bugs me. The flatness, the shape, the carnelian inlay. There is not enough in the above text to say this is a fake.

[Link] says the material is "black jemstone jet".

Does anyone else recognize this "jemstone" material?

Jems I use are smaller. I have known hand / fist sized jems,

but are rarely worked into a rectangular form.

Awordinyourear · 2019-09-11T11:50:00Z

I suggest that if our society collapsed that survivors would carry their phones long after they became useless, Their children might make non viable physical copies, and so on. It looks like ordered tech even if we can't understand it.

Highland Fleet Lute · 2019-09-11T12:28:16Z

If our society collapsed, a future archaeologist might come across the power lead that runs between my computer and the wall socket.

No doubt, they would describe it as an effigy of a 'serpent', which was likely used in 'ceremonies' and 'rites'.

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Archeologists in awe at 2,100 year old iPhone-like belt buckle unearthed in Atlantis grave in Siberia

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