The Pazyryk burials are a group of Scythian (Saka) Iron Age tombs discovered in the Pazyryk Valley and the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, located south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, Russia. The site is near the borders of China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. Similar burials have been found in nearby western Mongolia.
The tombs are Scythian-style kurgans, which are mound-like tombs with wooden chambers covered by large piles of rocks and stones. These tombs date to the 4th–3rd centuries BCE. The Pazyryk burials helped introduce the term "kurgan," a Russian word, into general use to describe these types of tombs. The area where the Pazyryk kurgans were found is considered the main example of the broader Pazyryk culture. The site is part of the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The people of the Pazyryk culture were horse-riding pastoral nomads who lived in the steppe. Some may have gained wealth by trading horses with merchants in Persia, India, and China. This wealth is shown in the many valuable items found in the Pazyryk tombs, including rare organic objects like felt hangings, Chinese silk, the earliest known pile carpet, horses with elaborate decorations, wooden furniture, and other household items. These items were preserved when water entered the tombs long ago, froze, and encased the burial goods in ice. The ice remained frozen in the permafrost until the tombs were excavated.
A climate freeze protected some Altai-Sayan burials, including those from the 5th century BCE at Pazyryk and nearby sites like Katanda, Shibe, and Tuekta. This ice layer helped preserve organic materials in the tombs. Geometric designs and sun symbols, such as circles and rosettes, appear at Pazyryk but are less common than animal motifs. Features like zoomorphic junctures, where parts of one animal are combined with another, are less frequent in the Altai-Sayan region than in southern Russia. However, deer and related animals are as prominent in Altai-Sayan art as in Scythian art.
At Pazyryk, bearded masks of clear Greco-Roman origin were also found. These masks were likely inspired by the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Cimmerian Bosporus.
Pazyryk culture
Rudenko first gave the name Pazyryk culture to these nomads and dated them to around 500 BCE. Later, the dates for barrows 1 through 5 at Pazyryk were changed to around 400 to 300 BCE. The Pazyryk culture has been linked to the Scythians, a group known for similar tombs found in the grasslands. Siberian animal-style tattoos are common among the Scythians. Artifacts show that these ancient Altai nomads had trade connections with Central Asia, China, and the Near East. Evidence suggests that Pazyryk trade routes covered large areas of Asia, including India. It is possible that Pazyryk merchants mainly traded high-quality horses.
Discoveries
The first tomb at Pazyryk, called Barrow 1, was discovered by archaeologist M. P. Griaznov in 1929. Barrows 2 through 5 were discovered later by Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko between 1947 and 1949. Many of the tombs had already been robbed in earlier times, but the archaeologists found buried horses, along with well-preserved cloth saddles, felt and woven rugs, a 3-meter-high four-wheel funeral chariot from the 5th century BCE, and other valuable items that had survived over time. These items are now displayed at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.
Cranial measurements from the Pazyryk burials in the 1960s suggested that the people buried there were mostly of European ancestry, with some influence from Northeast Asia. However, genetic studies showed the population was a mix of western and eastern Eurasian ancestry. It was estimated that about 50% of their ancestry came from the Khövsgöl LBA group, about 36% from Western Steppe Herders, and about 14% from a BMAC-like group. One individual, called Pazyryk_Berel_50BCE, had about 18% ancestry from the Pazyryk_IA group and about 82% from Northeast Asia, suggesting this person may have come from a distant region to the east.
Tomb number 1 at Pazyryk has many artifacts, including horses wearing deer antler masks or harnesses with human figures. The tomb is dated to the 4th century BCE. Its main contents were stolen, but the area where horses were sacrificed remained intact. It was discovered by Griaznov in the 1930s.
Rudenko’s most important discovery in 1947 was the body of a tattooed Pazyryk chief in burial mound 2. The chief was a strong, tall man, about 176 cm tall, who died between the ages of 55 and 60. His tomb was large and filled with valuable items. He died violently, killed with a Scythian-style battle axe, and his head was removed. His body was carefully preserved and covered in tattoos, but not his face. Some parts of his body had decayed, but much of the tattooing remained visible. Later studies using special photography showed that all five bodies found in the Pazyryk kurgans were tattooed. No tattooing tools were found, but the Pazyryks had very fine needles used for embroidery, which may have been used for tattooing.
The chief’s tattoos included a series of detailed designs showing mythical creatures. The best-preserved tattoos included images of a donkey, a mountain ram, two deer with long antlers, and an imaginary carnivore on his right arm. Two creatures resembling griffins decorated his chest, and three partially damaged images on his left arm seemed to show two deer and a mountain goat. On his right leg was a fish, and a monster crawling over his foot. Four running rams formed a single design on his shin. His left leg had tattoos, but they were hard to see. His back was also tattooed with small circles lined up along his spine.
His preserved head, now in the Hermitage Museum, shows a face type often described as "Mongoloid." He wore a gilded copper crown decorated with six winged, horned, and hoofed lions ("lion griffins"). The lion griffins were originally covered in gold foil, but the foil was stolen. A false beard made of hair, sinew thread, and leather was found near him, though its purpose is unclear, as all other mummies from Pazyryk were clean-shaven. A carved wooden headpiece showing a bird of prey holding a deer head was also found near the coffin, possibly the chief’s headgear.
Pazyryk barrow 5 also contained the remains of a Saka chief, discovered by S.I. Rudenko in 1949. The grave had an inner and outer wooden coffin, covered with layers of logs and rocks. Though looted in ancient times, it still held the preserved bodies of a man and a woman, along with artifacts, nine horses, a disassembled wagon with four large wheels, and various carpets.
The most famous undisturbed Pazyryk burial found so far is the Ice Maiden, also called the "Altai Lady," discovered by archaeologist Natalia Polosmak in 1993 near the Chinese border. This burial was rare because it was a full ceremonial burial for a single woman in a wooden chamber tomb from the 5th century BCE, accompanied by six horses. She was buried in a casket made from a hollowed-out Siberian larch tree. Stylized images of deer and snow leopards were carved on the outside of the casket. After burial, freezing rain flooded the grave, and the contents remained frozen in permafrost. Six horses with elaborate harnesses were sacrificed and placed near the chamber.
The woman’s well-preserved body was carefully embalmed with peat and bark and arranged to lie on her side as if sleeping. She was young, her hair had been shaved, but she wore a wig and a tall hat. She was 167 cm tall. Her tattoos, which showed creatures with horns turning into flower shapes, were preserved on her pale skin. Her coffin was large enough to fit her high felt headdress, decorated with swans and gold-covered carved cats. She wore a long red and white striped woolen skirt and white felt stockings. Her yellow blouse was once thought to be made of wild "