Scythian Gold

THE GOLDEN GRAVE FROM ARZHANKonstantin Chugunov, Anatoli Nagler, and Hermann Parzinger present exclusively

the spectacular results of the first Russian-German excavation season in Tuva, South Siberia.

ince its foundation in 1995the Department for EurasianStudies of the GermanArchaeological Institute in

Berlin has concentrated its work on theregions around the middle and upperEnisej River in order to investigate thepre- and proto-historic cultural devel-opment of South Siberia. One of themain areas of interest of this research isthe emergence of Scythian materialculture and of the so-called ScythianAnimal Style. For a better understand-ing of this process, our investigationsin that region of Eurasia have beenbased on a broader perspective in achronological and geographical sense.Together with the Minusinsk Museum(N. Leontev), during the last six yearswe have been excavating an enormousburial ground containing hundreds ofgraves dating between the late 4th mil-lennium BC and the 1st century AD.The results are enabling us to develop anew chronological basis for the culturalsequence dating between the Ane-

olithic and the Bronze Ages, and partic-ularly the so-called Tagar culture of theScythian period, up to the time whenHunnish tribes conquered this region.

The change from the Late Bronze tothe Early Iron Age (early 1st millen-nium BC) was particularly interesting,because this was when the earlynomadic culture of the Scythiansemerged. To the same period belongsanother site in the West Siberian forest-steppe which was excavated byanother Russian-German co-project:the proto-urban settlement ofChichah. This site is divided into twozones, a citadel and a fortified lowertown with more than 100 large housessystematically laid out in lines. Since1999 the Department for EurasianStudies of the German ArchaeologicalInstitute has been excavating this set-tlement in annual seasons togetherwith the Institute of Archaeology andEthnography of the Siberian Branch ofthe Russian Academy of Sciences inNovosibirsk (V. Molodin).

Fig 1. Plan of theScythian kurganArzhan 1 (after

Gryaznov).

One of the crucial questions forSiberian archaeology concerns theemergence of Scythian culture charac-terised by new forms of technology, ahighly specific art style, and its monu-mental grave constructions reflectingtypes of social stratification unknownup to that period. Tuva, located on thesouthern periphery of Siberia near theMongolian border, is of special interestto these studies. Throughout the agesroads linking the distant regions ofNorthern China and passing by Mon-golia reached first Tuva and then con-tinued northwards to the MinusinskBasin north of the Western Sayanmountains. These routes of communi-cation had been extremely importantfor the formation of the Late BronzeAge Karasuk culture in Siberia, whichshows strong influences with China'sShang dynasty, as well as for fosteringrelations between the Tagar cultureand the Western Zhou dynasty.

Immediately to the south of thewestern Sayan mountains a west-eastoriented valley extends along the UyukRiver, forming a larger plain near themodern village of Arzhan containingsome of the most outstanding kurgans(burial mounds) in Eurasia.

In the 1970s the Russian archaeolo-gist Mikhail Gryaznov investigated akurgan (so-called kurgan Arzhan 1) atthis site, more than 100m in diameter,containing a characteristic woodenconstruction (Fig 1). The finds fromthis barrow yielded very early Scythianmaterial for the first time, whichhelped to define an early Scythianhorizon that could be synchronisedwith the so-called Novocherkassk cul-ture of the late 9th and early 8th cen-tury BC in the north Pontic area.Despite the extraordinary importanceof Arzhan, Gryaznov's work was notcontinued until 1997, when we starteda Russian-German joint project.

All the individual kurgans aroundArzhan form long parallel chainswhich cross the plain. Our first jointexcavation in 1997 concentrated onone kurgan to the west of Arzhan. Thisbarrow, with a diameter of 28m, wascovered with a stone paving and con-

Professor Dr Hermann Parzinger is Director of the Departmentfor Eurasian Studies at the German Archaeological Institute inBerlin and leader of several excavations in Siberia, Uzbekistan,

Kazachstan, and Iran. His research in Arzhan is conducted jointlywith Dr Anatoli Nagler (from the same institute), andKonstantin Chugunov from the State Hermitage in St

Petersburg, who is the Russian director of the joint expedition.

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Scythian Gold

tained a burial chamber built of largelarch tree timbers. The grave provedheavily disturbed by tomb robbers, butthe remaining grave goods, includingsmall eagle-shaped gold plaques, canbe dated to the 5th century BC.

In the following years the joint pro-ject agreed to pool its efforts on thelarge barrow 'Arzhan 2' to the very eastof the modern village of Arzhan. Weselected this kurgan because it was oneof only three remaining stone plat-forms that was very similar to the oneexcavated by Gryaznov in the 1970s.In terms of construction methods,these differ considerably from the hun-dreds of other kurgans at Arzhan andin other parts of the Eurasian steppe

and forest-steppe belt, which were builtusing accumulated earth or by layingtogether sods of turf like mudbrick. Asthe only investigated stone platformfrom Arzhan, Gryaznov's Kurgan 1 wasdated to the early Scythian horizon; webelieved that the other platformsshould also belong to this period. Fol-lowing this year's excavation thishypothesis may have to be changed,but for a definite interpretation of theentire Kurgan 2 we will have to waituntil the end of next year's fieldwork.The other visible stone platforms hadthree huge shafts cut into them, indi-cating that they must have beenalmost completely destroyed by graverobbers during the 18th or 19th cen-turies. The kurgan named Arzhan 2,which we selected for excavation, hadjust one shaft visible to the south-west,and therefore promised greater archae-ological results.

The barrow Arzhan 2 (Fig 2) mea-sured about 80m in diameter and wasover 2m high. Work on this kurganstarted in 1998 by topographical map-ping of the barrow and its surroundingarea using geomagnetic prospection,which was undertaken by H. Beckerand J. Fassbinder from the BavarianState Conservation Office in Munich.Results showed that the kurgan wassurrounded by three to four concentricrows of stone circles. Some of thesewere excavated in 2000 (Fig 2). Theycontained shallow layers of ash andcharcoal and some very small frag-ments of calcinated bones. Some smallpieces of bronze and golden plaqueswere also found, which were not usefulfor detailed dating, but clearly showedthat these stone circles are Scythian.

Fig 2 (top). KurganArzhan 2. In theforeground, stone

circles during theirexcavation in

2000. Note theproximity of

another kurgan inthe background.

Fig 3 (middle).Kurgan Arzhan 2,

Grave 5. Goldplaque in the

shape of a wingedhorse, from

the headgearof the man.

Fig 4 (left).Kurgan Arzhan 2,Grave 5. View of

the Scythian burialchamber with thewoman on the left

and the manon the right.

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Scythian Gold

Future analysis will verify whether thebone fragments are from animals orhuman beings, which is of specialimportance for the interpretation ofthese stone circles: were they sacrificialareas or cremations?

The excavation of kurgan Arzhan 2finally started in May 2001 and lasteduntil the end of July. Three triangularsections were excavated (from thenorth, north-west, and south) towardsthe centre of the barrow. This excava-tion phase was extremely time-con-suming because the whole kurgan wasbuilt of piled up stone slabs which hadto be removed manually.

Soon after the beginning of theexcavation we discovered three Turkishgraves of 8th-10th century AD date tothe north-west. When we reached theoriginal surface under the barrow wedetected two more burials, but fromthe Scythian period (Graves 2 and 5).Grave 2 was a small wooden construc-tion covered with timbers and stoneslabs, typical of known characteristicsof Scythian graves (but on a smallerscale). It has been interpreted as a sym-bolic burial, presumably of a horse,because it contained golden horseadornments: wooden remains withgolden decoration, possibly from a sad-dle, and a gold cone with the head of agriffin on top, and gold fishes decorat-ing three sides. A detailed interpreta-tion of these pieces, however, will notbe possible before their restoration inthe State Hermitage has been com-pleted. But the connection of saddleand fish is already well-known fromthe so-called 'ice-kurgans' in the Altaimountains; in Pazyryk, as well as Ukok,fish figures cut from felt cloth hadbeen fixed on the saddle-cloth.

Fig 5. Artisticreconstruction of

Scythian headdresswith animal

decoration. Basedon finds from Ukok

in the Altaimountains (afterPolosmak). The

gold plaque in theshape of a wingedhorse from ArzhanGrave 5 (see Figs 3,6) originated from

a similar pieceof clothing.

About 10m towards the south-westof this grave we discovered the richburial No. 5 (Fig 4). The dug shaft lead-ing down to it measured 5 x 5m and itscontents were completely untouched.At a depth of almost 3m we reachedthe first wooden cover of the burialchamber made of larch tree timbers.Beneath this we immediately encoun-tered a second wooden timber coverrunning perpendicular to the upperone. Below this we reached the burialchamber itself (Fig 4), carefully con-structed like a blockhouse and stoodinside a second, outer burial chamberof the same construction. The fourwalls presumably would have beenadorned with some kind of curtain,because long wooden sticks were foundalong the walls, which could have beenused like curtain rails. The curtainsthemselves, as well as any other textileremains, were not preserved.

On a carefully made boardedwooden floor were the bodies of twodeceased individuals, a man and awoman (Fig 4). Originally the plankfloor may have been covered by felt: athin 2-3cm decomposed layer wasfound on surface of the floor. Thebones were not well preserved. Theskulls had dislocated from the bodiesbecause they had probably been placedon a kind of pillow, now decayed.

The male inhumation was buriedwith a heavy necklace made of puregold and decorated all over with ani-mal style carvings. Its front part was alittle broader and of a square section,with dozens of very small panther fig-ures applied onto it. His outer clothes,probably a kind of kaftan, had beendecorated with thousands of smallpanther figures, each 2-3cm long.These had been attached in verticalrows, also forming motifs such aswings on the back (Fig 7). On hisboots, maybe originally of felt orleather, thousands of mini-beads(diameter about 1mm) had beenstitched; on the upper part they endedin golden turndowns. Alongside andunder the skull were gold plaques withanimal-shaped inlays: four wingedhorses (Figs 3, 6) and one deer origi-nally attached to the headgear. Similarexamples from the 'ice-kurgans' in theAltai mountains provide an indicationof how the headgear would havelooked (Fig 5).

The man's weaponry consisted ofan iron dagger, badly preserved, on hisright hip. This was connected to thebelt by a strap, and both had been dec-orated with numerous golden AnimalStyle adornments. Beside the daggerwas a miniature gold cup, again deco-rated in Animal Style. On the left sideof the deceased we discovered a goldquiver with fish scale decoration (Fig8). The wooden arrow shafts werepainted in black and red. The poorly

preserved arrow heads had been madeof iron, but also showed remains ofgolden encrustation. The goldenadornment on the carrying belt for thequiver was extremely rich. Below thequiver lay the wooden bow itself, againincorporating pieces of golden decora-tion. Between the quiver and thenorth-eastern wall of the burial cham-ber were two picks, one of iron withgolden encrustation. To the left of theman's head lay a bronze mirror.

A second bronze mirror was locatedto the left of the woman's head, was alittle bigger than the other and had agold handle (Fig 6). Below thewoman's head were three gold plaquesin the shape of animals (two horsesand a winged being), associated withthe woman's headdress (Figs 3, 6).Beside her head was a pair of gold pins,both masterpieces: their sides were dec-orated with carvings in Animal Styleand with a deer and a winged being ontheir top (Fig 6). The decoration of thewoman's dress corresponded to theman's kaftan: thousands of goldenpanthers form different motifs, espe-cially wings on the back. On the breastarea we found golden earrings andmany small beads of gold, amber, gar-net, malachite and other preciousmaterials. Around her feet we countedthousands of gold mini-beads, whichmust have been fixed onto felt orleather boots which had been inlaidwith golden ribbons and granulation.At the right hip hung an iron knife,badly preserved but with numerousexcellent gold belt adornments in Ani-mal Style decoration.

In the western corner of the burialchamber were three large amber beads,a wooden cup with a golden handle, agold comb with wooden teeth, and aheap of various seeds (wild pistachiosand maybe also poppy). Although theseeds are awaiting analysis, the Greekhistorian Herodotus, who wrote aboutthe Scythians in the North Pontic area,reported that they burnt poppy andother seeds and inhaled the smoke tohallucinate. Within the heap of seedswas a gold pectoral in Animal Styledecoration and a small bronze cup, stillinside a small leather bag.

This short overview about the mostimportant finds from the rich gravefrom Arzhan 2 is far from complete.Many aspects will become clearer fol-lowing restoration and detailed study.This comment also applies to the bur-ial's chronology. There are Archaic ele-ments present, dating back to the 6thand 5th centuries BC, but other objectsmay prove slightly more recent (4thcentury BC). The dendrochronologicalinvestigations of the wooden timbers,to be conducted in Berlin and Novosi-birsk, will be extremely important.

The State Hermitage in St Petersburgnow houses more than 9300 gold

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Scythian Gold

fig 6 (left). Kurgan Arzhan 2, Grave 5. The gold pins and the goldanimal plaques from the woman's headdress, with the woman's

bronze mirror with the gold handle alongside.

Fig 7 (above). Kurgan Arzhan 2, Grave 5.Gold panthers on the back of the man's kaftan.

Fig 8 (below). Kurgan Arzhan 2, Grave 5. Gold quiver withgold ftsh scale adornment from the carrying belt.

objects (not including the uncountablegolden beads) from Grave 5 of Arzhan2. We thank its General Director, Pro-fessor Miakhail B. Piotrovsky, for tak-ing on the objects' restoration. Thisburial is now not only the richestknown from Siberia, but also one ofthe richest of this period in Eurasia. Itsdiscovery was a case of great luck forEurasian archaeology. In 2002 theRussian-German team, under Konstan-tin Chugunov from the State Her-mitage and Hermann Parzinger andAnatoli Nagler from the GermanArchaeological Institute, will continueand complete the investigation of thekurgan Arzhan 2. Immediately afterthat an international and inter-discipli-nary team of scientists and expertsfrom different fields (under the direc-tion of the excavators Chugunov,Parzinger, and Nagler) will prepare theresults for publication in a bi-lingualRussian and German monograph to beedited by the Russian Academy of Sci-ences and the German ArchaeologicalInstitute. An exhibition of these findsis planned for 2004 in Berlin.

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