Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

scythians in central asia
materials preserved in the frozen ground. It was not
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until 1927 that another kurgan was dug at Shibe. By this
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time archaeologists were already exploring sites in the
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Pazyryk region under the direction of Sergei Rudenko
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and in 1929 the first of the Pazyryk kurgans was thoroughly
excavated. The team returned in 1947–9 to excavate
four more. In subsequent years graves at Bashadar
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and Tuekta were examined and more recently, in 1998,
teams have returned to Berel on the west flank of the
Altai to excavate more of the kurgans, using an array of
modern techniques to recover and conserve the delicate
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grave goods preserved in the tombs. Another spectacular
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find, that of a rich female burial, was made in 1993,
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at Ak-Alakha on the Ukok plateau further to the south,
close to the border between Russia and China. Taken
together the frozen tombs offer a unique insight into the
rich and colourful life of the mountain pastoralists, adding
much to the discussion of Scythian life explored in
subsequent chapters.
The kurgans in the Pazyryk cemetery were all built
in much the same way. The first stage involved the digging
of a large rectangular grave pit varying in depth
from 4 to 7 m and within the pit the burial chamber was
constructed of larch logs. Sometimes these were complex
structures with double walls and roofs. The chamber
contained a coffin hollowed out from a tree trunk
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to take the mummified body of the deceased, who was
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often accompanied by a female partner. A wide range
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of grave goods were stacked in the chamber beside the
coffin—everything needed for a comfortable existence
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in the afterlife—vessels holding food and drink, small
tables, carpets, wall hangings, cushions, musical instruments
such as harps and drums, and personal items,
7.15 The cemetery of Pazyryk. Kurgan 1 was excavated in 1929
and kurgans 2–8 were excavated between 1947 and 1949.
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including weapons. In some tombs horses, decked out in ceremonial gear, were killed
and placed on the floor of the grave pit outside the tomb chamber and in kurgan 5
dismantled parts of a carriage were packed next to the horses. Once the grave goods
were all in place the burial chamber was covered with birch bark and twigs and then
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