Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bodies clothed in skins
8.10 Petroglyph from Boyer in the Yenisei valley showing a row of circular structures with domed roofs
similar to the felt-covered gers or yurts traditionally used on the steppe. Probably dating to the Tagar
period or perhaps later.
the yurts (or gers), used today in many areas of the steppe. The Mongolian ger with its
lattice walls, light wooden roof poles, and fabric covering, when disassembled takes
up little space and is easily stowed. It can be put up by two or three people in an hour
and provides ample space for a family. In those areas of the steppe where mobility
could be restricted to only a few moves within the year larger structures like the gers
would have been practicable, offering the great advantage of a communal space suitable
for ordered family life.
In the Altai–Sayan Mountains where the lush upland grasslands could provide
pasture for longer periods of time, it is likely that more permanent houses were built
of larch logs similar to the structures of the burial chambers found in the tombs.
With walls of horizontally laid timbers and roofs waterproofed with large sheets of
birch bark, made pliable by boiling, such structures could have been made warm and
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