Pazyryk Culture Up in the Altai

Full text

PAZYRYK CULTURE UP IN THE
ALTAI
This book reconsiders the archaeology of the Pazyryk, the horse-riding people of
the Altai Mountains who lived in the 4th–3rd centuries BCE, in light of recent
scientific studies and excavations not only in Russia but also Kazakhstan, Mongolia
and China, together with new theories of landscape.
Excavation of the Pazyryk burials sparked great interest because of their wealth
of organic remains, including tattooed bodies and sacrificed horses, together with
superb wooden carvings and colorful textiles. In view of this new research, the
role of the Pazyryk Culture in the ancient globalized world can now be more
focused and refined. In this synthetic study of the region, the Pazyryk Culture is
set into the landscape using recent studies on climate, technology, human and
animal DNA and local resources. It shows that this was a powerful, semi-
sedentary, interdependent group with contacts in Eurasia to their west, and to
their east in Mongolia and south in China.
This book is for archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, social and
economic historians as well as persons with general interests in mobile pastoralism,
the emergence of complex societies, the social roles of artifacts and the diverse
nature of an interconnected ancient world.
Katheryn M. Lindu is University Center for International Studies Professor
Emerita in the Departments of Art History and Anthropology at the University of
Pittsburgh and currently teaches at Carnegie-Mellon University in the School of
Architecture. She has engaged for many years in art-historical research and col-
laborative fieldwork, focusing on pre- and early history, including the Bronze and
Iron Ages, of the Inner Asian Frontier. She has published on metallurgy, gender,
China and Eurasia, the archaeology of Inner Asia and on artifacts.
Karen S. Rubinson is a Research Associate, Institute for the Study of the
Ancient World, New York University. She is an art historian and archaeologist
specializing in the steppe and Central Asia in the first millennium BCE and early
first millennium CE and the South Caucasus in the Bronze Age and Early Iron
Ages. One focus of her work is how objects of artistic production, both aesthe-
tically and technologically, can help understand cultural contact and exchange;
another is gender questions in the Eurasian Iron Age.

PAZYRYK CULTURE UP
IN THE ALTAI
Katheryn M. Linduff and Karen S. Rubinson

Cover image: © Heritage Images / Getty Images
First published 2022
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© 2022 Katheryn M. Lindu and Karen S. Rubinson
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British Library Cataloguing-in-ublication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lindu, Katheryn M., author. | Rubinson, Karen Sydney,
1943- author.
Title: Pazyryk culture up in the Altai / Katheryn M. Lindu and
Karen S. Rubinson.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021022987 (print) | LCCN 2021022988 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138315358 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138315365 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780429456374 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Pazyryk culture. | Antiquities, Prehistoric--Altai
Mountains region. | Altai Mountains Region--Antiquities. |
Excavations (Archaeology)--Altai Mountains region. | Ethnology--Altai
Mountains Region.
Classification: LCC GN780.2.P39 L56 2021 (print) | LCC GN780.2.P39
(ebook) | DDC 930.1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021022987
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021022988
ISBN: 978-1-138-31535-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-31536-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45637-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429456374
Typeset in Bembo
by MPS Limited, Dehradun

FIGURE 0.1 Authors in 2017

To the horses of Pazyryk and their people…

CONTENTS
List of figures ix
List of charts xiv
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture 1
1.1 What is the Pazyryk Culture? Who were the Pazyryk
people? 1
1.2 Archaeological background 6
1.3 Burial display 10
1.4 Chronology at Pazyryk 14
1.5 Interpretive framework: Shaping the study of the Pazyryk
Culture 20
1.6 Questions we have answered and those we have not 23
2 Economic topography in the Pazyryk Culture 26
2.1 The Pazyryk economic setting 26
2.2 The Pazyryk landscape and ecology 28
2.3 Metallurgical knowhow at Pazyryk 34
2.4 Horse rearing as a foundation of the Pazyryk economy 39
2.5 Role of horses and horse management 45
2.6 Climate and topography in relation to economic activity within
and outside of the Pazyryk Culture 47
2.7 Political history of the region 59

3 Social and occupational topography of the Pazyryk Culture:
Valedictory use of burials 65
3.1 Introduction: An adaptable community 65
3.2 Established social boundaries: Animal handlers 68
3.3 Occupations within Pazyryk Culture: Craftworkers as social
actors 71
3.4 Animals: Markers of social order 76
3.5 Multi-tiered society: Bound together within family
structure 82
3.5.1 What we know about gender in Pazyryk Culture 86
3.6 Multi-occupational society: Exchange of goods and trade and
spiritual bonds 88
3.6.1 Trade/traders 90
3.6.2 Analysis of imports 93
3.7 Spiritual life 98
4 The larger picture: Relationships with Mongolia and China 102
4.1 Back and forth with Mongolia and China 102
4.2 Pazyryk and Western Mongolia 106
4.3 Pazyryk and Northwestern China, Xinjiang 113
5 The Pazyryk Culture: Concluding remarks 127
5.1 Concluding remarks 127
Bibliography 134
Index 151
viii Contents

FIGURES
0.1 Authors in 2017 v
1.1 Map of Pazyryk Culture sites mentioned in the text. Map by
Evan Matthew Mann 2
1.2 Pazyryk barrow and contents. (a) Ground plan, Pazyryk, Kurgan
1 showing supporting wooden structure and burials of horses.
(b) Cross section of Kurgan 5, Pazyryk showing frozen ground,
wooden chamber and contents. (c) Eagle-Grin on saddle cover,
Kurgan 2, Pazyryk, felt appliqué. (d) Wood, leather finials for
male headgear, Pazyryk, Kurgan 2, State Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg 1684/170; 1684/162–163 3
1.3 Arzhan I, ca. 9th c. BCE, Tuva. (a) Ground Plan of excavated
structures, Arzhan I. (b) Bronze coiled feline, 25 cm, TRM
K2–20, State Museum of the Tuva, Kyzyl Arzhan I 5
1.4 Plan of burial group at Pazyryk 7
1.5 Arzhan 2, Tuva, ca, 7th C. BCE. (a) Gold plaques of felines,
clothing adornments, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
2917/20/71–100. (b) View of landscape near Arzhan, Tuva 11
1.6 Caftan/shirt, cotton (design is local, cotton is either from India
or China), Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 12
1.7 Tattoos from Pazyryk and Ak-Alakha. (a) Tattoo. Right shoulder,
Pazyryk, Kurgan 5. (b) Tattoo. Left shoulder, from Ak-Alakha,
Ukok Plateau 12
1.8 Woolen, knotted carpet, Central Asian manufacture, 1.9 × 2m 13
1.9 Satellite image, mounded site, Kegen Plateau, Semirechye,
Kazakhstan, showing repeated use site 14

1.10 Phase I: Distinguishing Goods from Pazyryk. (a) Horses, two (of
ten) lavishly adorned with felt saddle covers, horned headgear
made of felt and leather. (b) Leather cutout on saddle bow, with
gold overlay on wood, Pazyryk, K5. (c) Reconstructed felt hats
with wooden attachments:1, Pazyryk K5; 2, Verkh Kaldzhin-2,
K3; 3, Ulandryk 2, K8 16
1.11 Phase II: Distinguishing goods from Pazyryk. (a) Four-wheeled
cart, wooden (possibly from Chinese model), Pazyryk, Kurgan 5.
(b) Shabrack, silk, China, with local felt and fur additions,
Pazyryk, Kurgan 5. (c) Mirror fragment, bronze, China, diameter
12 cm, Pazyryk, Kurgan 6 19
2.1 Burial mounds in the forest steppe. Pazyryk, Altai Mountains,
Southern Siberia 28
2.2 Clothing from Pazyryk. (a) Man’s squirrel coat with leather
appliqué and gold appliqué. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2. (b) Detail (above).
(c) Woman’s squirrel cape with tight sleeves, with leather and fur
ornamentation. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 29
2.3 Decorated leather bag containing lumps of cheese. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 2, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 1684/340,
1684D/1 31
2.4 View of Forest at Pazyryk, Altai Mountains, Southern Siberia 32
2.5 Various Items from Pazyryk barrows. (a) Decoration on saddle
cover, applied felt. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2. (b) Hairpin finial with a
deer figurine. Wood, leather, iron, applied gold foil. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 2. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 1684/156,
159. (c) Saddle decorations (A. arch plate; B. pendant; C. runner;
D. buckle; E. pendant plaque; F. semi-circular plate). Horn,
Pazyryk, Kurgan 6 33
2.6 Decorated woman’s shoe. Leather, textile, sinew thread, tin,
pyrite crystal, gold, glass bead attachments, Pazyryk, Kurgan 2.
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 1684/219 35
2.7 Iron Knife with wooden sheath. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 36
2.8 Reconstruction of neck circlet. Wood covered with gold foil,
bronze neck ring. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 37
2.9 Stamped copper plates. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 38
2.10 Ornamental belt plate of an ibex attacked by a lion, cast silver.
Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 38
2.11 Utilitarian objects from Pazyryk. (a) Copper nail and wooden
pegs. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2. (b) Wooden ladder upright. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 5 40
2.12 Chuya Valley site, Sailiugem region, Southern Siberia. (a) Ground
plan, tomb from Sailiugem Region (Chuyu Valley), Maltalu 4,
Kurgan 13. (b) Clay vessels, bronze and iron weapons and tools,
bronze mirrors. Tomb from Sailiugem Region (Chuyu Valley),
x Figures

Maltalu 4, Kurgan 13. (c) Ground plan of burial group, Sailiugem
Region (Chuyu Valley), Maltalu 4 41
2.13 Bridles from Pazyryk. (a) Bridle, wood, leather; bronze bit.
Pazyryk, Kurgan 1. (b) Bridle, wood, leather, gold; bronze bit.
Pazyryk, Kurgan 3 42
2.14 Berel, kurgan 11, Kazakhstan. Position of horses in upper and
lower levels (drawing of funerary chamber -A. Cornet; drawing
of horses - S. Lepetz; CAD- S. Lepetz) 44
2.15 Horses in full gear from Pazyryk Culture. (a) Horse mask. Wood,
leather, gold foil. Berel, kurgan 11, Kazakhstan. (b) Two (of ten)
lavishly decorated horses with felt saddle covers and horned
headgear made of felt and leather, reconstruction. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 1. (c) Horse in full burial gear, reconstruction. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 1. 46
2.16 Tomb construction, Pazyryk, Kurgan 5. (a) Reconstruction of
wooden tomb chamber. Pazyryk, Kurgan 5. State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg 1684/283.
(b) Cross-section of tomb chamber. Pazyryk, Kurgan 5 50
2.17 Reconstructions of woman’s clothing. Felt, woven woolen
fabric, gold, leather appliqué, wood. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 51
2.18 Saddle cover. Felt, leather, hair. Pazyryk, Kurgan 1 52
2.19 Reconstruction of costume of the “Ice Princess,” Ak-Alakha-3,
Kurgan 1, including wool skirt, silk shirt, and gold- and fur-
ornamented jacket 53
2.20 Girth buckles, single and double. Yusted, Chuya Valley, Altai
Mountain Region, Southern Siberia 54
2.21 Imported items at Pazyryk. (a) Earrings, gold and colored paste.
Pazyryk, Kurgan 2. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg,
1684/182–83. (b) Knotted pile woolen carpet. Pazyryk, Kurgan
5. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 1687/93. (c) Light
four-wheeled wooden cart, Pazyryk, Kurgan 5. State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg, 1687/404. (d) Mirror, bronze. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 6 55
2.22 Kurgan burials at Berel, Kazakhstan. (a) View of kurgan 11.
(b) Saddlecloth Decoration. Woolen embroidery of a winged
bull. Berel, kurgan 11. National Museum of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, Astana, KP 1585 368. (c) Reconstruction
of Kurgan 10, Berel, Kazakhstan 56
3.1 Ground plan and contents, Yustyd cemetery, Chuya Valley,
Southern Siberia. (a) Ground plan showing wooden chamber,
single human body, sacrificed horse, bronze bit and horn psalia.
Yustyd 12, Burial 22, Chuya Valley. (b) Ground plan, Yustyd
1, Burial 6. Contents including ceramic jar, iron daggers,
Figures xi

chekan. (c) Contents, Yustyd 12, Burial 22. Knives, Daggers,
Arrowhead, Wooden saddle attachments, wooden horse
ornament for headgear 67
3.2 Saddles. (a) Saddle, wood, leather. Pazyryk, Kurgan 5, Altai
Mountain Region, Southern Siberia. (b) Saddle, leather. Subeishi,
Xinjiang, China, 2nd c. BCE (?) 69
3.3 False beard, human hair, sinew thread, leather. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 2 73
3.4 Hood with crenelated crown, lacquered attachments. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 3 74
3.5 Saddle design. Wood. Leather, felt, sinew thread. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 5 75
3.6 Everyday Items. (a) Carved wooden table, Pazyryk, Kurgan 3.
(b) Pot for Koumiss, Pazyryk Kurgan 2. (c) Carved wooden
table with lion legs, Pazyryk, Kurgan 2. (d) Wooden cup, horn
handle. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 77
3.7 Animal decoration on saddle cover, elk, design from saddle
cover, felt application. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 78
3.8 Animal Designs. (a) Design from Saddle cover, winged lion-
grin attacking a sheep, felt application. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2.
(b) Design from saddle cover, feline attacking caprid, leather.
Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 79
3.9 Partial tomb contents of Yustyd 12, Burial 8, Chuya Valley,
Southern Siberia, including wooden horse/deer hat ornaments 81
3.10 Back of man’s caftan. Applied leather and gold disks, blue fur
outside. Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 83
3.11 Earrings, gold and other ornamental attachments. Yustyd 12,
burial 4, Chuya Valley, Southern Siberia 85
3.12 Items and motifs borrowed from beyond Pazyryk. (a) Beads and
cowrie shells. Pazyryk. (b) Harp, wood and leather. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 2. (c) Silk cut for saddle cloth, set in felt, horsehair and
gold foil. Pazyryk, Kurgan 5. (d) Felt wall hanging with images
of a lion head, borrowed from Achaemenid design. Pazyryk,
Kurgan 1 89
3.13 Patterned Chinese silk. Pazyryk, Kurgan 3 90
3.14 Items in Kurgan 5 at Pazyryk. (a) Knotted woolen carpet, detail
of deer and riders, Central Asia. Pazyryk, K5. (b) Hexipod
stand, copper brazier, Pazyryk, Kurgan 2. (c) Hemp seeds
found in leather bag, Pazyryk, Kurgan 2 93
4.1 Map of Pazyryk Culture sites in Western Mongolia 108
4.2 Materials with Pazyryk parallels from Olin-Kuriin-Gol-10, grave 1,
Baian-O
̈lgii aimag, Western Mongolia. (a) Graphic reconstruction
of a Pazyryk Culture warrior (D. Pozdnjakov). Olon-Kuriin-Gol
xii Figures

Cemetery. (b) Wooden horse bridle, iron bit. Olon-Kuriin-Gol-
10, grave 1. (c) Bronze mirror, leather pouch. Olon-Kuriin-Gol-
10, grave 1 110
4.3 Tomb alignment. Baga Tu
̈rgen Gol-1 Cemetery, Baian-O
̈lgii
aimag, Western Mongolia 111
4.4 Burial items from Baian-O
̈lgii aimag, Western Mongolia. (a)
Ground plan. Baga Tu
̈rgen Gol-1, Tomb 8; Iron bits. Baga
Tu
̈rgen Gol-1, Tomb 8. (b) Bronze daggers, wooden sheaths.
Baga Tu
̈rgen Gol-1, Tomb 8. (c) Wooden horse hat ornaments,
Olon-Kuriin-Gol-10, grave 1. (d) Felt booties. Olon-Kuriin-
Gol-10, grave 1. (e) Wooden circlet. Olon-Kuriin-Gol-10, grave
1. (f) Ceramic jar. Olon-Kuriin-Gol-10, grave 1 112
4.5 Map of Warring States period China 115
4.6 Chart of chariot types. Majiayuan, Gansu Province, China 117
4.7 Golden ornaments from the northern Barkol Area, northern
Xinjiang from Hami, Balikun Xigou, tomb 1. Late 3rd c. BCE
[Earring (1) similar to Achaemenid earring from Pazyryk, Kurgan
2, tiger plaques (2, 3), ram head (4), beads with granulation (5, 6),
attachments (10, 11)] 119
4.8 Golden items from Balikun Xigou, tomb 1. Hami, Xinjiang 120
4.9 Materials with Pazyryk parallels from Haizikou, Fuyun Co.,
Xinjiang. (a) Ground plan. Haizikou, Tomb 11. (b) Bronze
dagger (3), knife (6), chekan (8), bits (12, 13), arrowhead (11);
ceramic vessels (5, 4); bronze mirror (below). Haizikou, Tomb
11. (c) Objects from Haizikou, Tomb 11. Bronze knife (M11:6);
bronze chekan (M11:8); bronze mirror and gold foil (below) 123
Figures xiii

CHARTS
1.1 Approximate dating of Tuvan and Pazyryk Culture cemeteries 15
1.2 Distribution of distinguishing goods at Pazyryk Culture cemeteries:
Phase I 16
1.3 Chronology and distribution of goods at Pazyryk Culture
cemeteries: Phase II 18
2.1 Sacrificed horses 43
2.2 Approximate dating of Tuvan and selected Pazyryk culture
cemeteries 48
2.3 Sample of goods excavated in Pazyryk Culture tombs 58
3.1 Log of imported items and adapted images of foreign origin 91

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Any study of this sort depends on the scholarship and even kindness of many, many
people. Many years in the making, both of us learned about Pazyryk as graduate
students and only now know that it is possible to attempt to make sense out of
questions about who these people were, when and where they lived with some
precision – those who, when, where and why questions posed by our mentors in
graduate seminars.
Most recently those who helped us include the following:
Horse analysis: Gala Argent (Eastern Kentucky University) archaeologist and
horse breeder for leading us through horse management; Igor Chechuskov
(University of Pittsburgh) for assistance and consultation on horse behavior and
Russian interpretations of that; Yan Liu (Research Center of Material Science and
Archaeology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, PRC) for assistance
with materials from Xinjiang and Gansu, especially on horses; Sarah Lynch (DVM,
Anne Arundel Veterinary Emergency Clinic-Annapolis, MD) consultation on
bone analysis of horses; Michael Mackinnon (Winnipeg University, Department
of Classics) zooarchaeologist, for bone analysis of horses and sexing; Carrie
Sulkowski Weaver (University of Pittsburgh) zooarchaeologist re. bone and sexing
of horses.
On pastoralism: Julia Clark (NOMAD Science; American Center for Mongolian
Studies, UB, Mongolia) for sharing models of pastoral organization and trade; Jean-
Luc Houle (Western Kentucky University) for sharing wisdom on pastoral
movement and habits and information on western Mongolian archaeological data;
Ursula Brosseder (Bonn, GDR) for discussing Mongolia and the rise of pastoralism;
Sören Stark (ISAW, New York University) for counsel on the ways mobile
pastoralists create and maintain alliances and community as well as sharing of obscure
Russian publications; Bryan Miller (University of Michigan) for discussion of

Pazyryk-like sites in central Mongolia; Claudia Chang (Sweet Briar College) for
discussions of pastoralism in Kazakhstan and help with dicult-to-find bibliography;
Judith Lerner (ISAW, New York University) for useful bibliography.
Metallurgy: Mark Abbott (Geology, University of Pittsburgh) advised on
geological issues; Evgenij Chernykh (Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of
Science Moscow) email confirmation that gold was probably local in Pazyryk Culture
– and that hammered gold was locally produced and for responding to the smallest
questions about metallurgy; Konstantin Čugunov (The State Hermitage Museum)
who provided articles/book on metallurgy in the Altai; Yan Liu (Northwestern
Polytechnical University, Xi’an, PRC) provided articles on excavations in Xinjiang
and on gold materials; Junchang Yang and Yan Liu (Xi’an Polytechnic University)
provided guidance on all things gold, through study of his book and personally.
Library: In an era where libraries are changing and especially during the pandemic
of 2020/21, we appreciate the serious, competent and cheerful willingness to search
for materials for us in both the old-fashioned and new ways!
Haihui Zhang, Hillman Library, East Asian Library Head, University of Pitts-
burgh; Daniel Mark Pennell, Slavic Bibliographer, Hillman Library, University of
Pittsburgh; Gabriel McKee, Librarian for Collections and Services, ISAW Library,
New York University.
In relation to the Chinese sites in Xinjiang: Ma Jian/Tian Duo: (Northwest
University, Xi’an) for supplying information about excavations of Pazyryk-like
sites in Xinjiang; Yu Jianjun (Xinjiang Institute for Archaeology) for information
on his excavations and others in northern Xinjiang that are Pazyryk related, and
especially for information on horse burials.
Maps: Evan Matthew Mann (City University of New York – Graduate Program
in Anthropology) who undertook to make maps and apply GIS questions of the
Altai region which is on a dierent continent than the one on which he specializes;
Ursula Brosseder (Bonn, GDR) for a map of Pazyryk sites wrestled from early data;
Gino Caspari (University of Sydney and Bern University) who provided map data
for sites in Tuva.
Answers to Many Diverse Questions: Henri-Paul Francfort (CNRS) for assistance
with sites and travel ways between Kazakhstan and the Altai, as well as answers to
many questions about Berel; Jean Bourgeois (Ghent University) for information and
data behind his helpful publications.
Images: For most of the chapters, Veronica Gazdik provided many images with
her usual care and eciency; others were prepared willingly and meticulously
during pandemic lock-down by Audrey Biega in the Fine Arts Library at the
University of Pittsburgh.
xvi Acknowledgments

1
INTRODUCTION: THE SHAPE OF
PAZYRYK CULTURE
1.1 What is the Pazyryk Culture? Who were the Pazyryk
people?
In the 1920s and 1940s, a group of burials was discovered and excavated in the
remote Gorny-Altai mountainous region of Siberia at the site of Pazyryk in what
was then the USSR (Fig. 1.1).
Since the contents of these burials were preserved in permafrost, the excava-
tions exposed materials that were not only remarkable simply because of their
preservation, but also because of their exceptional artistic merit (Fig. 1.2). They
suggested that these remains were of a sophisticated and sizeable group of people
who provided a link to a previously unsubstantiated distant past. The region had
heretofore been noticed only through study of ancient texts together with much
earlier excavations of other nearby mounded tombs at the sites of Berel in what is
today Kazakhstan and Katanda in the Russian Altai excavated by Radlov in 1865
(Radlov 1894; Zakharov 1925, 1928). Direct textual evidence about these peoples
was absent, but their presence was hinted at in the records of Herodotus (490/
480–424 BCE) and Sima Qian (司馬遷; 145–86 BCE), both of whom, although
not aware of the other, described a people whose lifestyle was to them of less
standing than the state-level societies of either the Greeks or the dynastic Chinese –
they were mobile pastoralists, now often called nomads. Archaeological remains of
other groups that share the lifeway have been found widely across the Eurasian
steppe (Cunlie 2019), but our focus here is on the cultural remains found in the
greater Altai region of what are today Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China.
The individuals interred in the so-called royal barrows at Pazyryk have been
associated with the Scythians, known from Herodotus and also 19th-century
excavations of burials in the Black Sea region. Based on the perspective of settled
peoples who wrote the texts, those interred in these burials were thought to
DOI: 10.4324/9780429456374-1

FIGURE 1.1 Map of Pazyryk Culture sites mentioned in the text. Map by Evan Matthew Mann.
DOI: 10.4324/9780429456374-1
2 Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture

represent a culture of fierce warriors (both male and female) or thundering hoards
who raided and pillaged in western Asia. A similar perspective by Chinese his-
torians cast other named groups as rough and tumble outsiders, mobile pastoralists,
who entered and threatened western and northern lands thought to be sovereign
territory of the early sedentary, agricultural dynastic Chinese. A more nuanced
view of these peoples is of interest here and will be developed with the aid of
FIGURE 1.2 Pazyryk barrow and contents. (a) Ground plan, Pazyryk, Kurgan 1
showing supporting wooden structure and burials of horses. (Adapted from Jettmar
1967: Fig. 85). (b) Cross section of Kurgan 5, Pazyryk showing frozen ground,
wooden chamber and contents. (Adapted from Simpson and Pankova 2017: Fig. 149).
(c) Eagle-Grin on saddle cover, Kurgan 2, Pazyryk, felt appliqué. (Adapted from
Rudenko 1953: Pl. 109). (d) Wood, leather finials for male headgear, Pazyryk, Kurgan
2, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 1684/170; 1684/162–163. (Adapted from
Simpson and Pankova 2017: Pls. 36–37).
Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture 3

many sources beyond the written tracts of the ancient authors of literate worlds to
their west and east that both named and characterized these people from an
outsiders’ perspective.
The excavations at Pazyryk, and other ones in the immediate region, are
overwhelmingly of burials and have been proposed to represent part of a linear
tradition that stretched across Siberia from the Altai west to the region north of the
Black Sea, described by Herodotus as “Scythians” (Cunlie 2019; Čugunov et al.
2010). As the theory goes, during the first millennium BCE nomadic people
spread over the Eurasian Steppe from the Altai Mountains through the northern
Black Sea area as far as the Carpathian Basin (Parzinger 2004). Those who had
lived in the North Pontic region since the 7th century BCE are the most famous
among them due to the early reports in the Histories of Herodotus (Herodotus
1987: bk iv) which were seen to be confirmed by excavations in the Black Sea
region (Cunlie 2019).
1
Many tribal names have been assigned to those buried
under tumuli that share certain artifact categories such as horse harnesses, weapon
types and ornamentation that featured wild animals (often in combat) which came
to be known as “Animal Style.” Greek and Persian historians of the first mil-
lennium BCE chronicled the existence of the Massagetae and Sauromatians, and
later, the Sarmatians and Saka cultures possessing these similar artifacts, so that they
are often grouped under the Scythian rubric. We know other names of related
groups, characterized as horse-riding warriors who threatened settled populations
and were recorded in other ancient texts such as the Bible. Assyrian records
mentioned the Cimmerians, a related group, as well as the Scythians (Phillips
1972: 130–135). As noted, Chinese historians did not name a group Scythian, but
they did record similar cultural-economic behaviors among pastoral peoples who
lived on their dynastic borderlands, where in some cases artifacts such as belt
plaques, daggers, curved knives and horse gear aligned with “Scythian-types” have
been excavated as well (Tian and Guo 1986).
Given the persistence of this association, we briefly address here this hotly
debated question in Eurasian studies about the origin of the purportedly wide-
spread Scythian culture. The northern Black Sea steppe was originally considered
the homeland and center of the Scythians (Yablonsky 2000) until a Central Asian
origin hypothesis was formulated (Bashilov and Yablonsky 2000). Evidence sup-
porting an east Eurasian beginning includes analysis of the kurgan Arzhan 1 in
Tuva (Griaznov 1980; Grjaznov 1984), which has been considered the earliest
known Scythian burial to date (ca. 9th century BCE) (Alekseev 2001; Caspari
et al. 2018). This idea was based on the contents of the burial, including many
horses, sacrificed humans and artifacts that become part of the “Scythian” canon,
including horse tack and a representation of a curled wild feline, materials and
practices of the later warrior-style nomadic tombs from across Eurasia (Hanks
2012; Samashev 2012) (Fig. 1.3). Moreover, elements of the characteristic
“Animal Style” dated to the 10th century BCE were found in the region of the
Yenisei River and in modern-day China, and were used to argue for the early
4 Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture

presence of Scythian culture in the East (Parzinger 2004; Bashilov and
Yablonsky 2000).
The issue of demographic spread of the “Scythian” culture over a large territory
has been addressed most recently by scientists who examine genomic and paleo-
genetic data.
2
Martina Unterländer and her enormous team of advisors and sci-
entists have found that “Despite separate origins and the enormous geographic
separation, demographic modelling infers ongoing and substantial gene flow be-
tween eastern and western groups, which provides a plausible demographic me-
chanism to explain the low F
ST3
values and the general uniformity of the material
culture of Scythians right across the Eurasian Steppe zone” (Unterländer et al.
2017). Their findings go on to suggest that:
During the 1st millennium before the Common Era (BCE), nomadic tribes
associated with the Iron Age Scythian culture spread over the Eurasian
Steppe, covering a territory of more than 3,500 km in breadth. To
understand the demographic processes behind the spread of the Scythian
culture, we analysed genomic data from eight individuals and a mitochon-
drial dataset of 96 individuals originating in eastern and western parts of the
Eurasian Steppe. Genomic inference reveals that Scythians in the east and
the west of the steppe zone can best be described as a mixture of Yamnaya-
related ancestry and an East Asian component. Demographic modelling
suggests independent origins for eastern and western groups with ongoing
gene-flow between them, plausibly explaining the striking uniformity of
FIGURE 1.3 Arzhan I, ca. 9th c. BCE, Tuva. (a) Ground Plan of excavated structures,
Arzhan I. (Adapted from Simpson and Pankova 2017: Fig. 55). (b) Bronze coiled
feline, 25 cm, TRM K2–20, State Museum of the Tuva, Kyzyl Arzhan I. (Adapted
from Basilov 1989: 21).
Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture 5

their material culture. We also find evidence that significant gene-flow from
east to west Eurasia must have occurred early during the Iron Age. (2017: 1)
This exacting work has shown that the underlying population across the Steppe
was genetically connected, but the dynamics that may have driven the cultural
diusion are still poorly understood. The populations of the Pazyryk region, for
instance, were and still are decidedly a mix of several regional eastern and
northern Eurasian gene pools, suggesting movement of peoples in and out of that
small region for many centuries before and during the first millennium BCE
(González-Ruiz et al. 2012; Voevoda et al. 2000; Molodin 2000b), but the
specifics of those movements still await investigation. We will undertake that
issue here. How the Pazyryk peoples might have been connected to the larger
world called by some the Scythian culture, which they surely did not know first
hand, is still an open question. They developed a culture that was internally
coherent and short-lived and that allows for a focused discussion of the group as
locally as well as regionally constituted and maintained. We will undertake the
task of reconstructing the Pazyryk society here and leave the issue of any direct
role in the Scythian world to others.
Because there are no direct written documents from the Pazyryk people and
the genomic evidence does not reveal the intricacies of life in the Sayan-Altai
homeland, primary evidence in the form of burial remains is used here to explain
and amplify what can be learned about familial relations, societal organization,
the base economy and the rise of a developed sense of community. Images and
shared patterns of behavior placed before the constituents through burial display,
social order, advanced technologies, successful foreign aairs, control of certain
kinds of knowledge such as about animals (especially horses) and their habits as
well as tractability, the practice of ritual and employment of military equipment
were all practices that allowed for the upkeep of their particular world. Such
production, collection and consistent display of materials, imagery and con-
structions were surely meant to exert group recognition through visual messa-
ging, and although the imagery belonged to a larger set of “animal-style”
expression, those from Pazyryk form a subset which tell us about their local
world. These displays recognized and then exhibited group coherence as well as
distinction from others and signaled management of a territory and its economy,
internally as well as externally.
1.2 Archaeological background
The Pazyryk Culture designation derives from the name of the find spot of the
best-known group of mounded kurgans located in the valley of the Ulagan River
where Russian archaeologists M. P. Griaznov (in 1929) and S. I. Rudenko (in
1947–1949) explored five large barrows preserved in permafrost, and three smaller
ones (Fig. 1.4). Although the tombs had been robbed in ancient times, mummies
of four people (two men and two women) were found in them, as well as skeletal
6 Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture

FIGURE 1.4 Plan of burial group at Pazyryk. (Adapted from Rudenko 1970: Fig. 2).
Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture 7

remains of other males and females, together with many grave goods and sacrificed
horses. The cemetery at the Pazyryk site is thought to contain the burials of the
upper elite leadership of the region at that time.
More recently, mounded tombs nearby on the Ukok Plateau in the eastern
Altai at Ak-Alakha (Polosmak and Molodin 2000; Derevianko and Molodin 2000)
and in northern Kazakhstan at Berel have yielded more richly outfitted Pazyryk
Culture funerary remains dating from the same period (Francfort et al. 2006;
Samashev 2011). Unlike the large barrows at Pazyryk, these are mostly tombs of
mid-level elites, although Berel 1, excavated in the 19th century, appears to be
more similar to the Pazyryk examples (Zakharov 1928). The lower slopes rising
from the Chuya Valley are also marked with the burial complexes to the west of
Pazyryk at Bashadar, Tuekta (Rudenko 1960) and Katanda (Zakharov 1925). In
addition, small burials of non-elites were excavated in the 1980s at sites such as
Yustyd, Ulandryk and the Sailiugem region (Kubarev 1987, 1991, 1992). Since
then, Pazyryk-style cemeteries in Mongolia such as at Olon-Kürin-Gol in 1993
excavated by a Russian-German-Mongolian team (Turbat and Tseveendorj 2016)
have been reported. Another expedition by V. I. Molodin, H. Parzinger and D.
Tseveendorj (Molodin 2008; Molodin et al. 2009) and others also in the Baian-
Ölgii aimag in Western Mongolia by a Mongolian-French team (Törbat et al.
2009) have yielded burial patterns and materials comparable to those known at
Pazyryk itself and on the Ukok Plateau (Polosmak and Molodin 2000; Polosmak
2001).
4
More related sites have been located and excavated, many by Professors
Yu Jianjun, Ma Jian and their teams, between the Altai and the Tianshan
Mountains in Xinjiang Province in western China (Yu and Hu 2015; Ma 2014;
Shulga and Shulga 2017). These finds show that knowledge of the Pazyryk
Culture extended far beyond eastern Kazakhstan and the Siberian Altai to its east
and southeast (Fig. 1.1). Although habitation sites have been located and noted
(Ochir-Goryaeva 2017: 335; Gheyle 2009; Kiryushin et al. 2003: 15–26), they
have not been systematically studied across the region, making the funerary re-
mains our main source of information. Interestingly, both the Mongolian sites and
those in northern Xinjiang are accessible today from the north via a passageway
where a highway and gas pipeline are being developed in order to provide contact
into and out from the Pazyryk valleys as they would have been in the 6th to 3rd
centuries BCE (Nyíri and Breidenbach 2008). The terrain prohibits other routings
and allows natural gas, rare animal pelts and minerals to flow out from the region.
Likewise, the only route from the west into the Chuya River Valley and the
Pazyryk Culture sites runs through Berel in northeastern Kazakhstan. Routes
along the Ob River from north to south must have provided for contact as did
tributaries of the Yenisei River that led to the forested area of Tuva and their
mineral and fur resources. Through these passageways, the Pazyryk peoples were
linked along routes which we shall see provided an economic lifeline based on
trade and exchange.
This Altaian community was not the first horse-riding, mobile pastoralist group
in the broader region of Siberia. It was preceded by other groups who buried their
8 Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture

elites under mounds together with horses and many riches. The important site,
Arzhan, has yielded the earliest of these (Fig. 1.3). Located in the Sayan Mountains
in Tuva to the north and east of Pazyryk, there are a series of burials of which two
have been excavated that belong to two dierent phases.
5
The earliest burial
known so far was excavated by Mikhail Griaznov and M. Kh. Mannaî-ool in the
1970s (Grjaznov 1984; Griaznov 1980). Termed Arzhan 1, it dates to the end of
the ninth/beginning of the 8th century BCE (Zaitseva et al. 2005: 66–68, 2007). It
had been looted quite thoroughly in the past, but what remained gives a window
onto the rise of a military elite who rode horses and apparently led a regional
confederacy (Hanks 2012). The contents of their burials, including materials from
outside the region, were expressions of their economy, elite status and role in the
local society. Arzhan 1 has a distinctive plan (Fig. 1.3a). Under a platform that was
about 120 m in diameter and 4 m high were several burials. At the center was the
burial of a male and a female surrounded by eight additional burials (males mostly
over age 40, although one was 18–20 years old) and six horse burials. Radiating
out from the center were a series of wooden chambers constructed of larch logs,
some of which contained horse burials alone and two of which contained both
horses and humans; chamber 13 contained bones of a male older than 60, and
chamber 31 contained two elderly males (chamber 9 contained a young child with
no accompanying horse). Altogether there were 160 horses buried within the
central mound and about 300 additional horses around it. All of the gold found
within the mound was fragmentary; gold was associated both with the central
burial and the male in burial 13, as well as with horses in burials 13 and 31, in the
form of foil strips decorating the horses’ tails (Grjaznov 1984: 32). The burials
contained weapons and horse equipment, a few with animal imagery, including a
bronze horse phalera in the shape of a curled feline, an image that continues to be
associated with many later horse-riding mobile military groups across the steppe
and associated with the broader Scythian culture (Fig. 1.3b). The variety of bit
types together with variations in weaponry, as laid out in the burial, indicate from
the materials in the northern sector connections with eastern Kazakhstan, the Altai
and the Minusinsk basin and from the materials in the south, contacts with Tuva
and Mongolia (Bokovenko and Samashev 2012: 25). Mobility was clearly a way of
life that included trade and exchange at this early date.
The fragmentary textiles preserved at Arzhan 1 came from the central chamber,
most from grave 1, that of the principal deceased individuals, and a few from grave
4, of a young male. The textiles, all made of wool and woven in a variety of
techniques, included both monochrome and polychrome examples, including one
in a stepped pattern. It is likely that these textiles were imported, although not all
scholars agree (Simpson and Pankova 2017: 120–122). Certainly the fact that most
were found in the central chamber, the locus of the powerful individuals for whom
the monument was constructed, would support the foreign sourcing of the textiles.
A second burial in Tuva, Arzhan 2, excavated by a Russian-German team
between 2000 and 2004, in contrast to Arzhan 1, was undisturbed. It too featured
an elite couple. Their burial chamber was not centrally located under the mound,
Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture 9

but the wealth of their furnishings, including more than 5600 objects of gold,
made clear that they were the individuals for whom the large mound was con-
structed and some of the additional deceased had served. The mound is much
smaller than Arzhan 1, 80 m in diameter and 2 m high and dates to the middle to
the end of the 7th century BCE (Zaitseva et al. 2005: 84–88, 2007). Again horses
accompanied the burials, although in this case they were buried outside the space
defined by the burial mound itself. The remarkable gold work, which has been
studied extensively, is now on display in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg
(Menghin et al. 2007: 60–99; Čugunov et al. 2010, 2017) (Fig. 1.5a).
As in the case of Arzhan I, there is evidence of a broad reach outside of the
region, reflecting the spheres of interaction and control of the deceased. Genetic
analysis of the horses from Arzhan 2 demonstrates that they originated in perhaps
ten dierent herds and one of the horses hailed from the Altai region, according to
an isotopic study of horse bone (Ellanskaya 2013: 34). Also based on an isotopic
study, but of human bone, the female in the main burial is also from outside,
having a north Altaic origin (Ellanskaya 2013: 36).
By the 7th century BCE, the mobile pastoral, horse-riding warrior lifeway was,
apparently, widespread, appearing far to the west of Siberia. The example of
Kostromskaya in the Black Sea region where a large burial under a mound with
rich goods including many valuable objects made of gold, as well as buried horses
and sacrificed humans around about the burial chamber, is but one of many of the
rich tombs of people in that area that the Greeks observed and called Scythians in
the texts (Piotrovsky 1974).
1.3 Burial display
The cemeteries in the Altai were set into the forest steppe landscape in regular
linear patterns along the upland valleys and on plateaus above the rivers, generally
oriented north-south (Fig. 1.4).
Shared features in funeral practice are evident in all these tombs (Chernykh
2017: 281–282): Mounds atop made of earth and rubble and with pit tombs
below, wooden burial chambers, horse sacrifices and a wealth of burial goods that
displayed local craftworking such as felting, woodworking, ceramics (usually one
pot per tomb), as well as corpses dressed in trousers and tunics (males) and skirts
and tunics (females), and sometimes accompanied by either metal weapons
(daggers and short swords and battle axes called chekans) or wooden replicas of
them. Occasionally beads or cowrie shells adorned bodies or garments; often
garments were ornamented with elaborate leather appliqués, sometimes decorated
with gold foil and/or exotic furs (Fig. 1.6, Fig. 2.2). Most of these objects, as well
as horses, were consistently found regardless of the size of the tomb. This tomb
type together with the artifacts and horses that were commonly found in most
tombs plus items that bore zoomorphic images formed a “cultural tool kit.”
The standard local imagery largely consisted of naturalistic representations of
wild animals, often in combat. Such visual imagery recorded wild animals as it did
10 Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture

FIGURE 1.5 Arzhan 2, Tuva, ca, 7th C. BCE. (a) Gold plaques of felines, clothing
adornments, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 2917/20/71–100. (Adapted
from Simpson and Pankova 2017: Pl. 87). (b) View of landscape near Arzhan, Tuva.
(Adapted from Simpson and Pankova 2017: Fig. 44).
Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture 11

in other Steppe communities, but at Pazyryk they were also tattooed onto the
bodies of the elite, pounded or sewn into felt, carved into wood or bone and
applied to leather (Fig. 1.7).
Often such surfaces were covered with hammered gold or tin foil. Many graves,
including commoner graves, held regionally traded items including iron and bronze
weapons (Kubarev 1992). Distinguishing the richest burials were rare long-distance
imports such as the Central Asian carpet in Pazyryk Kurgan 5 (Fig. 1.8) and cast gold
and silver ornaments of high artistic merit, unique in shape and elaborate in
decoration.
FIGURE 1.6 Caftan/shirt, cotton (design is local, cotton is either from India or China),
Pazyryk, Kurgan 2. (Adapted from Rudenko 1970: Fig. 29).
FIGURE 1.7 Tattoos from Pazyryk and Ak-Alakha. (a) Tattoo. Right shoulder, Pazyryk,
Kurgan 5. (Adapted from Rudenko 1970: Fig. 53). (b) Tattoo. Left shoulder, from
Ak-Alakha, Ukok Plateau. (Adapted from Threadless.com, accessed 11/18/2019).
12 Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture

All such gold items declared a special status of the tomb occupant among locals
and perhaps flaunted internal social order while showing group unity at least
within the local Altaian community. Although there are variations in execution
and style, the burial kit was largely consistent, dierentiated only by socio-
economic class, largely by the number of goods and their material of manufacture
and accompanying buried horses.
But there may be more than simple group recognition or identification to these
burial remains. Often dramatically rising above the steppe landscape, large kurgans
sit in fields under mounds that have acted, and still do, as permanent markers of the
past. The physical groupings of monumental burial structures provided permanent
visual indicators of culture group boundaries and the presence of authority that in
sedentary polities were marked by walled centers as in early China or large
buildings often on raised platforms, such as those in the ancient Near East. The
mound groupings apparently guided mobile communities much as monuments
did for pilgrims in many cultures (Frank 2000; Wells 2008, 2012). Their repeated
usage has recently been captured by ground penetrating radar that showed paths to
and around mounds documenting their continued use through long periods of
time (Ochir-Goryaeva 2016; Parzinger et al. 2016) (Fig. 1.9).
The mounds and cemeteries surely marked possession of place and reminded
viewers of the importance and authority of history or, at the very least, their
tradition. These striking above-ground monuments and collections of local and
FIGURE 1.8 Woolen, knotted carpet, Central Asian manufacture, 1.9 x 2m. (Adapted
from Jettmar 1967: Fig. 103).
Introduction: The shape of Pazyryk Culture 13

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