Massive Tomb Of A Badass Scythian Prince Found In Siberia

[Judi Lynn]

3. Untouched 'Frozen Tomb' Discovered in Siberia

By Megan Gannon, Live Science Contributor | January 16, 2018 06:41am ET

Archaeologists working in southern Siberia have identified an untouched, frozen burial mound that they say might contain the graves of Scythian royals. The monument —which is more than 2,800 years old and wider than the length of a football field —could be the oldest and largest in the region.

The Scythians were horse-riding nomads who dominated a vast stretch of the central Eurasian steppes and grasslands from about the ninth century B.C. to about the first century B.C. Among outsiders, they had a reputation as fearsome warriors. Writing in the fifth century B.C., Greek historian Herodotus claimed that after battle, the Scythians made cloaks from their victims' scalps and drinking cups from their skulls.

While the Scythians did not build any settlements, they did leave behind huge burial mounds, which they filled with gold jewelry, weapons, richly decorated cups (some with traces of drugs like opium) and other grave goods. Because many of these mounds are built on permanently icy soil, some of the burials are quite literally frozen in time; archaeologists have even discovered Scythian ice mummies. [In Photos: Boneyard of Iron Age Warriors]

Since the 1970s, archaeologists have been excavating several burial mounds, called kurgans, in the Uyuk Valley in Tuva, a Russian republic, just northwest of Mongolia. The area is sometimes called the Siberian "Valley of the Kings," referring to the place where pharaohs were buried for 500 years in ancient Egypt.

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