The Pazyrykburials are a number of Scythian (Saka) Iron Age tombs found in the Pazyryk Valley and the Ukok plateau in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, Russia; the site is close to the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
The Sarmatians were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD.
The Saka, Shaka, or Sacae were a group of nomadic Eastern Iranian peoples who historically inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin.
A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asia and Eastern, Southeast, Western and Northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BC.
The Pazyryk culture is a Saka nomadic Iron Age archaeological culture identified by excavated artifacts and mummified humans found in the Siberian permafrost, in the Altay Mountains, Kazakhstan and nearby Mongolia. The mummies are buried in long barrows similar to the tomb mounds of Scythian culture in Ukraine. The type site are the Pazyryk burials of the Ukok Plateau. Many artifacts and human remains have been found at this location, including the Siberian Ice Princess, indicating a flourishing culture at this location that benefited from the many trade routes and caravans of merchants passing through the area. The Pazyryk are considered to have had a war-like life. The Pazyryk culture was preceded by the "Arzhan culture".
The Tashtyk culture was a Late Iron Age archaeological culture that flourished in the Yenisei valley in Siberia from the 1st century CE to the 4th century CE. Located in the Minusinsk Depression, environs of modern Krasnoyarsk, eastern part of Kemerovo Oblast, it was preceded by the Tagar culture and the Tesinsky culture.
Scytho-Siberian art is the art associated with the cultures of the Scytho-Siberian world, primarily consisting of decorative objects such as jewellery, produced by the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian Steppe, with the eastern edges of the region vaguely defined by ancient Greeks. The identities of the nomadic peoples of the steppes is often uncertain, and the term "Scythian" should often be taken loosely; the art of nomads much further east than the core Scythian territory exhibits close similarities as well as differences, and terms such as the "Scytho-Siberian world" are often used. Other Eurasian nomad peoples recognised by ancient writers, notably Herodotus, include the Massagetae, Sarmatians, and Saka, the last a name from Persian sources, while ancient Chinese sources speak of the Xiongnu or Hsiung-nu. Modern archaeologists recognise, among others, the Pazyryk, Tagar, and Aldy-Bel cultures, with the furthest east of all, the later Ordos culture a little west of Beijing. The art of these peoples is collectively known as steppes art.
The Ordos culture was a material culture occupying a region centered on the Ordos Loop during the Bronze and early Iron Age from c. 800 BCE to 150 BCE. The Ordos culture is known for significant finds of Scythian art and may represent the easternmost extension of Indo-European Eurasian nomads, such as the Saka, or may be linkable to Palaeo-Siberians or Yeniseians. Under the Qin and Han dynasties, the area came under the control of contemporaneous Chinese states.
The Tagar culture was a Bronze Age Saka archeological culture which flourished between the 8th and 1st centuries BC in South Siberia. The culture was named after an island in the Yenisei River opposite Minusinsk. The civilization was one of the largest centres of bronze-smelting in ancient Eurasia.
The Prehistory of Siberia is marked by several archaeologically distinct cultures. In the Chalcolithic, the cultures of western and southern Siberia were pastoralists, while the eastern taiga and the tundra were dominated by hunter-gatherers until the Late Middle Ages and even beyond. Substantial changes in society, economics and art indicate the development of nomadism in the Central Asian steppes in the first millennium BC.
Arzhan is a site of early Saka kurgan burials in the Tuva Republic, Russia, some 60 kilometers (40 mi) northwest of Kyzyl. It is on a high plateau traversed by the Uyuk River, a minor tributary of the Yenisei River, in the region of Tuva, 20 km to the southwest of the city of Turan.
The Tasmola culture was an early Iron Age culture during the Saka period in central Kazakhstan. The Tasmola culture was replaced by the Korgantas culture. They may correspond to the Issedones of ancient Greek sources.
The Ingala Valley is an archaeological district in the area between the Tobol and Iset rivers. It is the largest one in the south of the Tyumen Oblast, and belongs to the Iset cultural and historical province. It has 177 kurgans, 55 archaeological sites of federal significance and 5 regional natural monuments.
The Scytho-Siberian world was an archaeological horizon which flourished across the entire Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age from approximately the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD. It included the Scythian, Sauromatian and Sarmatian cultures of Eastern Europe, the Saka-Massagetae and Tasmola cultures of Central Asia, and the Aldy-Bel, Pazyryk and Tagar cultures of south Siberia.
Sargat culture, was a sedentary archaeological culture that existed between 7th century BC and 5th century AD in Western Siberia. Sargat cultural horizon encompassed northern forest steppe zone between the Tobol and Irtysh rivers, which is currently located in Russia and Kazakhstan. The northernmost Sargat culture presence is found near Tobolsk, on the border of the forest zone. In the south, the area of culture coincides with the southern border of the forest-steppe. Eastern foothills of the Urals make up the western boundary of the culture, meanwhile Baraba forest-steppe forms the eastern edge for Sargat settlements and burial grounds. The culture is named after the village of Sargatskoye, which is located near a Sargat burial ground.
The Sauromatian culture was an Iron Age culture of horse nomads in the area of the lower Volga River to the southern Ural Mountain, in southern Russia, dated to the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. Archaeologically, the Sauromatian period itself is sometimes also called the "Blumenfeld period", and is followed by a transitional Late Sauromatian-Early Sarmatian period, also called the "Prokhorov period".
The Boar hunter from the Hermitage Museum is a set of two symmetrical gold repoussé belt plaques depicting a nomad horserider hunting a boar with a bow. The plaques are dated to the 3rd-1st centuries BCE, or even earlier to the 5th-4th centuries BCE. The plaques were found in Southern Siberia, in an unknown location somewhere in the area between modern Kazakhstan and the Altai mountains. The plaques belonged to the broadly-defined Scythian Animal style, and are relatively late examples of this kind of ornaments. They are often attributed to the Saka culture, but some Hunnic affinities have also been suggested. The plaques are also known in French as the plaques "à la chasse des Iyrques", after the famous account by Herodotus.
The Taksai kurgans are a series of Saka or Sauromatian funeral mounds or kurgans, located in the Terekti District of the southern Urals, in northwestern Kazakhstan. They are dated to circa 500 BCE. The Kurgan was undisturbed and had provided numerous valuable artifacts. The Taksai-1 kurgan was the tomb of a rich Saka lady, dubbed the "golden lady". Some of her objects reflect the iconography of the Achaemenid Empire, which must have been in contact with these nomadic tribes.
The Filippovka kurgans are Late-Sauromatian to Early-Sarmatian culture kurgans, forming "a transition site between the Sauromation and the Sarmatian epochs", just north of the Caspian Sea in the Orenburg region of Russia, dated to the second half of the 5th century and the 4th century BCE.
The Maoqinggou culture is an archaeological culture of Inner Mongolia, to the east of the Ordos culture area, centered around the Maoqinggou cemetery. It is an important site for the understanding of China's northern grasslands in the early Iron Age. The site has four phases, from the Spring and Autumn period to the late Warring States period, including a period of early Xiongnu occupation.
