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 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 Karasuk culture describes a group of late Bronze Age societies who ranged from the Aral Sea to the upper Yenisei in the east and south to the Altai Mountains and the Tian Shan in ca. 1500–800 BC.
The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Late Bronze Age cultures that flourished c. 2000–1150 BC, spanning from the southern Urals to the upper Yenisei River in central Siberia. Some researchers have preferred to term it an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon. The slightly older Sintashta culture, formerly included within the Andronovo culture, is now considered separately to Early Andronovo cultures. New research shows Andronovo culture's first stage could have begun at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, with cattle grazing, as natural fodder was by no means difficult to find in the pastures close to dwellings.
The Khakas are a Turkic indigenous people of Siberia, who live in the republic of Khakassia, Russia. They speak the Khakas language.
The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BCE to the first centuries BCE, with a new group of individuals recently dated to between c. 2100 and 1700 BCE. The Tarim population to which the earliest mummies belonged was agropastoral, and they lived circa 2000 BCE in what was formerly a freshwater environment, which has now become desertified.
The Afanasievo culture, or Afanasevo culture, is an early archaeological culture of south Siberia, occupying the Minusinsk Basin and the Altai Mountains during the eneolithic era, c. 3300 to 2500 BCE. It is named after a nearby mountain, Gora Afanasieva in what is now Bogradsky District, Khakassia, Russia, first excavated by archaeologist Sergei Teploukhov in 1920-1929. Afanasievo burials have been found as far as Shatar Chuluu in central Mongolia, confirming a further expansion about 1,500 km beyond the Altai mountains. The Afanasievo culture is now considered as an integral part of the Prehistory of Western and Central Mongolia.
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.
[[File:Tashtyk culture funeral masks.jpg|thumb|{{center|Tashtyk culture funeral masks. The masks were often painted. Oglakhty necropolis. Hermitage Museum.]]Oglahty is a mountain range and a burial complex of Tashtyk culture located 60 km north of Minusinsk, Khakassia, Russia, on the right bank of Yenisei River. Oglahty burials are dated to ca. 1st century BC. The burials were first surveyed in 1903 by A.V. Adrianov. The dryness of the soil and favorable climatic conditions in the burial monument preserved perishable materials including wood, leather, fur, and fabrics. A prominent place among artifacts in the Oglahty complex occupy solid and decorated polychromatic fabrics. They are preserved in the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg.
The Yenisei Kyrgyz, were an ancient Turkic people who dwelled along the upper Yenisei River in the southern portion of the Minusinsk Depression from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The heart of their homeland was the forested Tannu-Ola mountain range, in modern-day Tuva, just north of Mongolia. The Sayan mountains were also included in their territory at different times. The Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate existed from 538 to 1219 CE; in 840, it took over the leadership of the Turkic Khaganate from the Uyghurs, expanding the state from the Yenisei territories into Central Asia and the Tarim Basin.
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.
Okunev culture, sometimes also Okunevo culture, was a south Siberian archaeological culture of pastoralists of the early Bronze Age dated from the end of the 3rd millennium BC to the early of the 2nd millennium BC in the Minusinsk Basin on the middle and upper Yenisei. It was formed from the local Neolithic Siberian forest cultures, who also show evidence of admixture from Western Steppe Herders and pre-existing Ancient North Eurasians.
In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) is the name given to an ancestral component that represents the lineage of the people of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture (c. 24,000 BP) and populations closely related to them, such as the Upper Paleolithic individuals from Afontova Gora in Siberia. Genetic studies indicate that the ANE are closely related to the Ancient North Siberians (ANS) represented by two ancient specimens from the preceding Yana Culture (c. 32,000 BP). The ANE can either be considered to descend from the earlier ANS population, or that both ANE and ANS are closely related, albeit differentiated, sister lineages, with both having originated from an 'Early West Eurasian' hunter-gatherer lineage (represented by Kostenki-14, c. 40,000 BP), which absorbed an 'Early East Eurasian' population (represented by the Tianyuan man, c. 40,000 BP). The ANS and ANE each derive between 16% to 35% of their ancestry from an Early East Eurasian lineage and between 65% to 84% from an Early West Eurasian lineage.
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.
Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at ru:Чебаки (крепость); see its history for attribution
The mountain range Sunduki is a natural and historical monument of local significance in the Ordzhonikidzevsky and Shirinsky districts of the Republic of Khakassia, Russia. Since June 18, 2011, the Sunduki museum has been operating on the territory of the mountain range.
The Uyuk culture refers to the Saka culture of the Turan-Uyuk depression around the Uyuk river, in modern-day Tuva Republic.
The Sagly-Bazhy culture or Sagly/Uyuk culture, also known as Chandman culture in Mongolia, refers to the Saka culture of the Sayan mountains, in modern-day Tuva Republic. It is the last stage of the Uyuk culture.
The Salbyk kurgan is a Saka funerary tumulus (kurgan), belonging to the Tagar culture. It is located in the "Valley of the Kings" in the western part of the Minusinsk hollow, 45 kilometers northwest of Abakan, Khakassia, Russia, and is dated to 500-300 BCE. Other sources date it to the 8th to 6th centuries BCE. The tumulus was 11 meters high, and its circumference about 500 meters. It is the largest tumulus of the Tagar culture. It was a tomb of a noble Saka man, with his slaves and wives. There are about 30 other kurgan tumuli in the "Valley of the Kings", although smaller than the Great Salbyk kurgan.
