The first tomb at Pazyryk, barrow 1, was excavated by the
archaeologist M. P. Griaznov in 1929; barrows 2–5 were excavated by
Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko in 1947–1949. While many of the tombs had already been looted in earlier times, the excavators unearthed buried horses, and with them immaculately preserved cloth saddles, felt and woven rugs including the world's oldest pile
carpet, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funeral chariot from the 5th century BCE and other splendid objects that had escaped the ravages of time. These finds are now exhibited at the
Hermitage Museum in
Saint Petersburg. Cranial measurements from the Pazyryk burials performed in the 1960s suggested that the interred were largely of European ancestry with some admixture of Northeast Asian ancestry. But genetically, the Pazyryk population was actually fairly balanced between western and eastern Eurasian ancestry: it was modeled to derive between c. 50% from the
Khövsgöl LBA source, c. 36% from
Western Steppe Herders (Steppe_MLBA), and c. 14% from a
BMAC-like source. One outlier specimen (Pazyryk_Berel_50BCE) could be modeled as c. 18% Pazyryk_IA and c. 82% additional Northeast Asian admixture, suggesting that this individual represents a migrant who arrived from further East.
Pazyryk-1 Tomb number 1 at Pazyryk has numerous artifacts, including horses wearing deer antlers masks, or harnesses with human figures. The tomb is dated to the 4th century BCE. Its main content was looted, but the area with horse sacrifices remained intact. It was excavated by Griaznov in the 1930s. File:Ancient Siberian horse mask, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.jpg|Deer mask for a Pazyryk horse (Tomb 1). File:Pazyryk2.png|Horse harness with human figures, Pazyryk-1. File:Pazyryk.png|Human figure from a harness, Pazyryk-1 File:Pazyryk-1, decorated horse saddle, 4th century BCE.jpg|Decorated horse saddle, Pazyryk-1, 4th century BCE. File:Pazyryk-1, horse harness, saddle and wood shield.jpg|Pazyryk-1, horse harness, saddle and wood shield File:Hermitage Museum - 2015 Dec - IMG 2123 (r27).jpg|Sarcophagus from the burial chamber. Rudenko's most striking discovery in 1947 was the body of a tattooed Pazyryk chief in burial mound 2: a thick-set, powerfully built man, 176 cm tall, who died when he was between 55 and 60. Parts of the body had deteriorated, but much of the tattooing was still clearly visible (see
image). Subsequent investigation using reflected
infrared photography revealed that all five bodies discovered in the Pazyryk kurgans were tattooed. No instruments specifically designed for tattooing were found, but the Pazyryks had extremely fine needles with which they did miniature
embroidery, and these were probably used for tattooing. The chief was elaborately decorated with an interlocking series of striking designs representing a variety of fantastic beasts. The best preserved
tattoos were images of a
donkey, a
mountain ram, two highly stylized
deer with long antlers and an imaginary
carnivore on the right arm. Two monsters resembling
griffins decorate the chest, and on the left arm are three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a
mountain goat. On the front of the right leg a
fish extends from the foot to the knee. A monster crawls over the right foot, and on the inside of the shin is a series of four running rams which touch each other to form a single design. The left leg also bears tattoos, but these designs could not be clearly distinguished. In addition, the chief's back is tattooed with a series of small circles in line with the vertebral column. His embalmed head, now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, suggests a rather "Mongoloïd type". A false beard, made of hair, sinew thread and leather, was also discovered next to him in his tomb. Its significance remains conjectural, as all mummies recovered from Pazyryk were clean-shaven. An extraordinary male headgear, a carved wooden crest representing a bird of prey with a deer head in its beak, was also found at the head of the coffin, and is thought to be the headgear of the chieftain. File:Pazyryk tatoo design with zoomorphic symbols, 4th century BCE.jpg|Tattoos of the chief's right arm, with zoomorphic symbols. File:Pazyryk-2 man, back and left arm (circa 300 BCE).jpg|Tattoos of the chief's back and left arm. It was excavated by S.I. Rudenko in 1949. File:Pazyryk-5 tattoos.png|Tattoos of the man in Pazyryk-5. He has a large lion design over the left shoulder. File:Hermitage hall 026 - 05.jpg|The wagon, Pazyryk-5 File:Ancient Siberian tapestry, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.jpg|Carpet, Pazyryk-5 File:Hermitage hall 026 - 02.jpg|Decorated felt piece, Pazyryk-5 File:Hermitage hall 026 - 03.jpg|Carpet from Pazyryk-5 File:Y1A2617 Hermitage, St. Petersburg (21409212769).jpg|Decorated carpet from Pazyryk-5, of Near-Eastern origin. This is the earliest surviving
knotted-pile carpet. File:Pazyryk-5 carpet, horsemen detail.jpg|Pazyryk-5 carpet, Near-Eastern horsemen detail
Ice Maiden The most famous undisturbed Pazyryk burial so far recovered is the
Ice Maiden or "Altai Lady" found by archaeologist
Natalia Polosmak in 1993 at Ukok, near the Chinese border. The find was a rare example of a single woman given a full ceremonial burial in a wooden chamber tomb in the fifth century BCE, accompanied by six horses. . Sacrificial horses are visible to the left, while the princess lies in a wooden sarcophagus. The maiden's well-preserved body, carefully embalmed with peat and bark, was arranged to lie on her side as if asleep. She was young, and her hair had been shaved off but she was wearing a wig and tall hat; she was tall. Even the
animal style tattoos were preserved on her pale skin: creatures with horns that develop into flowered forms. Her coffin was made large enough to accommodate the high felt headdress she was wearing, which was decorated with swans and gold-covered carved cats. She was clad in a long crimson and white striped woolen skirt and white felt stockings. Her yellow blouse was originally thought to be made of wild "
tussah" silk but closer examination of the fibers indicate the material is not Chinese but was a
wild silk which came from somewhere else, perhaps
India. Ulrich Schurmann, a German art historian specializing in oriental carpets, says of it, "From all the evidence available I am convinced that the Pazyryk rug was a funeral accessory and most likely a masterpiece of Armenian workmanship." Fellow German historian Volkmar Gantzhorn concurs with this thesis. but also the horse type, which seems Nisean. However, other sources state the horse design is the same as the relief depicting part of the Armenian delegation at the ruins of
Persepolis in
Iran, where various nations are depicted as bearing tribute. It measures and has a knot density of approximately 360,000
knots per square meter, which is higher than most modern carpets. The middle of the rug consists of a ribbon motif, while in the border there is a procession with elk or deer, and in another border warriors on horses. When it was found it had been deeply frozen in a block of ice, which is why it is so well-preserved. The rug can be seen at the
Hermitage Museum in
Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Other findings In a corner of one grave chamber of the Pazyryk cemetery was a fur bag containing coriander seed, a censer filled with stones, and the hexapod frame of an inhalation tent; these are believed to have been utilized at the end of the funerary ritual for purification. Other undisturbed kurgans have been found to contain remarkably well-preserved remains, comparable to the earlier
Tarim mummies of
Xinjiang. Bodies were preserved using
mummification techniques and were also naturally frozen in solid ice from water seeping into the tombs. They were encased in coffins made from hollowed trunks of
larch (which may have had sacral significance) and sometimes accompanied by sacrificed concubines and horses. The clustering of tombs in a single area implies that it had particular ritual significance for these people, who were likely to have been willing to transport their deceased leaders great distances for burial. As recently as the summer of 2012, tombs have been discovered at various locations. In January 2007, a timber tomb of a blond chieftain warrior was unearthed in the permafrost of the
Altai mountains region close to the Mongolian border. The body of the presumed Pazyryk chieftain is tattooed; his sable coat is well preserved, as are some other objects, including what looks like
scissors. A local archaeologist, Aleksei Tishkin, complained that the indigenous population of the region strongly disapproves of archaeological digs, prompting the scientists to move their activities across the border to
Mongolia. ==See also==