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Scythian Gold From Siberia Said to Predate the Greeks

January 9, 2002

By JOHN VAROLI




ST. PETERSBURG, Jan. 8 - Russian scholars from the State
Hermitage Museum have concluded that a discovery of
Scythian gold in a Siberian grave last summer is the
earliest of its kind ever found and that it predates Greek
influence. The find is leading to a change in how scholars
view the supposed barbaric, nomadic tribes that once roamed
the Eurasian steppes.

The dig near Kyzyl, the capital of the Siberian republic of
Tuva, revealed almost 5,000 decorative gold pieces -
earrings, pendants and beads - that adorned the bodies of a
Scythian man and woman, presumably royalty, and dated from
the fifth or sixth centuries B.C. In addition to the gold,
which weighed almost 44 pounds, the archaeologists
discovered items made of iron, turquoise, amber and wood.

"There are many great works of art - figures of animals,
necklaces, pins with animals carved into a golden surface,"
said Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage
Museum. "It is an encyclopedia of Scythian animal art
because you have all the animals which roamed the region,
such as panther, lions, camels, deer, etc. This is the
original Scythian style, from the Altai region, which
eventually came to the Black Sea region and finally in
contact with ancient Greece, and it resembles almost an Art
Nouveau style."

Russian and German archaeologists excavated a Scythian
burial mound on a grassy plain that locals have long called
the Valley of the Kings because of the large number of
burial mounds of Scythian and other ancient nomadic
royalty.

The fierce nomadic Scythian tribes roamed the Eurasian
steppe, from the northern borders of China to the Black Sea
region, in the seventh to third centuries B.C. In the fifth
and fourth centuries B.C. they interacted with the ancient
Greeks who had colonized the Black Sea region, which is now
in Ukraine and southern Russia. Not surprisingly ancient
Greek influence was evident in Scythian gold previously
discovered, but the recent find dates from before contact
with the Greeks and from the heart of Siberia where,
scholars say, contact with outsiders can almost be
excluded.

Research on the Tuva burial mound, known as Arzhan 2, began
in 1998, and to the amazement of scholars the grave was
discovered to be untouched, though failed attempts by grave
robbers to locate the burial chamber were evident on the
sprawling, 185-foot-long, 5-foot-high mound.

This was the first such discovery since the early 1700's,
when Russian explorers brought Scythian treasures to Czar
Peter the Great, a find that became the State Hermitage
Museum's collection of Scythian gold. All burial mounds
explored since then had been robbed.

To avoid contamination and disturbing the items stored in
the grave, the Russian and German archaelogists entered it
first with a small remote-control video camera to study how
burial items were originally arranged and to reconstruct
the burial rituals. The discovery was made by Russian
scholars from the Hermitage Museum and the St. Petersburg
branch of the Russian Institute of Cultural and Natural
Heritage, led by the Russian archaeologist Konstantin
Chugonov, who has been studying Bronze Age and Scythian
sites in Tuva for 20 years.

German scholars also took part in the dig and were led by
Herman Parzinger and Anatoli Nagler from the German
Archaeological Institute in Berlin.

"Tuva's Valley of the Kings has long been a major area of
interest for archaeologists because it contains the largest
burial mounds in the region of Tuva and in all of the Altai
region," Mr. Chugonov said. "We chose to work on those
mounds in greatest danger, and we chose this one because of
all the major mounds it is the most damaged."

About 25 percent of the excavated burial mound, which is
stone slate, was destroyed when Soviet authorities built a
road through the area in the 1960's. Over the years,
residents walked off with pieces of the stone to use in
building their houses.

After its discovery, the treasure was sent to the Hermitage
Museum for storage and restoration, and it will stay there
until Tuva can build a museum to house the items. This is
in accordance with Russian Federation law stating that
items be displayed in their place of discovery so long as
local authorities provide the proper conditions.

Building such a museum is years away, however, Dr.
Piotrovksy said. Until then they will remain in the
Hermitage, and at some point will be put on display.

Though the Russian-German dig began last May, preparations
took almost three years. Scholars first approached the
burial mound in 1998, studying it with geophysical
equipment allowing them, without excavating, to determine
the presence of almost 200 items inside. The first
reconnaissance dig was made in the summer of 2000.

"The find was not an accident, because scholars know there
are burial mounds in that area, but most were robbed, and
empty," Dr. Piotrovsky said. "Their success in actually
finding something was a combination of hard work and luck."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/09/arts/design/09GOLD.html?ex=1011578325&ei=1&en=9d0132e0dd297103



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