Archaeologists Find a Previously Unknown Culture in a 2,000-Year-Old Gravesite in Siberia

Archaeological finds often give us a glimpse of what the past looked like. It mirrors the ways and quirks of ancient civilizations and it serves as a testament to our rich, undying history.

But some finds are even more special as they unravel a previously unseen window to our past. For instance, a team of archaeologists in Siberia was able to discover an unknown culture after uncovering an ancient gravesite.

2,000-Year-Old Gravesite

According to a report by Haaretz, workers in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk discovered old skeletons in 2021 while removing a hill. They found out that the hill was actually a kurgan, a raised mound with a burial chamber inside, and the bones were more than 2,000 years old.

Under the direction of Dmitry Vinogradov, archaeologists from the Siberian Federal University began to work and learned that the skeletons and the burial mound belonged to a previously unidentified culture.

According to Vinogradov and his team, the culture was comparable to that of the Scythians, who lived in Crimea and the region to the north of the Black Sea more than two thousand years ago.

The recently unearthed cemetery may shed light on a different group that was may have been included with the Scythians.

The kurgan may have been sealed and burned, according to the archaeologists who found it. They also discovered religious objects and weaponry in the tomb along with the remains.

According to preliminary estimates, the tomb may have held as many as 50 people who were entombed with grave goods such as ceramic food containers, needles, mirrors, battle axes, and bronze daggers.

Vinogradov hypothesizes that these items were all things the deceased may have needed in the afterworld.

150 Ancient Burial Mounds

There were approximately 150 ancient burial mounds in the area of Krasnoyarsk, but the majority were demolished throughout the 20th century as the city expanded. This was the first excavation in the area in 65 years.

Significant information was lost after the ancient mound was bulldozed. However, several images and descriptions from an archaeological study indicate that the mound had been circular and had a diameter of roughly 30 meters.

Fortunately, the tomb below survived the bulldozing and was discovered to contain numerous remains in a huge rectangular pit with walls made of timber and birch bark.

According to Vinogradov, the sheer number of skeletons in the recently discovered tomb may suggest that it was a family grave utilized for many generations, noting that it was sealed and burned after reaching its capacity.

This conclusion is backed by the soil's color and composition, both of which attest to high temperatures, as well as the fact that the remains had been mixed up inside.

Haaretz noted that the burial mounds known to kurgans throughout the steppe were typically built after a tomb was burned and then covered with soil.