Published on: 2026-06-04
Source: Novosibirsk State University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Employees of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with colleagues from Novosibirsk State University and the Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “Archaeology of Khakassia,” found and studied a rare female burial of the 10th century, discovered in the construction zone of the Kyzyl–Kuragino railway. Among the finds are earrings, a fragment of a Chinese mirror, horse tack decorations, and a silver inlaid stirrup executed in the style of Chinese decorative art. The research results were published in NGU Bulletin.
The Sayan-Boundary Burial Site-4 is part of a group of archaeological monuments discovered in the valley of the Idzhim River in the south of Krasnoyarsk Krai. Research on the monument was conducted by the Sayan expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IAE SB RAS), under the direction of the Institute’s director, a doctor of historical sciences.Andrey PolyakovAs part of the preparatory work for the construction of the “Kyzyl — Kuragino” railway line.
The burial site itself can be called multilayered — burials were carried out here over several millennia, starting from the epoch of bronze. Against this background, one of the kurgans stood out particularly, containing an undisturbed medieval burial of an adult woman with a newborn child. The burial was accompanied by a rare ritual practice — placing into the grave the so-called “horse skin” (the skull and limbs of an animal together with the skin). However, the main find, the analysis of which is devoted to the concluding publication, was a representative set of horse equipment consisting of 78 items.
—It is completely obvious that this is far from an ordinary burial. This is clearly a burial of the elite. The person buried here had a certain high social status, and the set of items found in the burial reflects this status. There are no more than several dozen similar burials in the entire Sayan-Altai region., — notedAndrey Polyakov.
One of the most important finds was a pair of stirrups. One of them turned out to be a parade stirrup, richly decorated with a technique of inlaying silver wire on iron. The ornament covers the neck, the loops, and the footrest of the stirrup on both sides and, according to researchers, is made in the style of Chinese decorative art of the Late Tang period (860–907 AD). The second stirrup is simple, without decorations, which corresponds to the tradition of nomads having one “displayed” stirrup from the most presentable side. The ornament was successfully revealed and fixed thanks to the work of the restorers at the IIMK RAS.
In addition to the harness, the harness included iron bits with twisted links and bronze gilded rings, rare psalters made of gilded bronze, and other numerous decorations.
—This is an almost complete set: decorations of the bridle, strap ends, festooned plaques, leaf-shaped silver and tinned pendants, including images of paired hunters, gilded buckles—all this has analogues in very rich ancient Turkish horse harnesses with horsehair and horsehide. At the same time, before us is a very archaic set. Particularly notable are the bronze gilded psalia, which complemented iron bits with twisted mouthpieces, characteristic of the 9th–10th centuries. This is a very rare combination for the region, — explained the head of the laboratory of humanitarian studies at NGUOleg Mitko.
Despite the wealth and brightness of the burial, the found items do not provide an unequivocal answer to the question of the ethnic affiliation of the buried individual. As researchers emphasize, by this stage of the Early Middle Ages, items began to actively move between different peoples and can no longer serve as clear markers of one or another ethnicity. Thanks to radiocarbon dating, the burial was assigned to the wide period of the 9th–13th centuries, but a comparative typological analysis of the inventory allowed narrowing this date to the second half of the 9th–10th centuries.
The publication became the third, final part of a series of articles dedicated to this burial complex. The first articledisclosedquestions of the ethnocultural affiliation of the monument, the second —describedEarrings and personal belongings of the deceased buried.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the information source. It represents an exact report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.