An international team of archaeologists from Russia, Germany, Switzerland and the United States studied Scythian burial mounds at the Tunnug 1 site in Tuva. Their work expands the map of where Scythian culture began and how it spread, suggesting that eastern regions played a crucial role in its development and connections across the steppe belt. The findings were published in Antiquity, adding a new chapter to the story of these varied nomadic communities.
The Scythians were a nomadic people of the Eurasian steppes who moved from Central Asia toward the Pontic steppe, a region that now covers parts of southwestern Russia and Ukraine. Their exact origins remain a topic of debate among scholars, with new finds inviting fresh interpretations about where their traditions first formed.
To refine the timeline, researchers concentrated on an early tomb at the Tunnug 1 mound, dating to the late ninth century BCE. The investigation looked at burial structure, grave goods and the sequence of interments to understand how these people prepared for death and commemorated their leaders.
Inside the grave, the dismembered remains of at least one man and eighteen horses were recovered. The arrangement points to a ritual sacrifice or offering intended to honor a noble buried within the mound, underscoring the social status of the deceased and the scale of the ceremony.
Alongside the human remains, investigators uncovered Scythian-style animal artifacts and pieces of equestrian equipment. These items indicate a deliberate and elaborate funerary rite associated with a high-status individual, mirroring early descriptions of Scythian rituals found in classical texts written far to the west.
The discovery of Scythian-style tombs far to the east of the traditional heartland suggests that the origins of Scythian culture may lie beyond the central steppes. The site highlights the mobility of early horse cultures and the wide reach of Scythian influence across the vast Eurasian landscape.
Earlier excavations in Kazakhstan had uncovered a pyramid linked to Scythian burial traditions, providing a broader regional context. Taken together, these discoveries reveal a network of ritual practices that connected communities across vast distances along the steppe corridor.
The team notes that these results invite a reassessment of the emergence of Scythian language and cultural patterns. The evidence from Tuva indicates that eastern zones contributed substantially to the formation of the Scythian world, challenging models that place their origins only in the western or central steppes.
Ongoing fieldwork at the Tuva site aims to refine the chronology through detailed analyses of bone isotopes, grave architecture and artifact styles. Future discoveries could further illuminate how these communities interacted with their neighbors and how mobility shaped their social and ceremonial life across the steppe belt.
In summary, the excavations at Tunnug 1 broaden our understanding of Scythian beginnings and the scale of their movements. The site reveals a society capable of orchestrating complex funerary rites that linked people, animals and materials into a powerful ceremonial system spanning wide horizons. These findings illustrate that Scythians emerged through a network of connections that stretched across the Eurasian plains, reshaping how historians view their origin and reach.