1,500-year-old gold buckles depicting ruler 'majestically sitting on a throne' discovered in Kazakhstan

Live Science ^ | January 2, 2024 | Tom Metcalfe

[SunkenCiv]

The ornaments contain the earliest known depiction of a Göktürk "khagan," who probably lived in the sixth century.

Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have discovered two gold ornaments in a 1,500-year-old tomb that feature the earliest known depictions of the great khan, or "khagan," of the Göktürks — a nomadic confederation of Turkic-speaking peoples who occupied the region for around three centuries, according to an archaeologist who excavated the site...

The finds are from the Eleke Sazy site near Kazakhstan's remote eastern borders with China, Mongolia and Russian Siberia, where Samashev and his colleagues have worked since 2016.

The sixth-century Göktürk tomb holds the remains of a nobleman, probably a "tegin" — or "prince" in the Old Turkic language — whose burial site had developed by the seventh century into a "cultic memorial complex" that deified the deceased man, Samashev said.

Samashev thinks the prince may have belonged to the royal Ashina clan of khagans — meaning "sovereign" in Old Turkic, and the origin of the word "khan." The Ashina clan founded two Turkic states in the central Eurasian Steppes between the fifth and eighth centuries and ruled until they were conquered by another Turkic group who became the Uyghurs.

The two gold plaques were found in the central chamber of the tomb where the prince was cremated; one was badly damaged by the fire of the cremation.

Many modern Turks are descendants of people who were part of the Western Turkic Khaganate, which formed after civil wars among the Göktürks in the late sixth century; and the Khazar Khaganate — the successor of the Western Turk Khaganate — which survived until the 10th century as an ally of the Byzantine Empire.

[BradyLS]

Looks like King Conan!

[SunkenCiv]

Probably some of the Hyrkanians who tried to run him down.