Siberian Gravediggers Find 2,000 Year Old Scythian-style Cemetery

Haaretz ^ | January 1, 2023 | Viktoria Grinboim Rich

[SunkenCiv]

While bulldozing land for a new burial ground, workers startled to discover an old one, belonging to a newly identified culture.

All they meant to do is expand a local cemetery. But as gravediggers in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, were removing a hill to make room for the newly deceased in 2018, they made an unexpected discovery. That hill turned out to be an ancient burial mound created by a Scythian-type culture over 2,000 years ago.

The question is which Scythian-type culture.

Our story begins in the 19th century, when a new cemetery called Shinnoye was established on the outskirts of Krasnoyarsk, the second biggest city in Siberia. Little did the founders know that the land nearby had already been "used".

A century later, excavation of what remained of the ancient burial mound began in autumn 2021 and continued the next summer by a team of archaeologists from the Siberian Federal University, led by Dmitry Vinogradov.

In fact, around 150 ancient burial mounds are now known to have existed around Krasnoyarsk, but most were destroyed in the course of city development during the 20th century. This was the first to be excavated in the region in 65 years.

[SunkenCiv]

A collective disorganized pit burial

Credit: Dimitry Vinogradov

[SunkenCiv]

[BenLurkin]

Interesting. Didnt know they got that far east.

[SunkenCiv]

Darth Vader was one of the Scyth...