Archaeological Sensation: Mummy Of ‘Golden’ Young Man Found In E Kazakhstan

UST-KAMENOGORSK. KAZINFORM - At the Local History Museum in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Professor Zeinolla Samashev made akim (governor) of East Kazakhstan region Danial Akhmetov familiar with a unique discovery from "Yeleke Sazy" burial mound in the Tarbagatai Mountains, Kazinform correspondent reports. Anthropologists and archaeologists suggest that the 17-to-18-year-old man dressed in gold, who was found in the burial mound, was of noble origin. The archaeological finds date back to the 7th or 8th century BC, i.e. the early Saka period. The nether garments and boots of the young man were embroidered with gold beads. There is a one-kilogram torc with preserved inscriptions on his neck (an analog of present-day military epaulets). In addition, there is a golden dagger and a golden quiver next to the young man. The Doctor of Sciences (History) says that the skull is in a very good state. This makes it possible to reconstruct the person's appearance, find out what he ate, and so on. "We invited anthropologists from Moscow. Most importantly, the bones lie in place letting us restore the dressing (what it was like, funeral or military one). We will learn the stage of the society and its technologies, the production cycle, where gold was mined and the way it was treated. The discovered gold jewelry and items bear evidence of the cutting-edge technology of jewelry work, modern jewelers are not capable of. Several dozens of thousands of gold beads, the boots and clothes of this noble person were embroidered with, are less than 1 mm. There is a lot of work to do in terms of reconstruction, the study of DNA fields, museification, the study of anthropological data. For now, we can say that the buried man was mummified and there are peculiar signs: a symbol of eternity, the Sun, and movement," Mr. Samashev said. "The amount of gold and all status-symbol items suggests that this person was of a very high social standing, as indirectly confirmed by the traces of the body mummification made so that all the members of society could have time to say farewell to the person of high social standing," said Yegor Kitov, an invited researcher from Moscow-based Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology. The Governor of East Kazakhstan region could not hide excitement from the new archaeological sensation. "Today we have great news: prominent archaeologist of the country Zeinolla Samashev made a unique discovery. A ‘golden man' was found in Yelke Sazy. And, for sure, it is a significant contribution to the treasury of our country. This outstanding discovery indicates that in those days the ancestors had developed a high industrial culture and technology," Danial Akhmetov underlined. Kazinform reported that all archaeological excavations and research in the region are carried out in the furtherance of the three-year Governmental Program for the Archeology Research Development.