History Mystery: Pazyryk The frozen tombs of Altai -3

The grave-robbers of Pazyryk carried off much of its jewellery. But there was one kind of adornment that they did not consider valuable. The arm, legs and torso of one man were covered with fantastic tattoos. He had pronounced mongoloid featured. Though this was unusual at Pazyryk, where most were of a European type, there must have been a Mongol presence on the eastern fringes of the Altai. The man was about 60 years old and fairly stout. The tattoos had obviously been applied while he was young, for they were faded or distorted over the areas where he had gained weight. An entire bestiary of weird and wonderful animals hugged the curves of his musculature: stags with antlers teeming with the heads of birds, and winged feline creatures with pointed teeth. A fish had been traced between ankle and knee, and four wild sheep ran up the inside of his leg. The head of a lion-griffin had been positioned exactly over his heart. The creature’s curving back wound round the man’s torso up to the shoulder blade, where the coiled whorl of the tail ended. This ‘Lionheart’ had died in battle. His skull had been smashed and the scalp removed – scalping was referred to by Herodotus as a way of appropriating the enemy’s vital force. To compensate for the deformity of the skull, before the burial the man’s comrades had sewn on a wig.

A false beard of horsehair, dyed jet black, had been fixed under his chin. The practice of tattooing was, like scalping, referred to by ancient writers as one of the more extraordinary habits of the barbarian nomads. The Greeks associated the markings with the degrading stigmata used to brand slaves. But the wearers bore their embellishments with pride. Tattoos are still worn as sings of bravery and nobility by the Kyrgyz of central Asia. The tattooist’s art may have had practical uses, as well as an aesthetic and spiritual resonance. One man found at Pazyryk wore tattoo marks on his ankle and at key points along his spine. The points are well known in acupuncture, a practice widespread among the Asian peoples of his time. The decoration on the skin, clothes, and household items of the people of the Altai reflects the fact that they lived in intimate contact with animal world. The piercing eyes and beak of the eagle, the supple spine and sharp teeth of the wild cat, are rendered with expressive simplicity and accuracy. It is as though, by depicting an animal in art, its particular qualities were magically appropriated. When death came to an important member of the tribe, the nomads exercised their skills in a different form of handiwork, creating burial mounds using rough wooden tools.

 Samples of these tools survive, including wedge-shaped wooden stakes, their ends hammered flat by mallet blows. The stakes must have been used to break up the ground before the digging began. All the kurgans were built in roughly the same way, beginning with the construction of a rectangular pit, and inside it a chamber of larch logs to receive the body or bodies. It had a ceiling and plank floor and often doubles walls. The tombs were then ready for the funeral. Little is known about the religion of the people of the Altai. Writing of the Scythians to the west, Herodotus noted that ‘it was not not their custom to raise cult statues, altars, or temples’. No places of worship have been found in the Altai. Since the nomads had no writings, there are no texts to shed light upon their beliefs. Evidence of ritual practices has been found at Pazyryk – a leather bag containing fingernails and hair, which may relate to some obscure ceremony. There are other indications of practices similar to shamanism, widespread in Mongolia and Siberia. The shaman was a priest, sorcerer, and healer, the mediator between the natural and supernatural worlds. To reach the spirit world, the shaman would don a stag’s head or antlers and enter into an ecstatic trance induced by drugs and music. Shamans are likely to have presided over the burials at Pazyryk. From evidence at the site, some aspects of the funeral ceremonies can be reconstructed.

They probably took place in the summer, the only time of year when the ground was not frozen. The bodies of the dead were embalmed, the muscle tissue removed through incisions in the skin and the cavities stuffed with grass. The incisions were then sewn up with sinews. The coffin containing the embalmed bodies, perhaps of the chieftain and his wife, was placed inside the larch-log chamber with the possessions that had been chosen to accompany them into the afterlife: fine carpets and hangings, and vessels of food and drink. The resplendent horses were screened from the coffin area by a wooden partition. The arrangement of the chamber seems to have been followed by a feast and a ritual fumigation using narcotics. Two of the Pazyryk tombs contained equipment for smoking hashish: small bronze cauldrons which held carbonized seeds of hemp and stones. A framework of sticks supported a miniature felt tent which could have retained the smoke for better inhalation. Herodotus recorded how the Scythains performed fumigations after funerals, describing it as a ‘vapour bath’. The details fit in remarkably well with the evidence that has been found at Pazyryk: ‘On a framework of three sticks, meeting at the top, they stretch pieces of woolen cloth, taking care to get the joins as perfect as they can. Inside the little tent they put a dish with red-hot stones on it. Then they take some hemp seed, creep into the tent, and throw the seed onto the hot stones. ‘At once it begins to smoke, giving off a vapour unsurpassed by any vapour bath one could find in Greece. The Scythains enjoy it so much they howl with pleasure . . .’ Music almost certainly contributed to the sacred ceremonies of death. Drums made of a membrane stretched across a horn body have been found in the tombs, and are similar to items that are still used in Tibet, Afghanistan, and Iran. After the last rituals had been performed, the pit was covered with birch bark and twigs, followed by layers of lorch logs. The earth dug out earlier was heaped on top, and covered with a pile of stones up to 4.5m (15ft) high. As the centuries passed and the nomads disappeared from the Altai, the stone mounds remained as the only visible testament to their civilization.

History Mystery: Pazyryk The frozen tombs of Altai -2

The people of the Altai were nomads, driving their animals wherever good pasture was to be found. Animal herds were the lifeblood of the community. As long as the herds were fed and watered, the people had enough meat and milk, wool and leather. As soon as a pasture was exhausted the people had to move on. The whole tribe stacked their goods on horses and wagons in the same way as modern Asian nomads such as the Iranian Kashgai and the central Asian Kazakhs. But the wanderings of the tribe did not follow a wholly random pattern. In the Altai, they were linked to seasonal change and to the ruggedness of the mountain terrain. In spring, the tribe sought grass along the river valleys. Summer was dry and cool- the mountain slopes were alive with plant life, and wild grains made delicious fodder for the herd. But season was short. As the weather grew colder, the tribe went into hibernation, living a semi-settled existence. They spent most of their time in circular tents made of felt, stretched over a framework of wooden slats. Dwellings like these, known as Yurts, can still be seen throughout central Asia. They also made conical huts of felt and bark stretched over a light framework, which could be construct against a tree. The nomads had little use for bulky furniture, favouring carpets and hides with cushions of felt, leather, or fur, stuffed with animal hair or grass. Carpets and hangings insulated against the cold, and offered ideal surfaces for decoration.

The Kurgans of Pazyryk yielded striking examples of native craftsmanship, including immense panels of felt decorated with coloured appliqué work. Two outstanding furnishings indicate contact with distant civilizations. The first is a carpet of knotted wool, some 2m (6½ ft) square with a red background around the edges are geometrical motifs and griffins, a jungle of images through which pass several seer grazing in single file, and a procession of horsemen. The craftsmanship and decorative style suggest that the carpet had been imported from Iran. The second item is a saddlecloth edged with red and blue felt and inlaid with leather studded with gold and tin. Six great lumps of yak hair hand from it, but the cloth itself is of delicate Chinese silk, with pheasants embroidered amid a swirling mass of multicolored arabesques. Even in China, silk fabric of this quality was exceptional and found only in the trousseaux of court ladies. It is not impossible that this was the dowry of a Chinese princess. Perhaps she had been married off by a Chinese lord to one of the ‘barbarians from the north’ in an attempt to stem the raids of the warriors who threatened the peace of his realm – it was against their incursions that the Great Wall was built in the 3rd century BC.

These two pieces demonstrate that the people of the Altai were in some sort of contract with the great civilizations to the east and west of their mountain homeland. A trans-Asian route, a precursor of the Great Silk Road of the Middle Ages, was already being traveled by nomadic merchants. It spanned the vast distance between Persia and China, and the nomadic profited from it. The few pieces of furniture discovered at Pazyryk are ingeniously adapted to the nomadic existence. There are several small, collapsible wooden tables, consisting of detachable trays resting on four legs, elaborately carved in the shape of cat-like creatures standing on their hind legs. When dismantled, the trays and legs could be stacked for easy transportation. The trays themselves are oval with a rim, and could be used as plates. Vessels such as clay pitchers and wooden bowls were also unearthed, along with a large number of leather containers.

 Many of these leather pouches, bags, flasks, bottles and boxes are decorated with superb fur or leather appliqué work. The men of the Altai spent most of their time on horseback, either supervising the herds of hunting. Riding with bow and arrow, they would defend their animals against attack by predators. The furs of wild animals were useful to the tribe, and could be traded with neighboring peoples. Sable was the most highly prized fur, but squirrel, otter, panther, wild cat and ermine were also greatly valued. Swans, wild geese, and grouse provided feathers and down. Men more trousers of hide squeezed into felt leggings of tucked into boots made of soft leather. Shirts were made of raw hemp fringed with a braid of bright red wool. A kaftan, often made from a hide turned inside out, was worn on top. Some kaftans were extremely luxurious. One garment found at Pazyryk was made of a velvety sable hide and decorated with finely stitched embroidery of the type seen on Afghan coats today. It was embellished with leather appliqué depicting a stag. The heads of griffins swarmed around the antlers, and the eyes were minuscule beads of gold. Hats provided vital protection against the icy winds of the steppes. They were made of fur or felt, with ear flaps which could be worn raised or lowered, ‘terminating in a point, and standing straight and stiff’ in the words of Herodotus. Hats in this style are still worn by Asian nomads. The exalted female occupants of the tombs were decked out as richly as the men. One women’s kaften was made of squirrel fur turned inside out, hemmed at the bottom with a wide band of pony skin and edged with otter fur. The sleeves were narrow and purely decorative. The kaftan was worn with a bodice of otter, squirrel, and sable, two pairs of fine felt stockings, and boots of red leather, elaborately patterned – even on the soles.

History Mystery: Pazyryk The frozen tombs of Altai -1

Civilizations are usually founded on urban settlements. But the horsemen of the Altai needed no fixed base. Their alternative, nomadic lifestyle led them to move with the seasons, creating a culture which flourished wherever they pitched their tents. The Altai Mountains of Southern Siberia are a vast massif of jagged peaks and swooping valleys, thickly forested on the lower slopes in the north-west, yet semi-desert in the south-east. There are no fallen monuments or ruined city walls to break the landscape, but the mountains were once home to a nomadic race whose culture was influenced by both China and Achaemenid Persia (Iran). Only their frozen tombs – scattered through the extensive mountain system near the borders of Russia, China, and Mongolia – reveal the extraordinary vitality of their short-lived culture. Burial mounds – huge piles of stones known as kurgans – are the only signs of human presence in this area in ancient times. They dot the steppes of Asia, stretching as for west as the valley of the Danube.

 Those in the Altai have revealed some remarkable finds – at an altitude of 1,600m (5,250 ft), ice has preserved their contents for more than 2,000 years. In the early 20th century, Russian archaeologists began excavations at Pazyryk, high in the massif. Here, a group of five great kurgans had been discovered, surrounded by smaller mounds. After digging a shaft in one of the kurgans to allow access to in central chamber, the scientists entered a frozen world. As the ice melted, it revealed a tomb draped in brightly edged brown felt. All around lay scattered funeral objects – bright tapestries and clothing, luxurious animal furs, wooden furniture, and carved objects of bone and staghorn. North of the chamber, behind a partition of logs, lay the bodies of several horses. The manes were trimmed and bound, the tails plaited. Alongside them lay rich saddlecloths, leather cushions on wooden saddle bows, bits, bridles, and harness straps hung with vividly painted wooden ornaments embellished with gold leaf. It seemed that thieves had penetrated the kurgans shortly after the burial ceremonies. In one of the tombs, the embalmed bodies of a man and a woman had been lifted from the sarcophagus. Their hands and feet had been chopped off to retrieve valuable bracelets and anklets, their fingers amputated to free rings. The heads had been severed from the bodies so that necklaces could be removed easily.

 Aside from the desecration, by breaking into the graves the thieves had rendered an invaluable service to the archaeologists. Autumn rains seeped into the tombs of Pazyryk through the tunnels dug by the grave-robbers. Year after year, the bitter steppeland winters froze the water in successive layers of ice. Screened from the summer sun by the stones above, the ice had never melted. The imprisoned riches had neither perished nor faded, and the bodies of the dead were frozen – preserved almost intact. Fabrics were as richly coloured as when they had been woven and velvety smooth. Carpets were still springy; furs were still silky soft. Textures had endured. The people buried at Pazyryk were relations of the Scythians – a warlike tribe who made sporadic descents on the great civilizations to the east and west of the barren Asian steppes. These ferocious nomads made terrifying incursions into Persia during the 5th century BC. The Greek historian, Herodotus (c.484-425 BC), recorded some of their customs. According to Herodotus, each Scythian warrior had to make at least one kill a year, or face disgrace. The skulls of slaughtered enemies were used as drinking cups, and their skins were tanned to make capes and cushions. Slaves were blinded so that they could not run away. The Scythians’ peculiar savagery may have stemmed from their geographical position. Caught between the advanced civilizations of the Middle East and the warrior horsemen of the remote steppes, they had to be merciless in order to survive. Herodotus also recorded that when a Scythian king died, his subjects embalmed his body and buried it in a square pit covered with stones. Interred with him were horses, personal treasures, and measures of his royal household, strangled before burial. Many of Herodotus’s observations have been confirmed by the excavation of Scythian tombs on the western plains of Asia. But the Pazyryk kurgans reveal aspects of the nomads’ life absent from the Scythian tombs. At Pazyryk, precious metals had been plundered, bit a unique treasure trove of perishable accessories remained. When Herodotus described a distant Scythian tribe known as Argippeans, he may have been referring to the people of the Altai. The tribe occupies an important place in Scythain mythology. They inhabited a remote mountain region, and were known as the keepers of the gold. According to legend, it was they who first stole the precious metal from the guardianship of the griffins – the fabulous winged monsters often represented in Scythian art. In Turkish languages, ‘Altai’ means ‘country of Gold’.

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