A spectral cavalcade: Early Iron Age horse sacrifice at a royal tomb in southern Siberia | CU Experts

Overview

Abstract; Horses began to feature prominently in funerary contexts in southern Siberia in the mid-second millennium BC, yet little is known about the use of these animals prior to the emergence of vibrant horse-riding groups in the first millennium BC. Here, the authors present the results of excavations at the late-ninth-century BC tomb of Tunnug 1 in Tuva, where the deposition of the remains of at least 18 horses and one human is reminiscent of sacrificial spectral riders described in fifth-century Scythian funerary rituals by Herodotus. The discovery of items of tack further reveals connections to the earliest horse cultures of Mongolia.

Sadykov T; Blochin J; Taylor W; Fomicheva D; Kasparov A; Khavrin S; Malyutina A; Szidat S; Caspari G