Iron Age Teenagers And An Array Of Finery Was Excavated In Kazakhstan
Zainolla SamashevThe skeletal remains of the teenage boy found in Kazakhstan.
Archaeology news outlets were abuzz with this rich discovery.
The graves and burial mound of two Iron Age teenagers were excavated in Kazakhstan to reveal a treasure trove of fine items.
The team of researchers behind the excavation believed that the two teenagers, one boy and one girl, lived around 2,700 years ago. Their graves were found in a valley in the remote Tarbagatai Mountains located in the eastern part of Kazakhstan where the country meets northern China.
The grave of the minimal remains of the 16-year-old woman had been looted. The skeletal remains of the male teenager, though, who is believed to have been no older than 19 when he died, were undisturbed.
Zainolla SamashevSome of the jewelry found buried with the teenage boy in Kazakhstan.
The boy wore a golden torc around his neck, had a gold and bronze dagger in his hand, and was buried with a gold-plated wooden quiver holding arrows with bronze tips. Both of them wore finery that was once adorned with gold beads and appliqués of intricate, miniature deer heads with massive antlers.
The researchers, led by Zainolla Samashev, director of the Margulan Institute of Archaeology, believe that the teenagers both belonged to the Saka, a nomadic people who spread out across large portions of Central Asia from the eight to second century B.C. The Saka people were expert horsemen who moved across the region for hundreds of years before being conquered by invaders from Turkey.
The elaborate graves of the two teenagers are only a fraction of the incredible discoveries that have come out of the Tarbagatai Mountains.
