Results of repeated study of the frozen tomb of the Fifth Pazyryk Barrow in the Altai Mountains (Russia): 70 years after first excavations

Abstract

In 2017–2019 a repeat study of the burial pit of Kurgan (Barrow) 5 at the Pazyryk burial ground was carried out. The Pazyryk burial ground in the Altai is known for the “tsar” tombs containing wonderful sets of grave goods made of various organic materials (wood, horn, felt, fur, leather and textile) as well as human mummies and even frozen horse corpses that were well-preserved due to the permafrost conditions in the mounds for about 2.5 thousand years. S.I. Rudenko excavated Kurgan 5 in 1949. The grave revealed a chamber consisting of a two wooden framework cabins placed one inside the other at the bottom of the pit. Each cabin had a roof; the upper roof was covered with five layers of logs and a layer of boulders. By the new excavation start, the center of the Kurgan was marked by a deep cone-shaped hole, which remained from Rudenko's excavations in 1949. The lowest level of this crater was covered with water at the depth of about 2 m below the ground surface. The resumed excavations have shown that some burial constructions, namely the external cabin and the posts supporting the shed-like cover were situated almost in situ. Some findings were also discovered, including fragments of items found in 1949 and stored in the State Hermitage. Repeated excavations showed the great potential for continuing field studies of the ‘big’ altaian barrows studied in Soviet time. Secondly, it is necessary to emphasize the discovery of permafrost in the excavated pit, in the place of which a deep funnel remained. This indicates that, despite the obvious influence of warming on the Altai glaciers, climatic processes affect frozen tombs is not so clear. This fact requires new research of the problem of global warming and frozen tombs.