Editing Saka (section)

=== Pazyryk culture ({{circa|300 BC}})===
{{Main|Pazyryk culture}}
[[File:PazyrikHorseman.JPG|thumb|upright|right|A ''[[Pazyryk culture|Pazyryk]]'' horseman in a felt painting from a burial around 300 BC. The Pazyryks appear to be closely related to the Scythians.<ref name=Parragon>{{cite book |author=Dr. Aaron Ralby|title=Atlas of Military History|chapter=Scythians, c. 700 BCE—600 CE: Punching a Cloud|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldmili0000ralb|chapter-url-access=registration|year=2013 |publisher=Parragon|isbn=978-1-4723-0963-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldmili0000ralb/page/224 224–225]}}</ref>]]
Saka burials documented by modern archaeologists include the [[kurgan]]s at [[Pazyryk burials|Pazyryk]] in the [[Ulagan]] (Red) district of the [[Altai Republic]], south of [[Novosibirsk]] in the [[Altai Mountains]] of southern [[Siberia]] (near Mongolia). Archaeologists have extrapolated the [[Pazyryk culture]] from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist [[Sergei Rudenko]]. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch-logs covered over with large [[cairn]]s of boulders and stones.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBydRHyHN10C&pg=PR29 |title=Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen |author=Сергей Иванович Руденко (Sergei I. Rudenko) |isbn=978-0-520-01395-7 |date=1970 |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref>

The Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd century BC in the area associated with the ''[[Sacae]]''.

Ordinary Pazyryk graves contain only common utensils, but in one, among other treasures, archaeologists found the famous [[:File:Scythiancarpet.jpg|Pazyryk Carpet]], the oldest surviving wool-pile [[oriental rug]]. Another striking find, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funerary chariot, survived well-preserved from the 5th to 4th century BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0_0_17_0.html |title= Chariot |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010706232807/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0_0_17_0.html |archive-date=6 July 2001 |work=Hermitage Museum}}</ref>