Editing Pazyryk burials (section)

===Pazyryk-2 chief===
[[File:Ancient Siberian head, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.jpg|thumb|upright|Embalmed head of Pazyryk clan chieftain. Burial mound 2, Pazyryk. Circa 300 BCE. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 1684/29.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106-109, Items 31, 32, 33 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref>]]
Rudenko's most striking discovery in 1947 was the body of a tattooed Pazyryk chief in burial mound 2: a thick-set, powerfully built man, 176cm tall, who had died when he was between 55 and 60.<ref name="SP106"/> His tomb was monumental and lavishly equipped.<ref name="SP106"/> He died violently, and was killed with a Scythian-type battle axe, and scalped. He was carefully embalmed, and his body was covered in [[animal style]] tattoos, but not his face.<ref name="SP106">{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106–109 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref> Parts of the body had deteriorated, but much of the tattooing was still clearly visible (see [[:Image:Scythian tatoo.jpg|image]]). Subsequent investigation using reflected [[infrared photography]] revealed that all five bodies discovered in the Pazyryk kurgans were tattooed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barkova |first1=L. L. |last2=Pankova |first2=S. V. |title=Tattooed Mummies From The Large Pazyryk Mounds: New findings |journal=Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia |date=2005 |volume=2 |issue=22 |pages=48–59 |url=https://www.academia.edu/3640168 |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref> No instruments specifically designed for tattooing were found, but the Pazyryks had extremely fine needles with which they did miniature [[embroidery]], and these were probably used for tattooing.

The chief was elaborately decorated with an interlocking series of striking designs representing a variety of fantastic beasts. The best preserved [[tattoo]]s were images of a [[donkey]], a [[argali|mountain ram]], two highly stylized [[deer]] with long antlers and an imaginary [[carnivore]] on the right arm. Two monsters resembling [[griffin]]s decorate the chest, and on the left arm are three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a [[mountain goat]]. On the front of the right leg a [[fish]] extends from the foot to the knee. A monster crawls over the right foot, and on the inside of the shin is a series of four running rams which touch each other to form a single design. The left leg also bears tattoos, but these designs could not be clearly distinguished. In addition, the chief's back is tattooed with a series of small circles in line with the vertebral column.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106-109, Items 31, 32, 33|url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref> 

His embalmed head, now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, suggests a rather "Mongoloïd type".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106-109, Items 31, 32, 33|url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref> He was crowned with a [[gold|gilded]] copper tiara decorated with six winged, horned and hoofed lions ("lion griffins"). The lion griffins were made of wood, but were originally covered in gold foil before the foils were looted by tomb robbers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=110, Item 34 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref> A false beard, made of hair, sinew thread and leather, was also discovered next to him in his tomb. Its significance remaining conjectural, as all mummies recovered from Pazyryk were clean-shaven.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=111, Item 35 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref> An extraordinary male headgear, a carved wooden crest representing a bird of prey with a deer head in its beak, was also found at the head of the coffin, and is thought to be the headgear of the chieftain.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=112-113, Item 36, 37|url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Pazyryk tatoo design with zoomorphic symbols, 4th century BCE.jpg|Tattoos of the chief's right arm, with zoomorphic symbols.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Siberian Princess reveals her 2,500 year old tattoos |journal=The Siberian Times |date=2012 |url=https://siberiantimes.com/culture/others/features/siberian-princess-reveals-her-2500-year-old-tattoos/}}</ref>
File:Pazyryk-2 man, back and left arm (circa 300 BCE).jpg|Tattoos of the chief's back and left arm.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Siberian Princess reveals her 2,500 year old tattoos |journal=The Siberian Times |date=2012 |url=https://siberiantimes.com/culture/others/features/siberian-princess-reveals-her-2500-year-old-tattoos/}}</ref>
File:Pazyryk-2 tattoos.png|Tattoos of the Pazyryk-2 chief.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106-109, Items 31, 32, 33 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref>
</gallery>