Birch-Bark Coffin Discovered in Russia’s Zeleny Yar

SALEKHARD, RUSSIA—A birch-bark coffin has been removed from Zeleny Yar, a medieval site on the edge of the Siberian Arctic. Similar burials from the site have contained mummified remains. “The mummification was natural. It was a combination of factors: the bodies were overlain with copper sheets, parts of copper kettles, and together with the permafrost, this it gave the preserving effect,” Alexander Gusev of the Research Center for the Study of the Arctic told The Siberian Times. Five of the mummies from the site that had been shrouded in copper had also been buried with reindeer, beaver, wolverine, or bear furs. One man had also been wearing a head ornament in the shape of a bear and had been buried with an iron hatchet. Metal has been detected within the newly discovered birch bark coffin, thought to date to the twelfth or thirteenth century. “It follows the contours of the human body. If there is really a mummy, the head and skull are likely to be in good condition. We think it is a child, maybe a teenager. The find is now in Salekhard, in the Shemanovsky Museum, in a special freezer,” Gusev added. His team will open the “cocoon” later this month. To read more about archaeology in Siberia, go to "Fortress of Solitude."