1,500-Year-Old Remains of Newborn Found in Siberia

News August 26, 2015

(Gorno-Altaisk State University)
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Siberia newborn burial
(Gorno-Altaisk State University)

GORNO-ALTAISK, RUSSIA—The Siberian Times reports that the partially mummified remains of an infant were discovered by a team from Gorno-Altaisk State University during the excavation of a burial mound near Kurai village in southern Siberia. “The child was buried in a separate small burial mound located between the mounds of two adults, probably the parents. [The baby] was buried in a tightly closed stone box, so the body was in an isolated air chamber for over 1,500 years. This partially preserved the soft body tissue and fragments of a leather shroud, in which the baby was wrapped. Sadly the head was not preserved at all,” said archaeologist Nikita Konstantinov. The burials are thought to belong to the Bulan-Kobinskaya culture. DNA analysis could provide more information about who these people were and how they lived. To read about another archaeological discovery in Siberia, go to "Fortress of Solitude." 

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