Researchers Reconstruct Royal Scythian Faces

News January 10, 2021

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NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA—The Siberian Times reports that researchers have reconstructed the faces of a man and woman whose 2,600-year-old remains were discovered in southern Siberia in 1997. The man and woman’s skeletal remains were found in a wooden chamber in the Arzhan-2 burial mound, which also contained the remains of 33 other people, including five children, and the remains of 14 horses that had been adorned with gold, bronze, and iron trappings. The man and woman were buried in clothing encrusted with more than 40 pounds of gold decorations, and are thought to have been a Scythian king and queen, according to researchers from the Moscow Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology and the Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. The team members used laser scanning and photogrammetry to build 3-D models of the ancient skulls and recreate parts of them that had not been preserved. The faces were then sculpted over the reconstructed skulls with clay. To read about burials of Scythian warrior women that were recently unearthed in western Russia, go to “Arms and the Women.”

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