Exciting New Archaeological Finds in Altai! Ancient Saddles Used by Nomadic Hunnic Peoples
The Migration Period dates back to IV-VII century AD. Historians still debate why it happened and where was the final destination of people. Archaeologists from Barnaul promised to shed light on some of these questions. After many years of work, they presented the results to their colleagues from other regions.
Dmitry Klishin reports on their findings.
Nikolay Seregin, lead researcher, Laboratory of Archaeology, Altai State University: "This saddle is well recognized in the Altai region, Some scientists from Saint-Petersburg, who are not aware of the context, may say it dates back to VII century — but definitely not earlier, though this item definitely dates back to V century AD".
These nomadic warriors were 200 years ahead of their time in terms of technological progress. This was revealed by the lab test of the wooden elements of the 5th-century saddle. It was discovered in a burial mound Yaloman-II in the northern part of Altai Republic. Most likely, this is the very place where the famous Huns invasion started during the Migration Period. The Huns were an alliance of nomadic people who eventually conquered the invincible Roman Empire.
Nikolay Seregin, lead researcher, Laboratory of Archaeology, Altai State University: "They could easily — well, it's not exactly that easy — unsaddle and keep on fighting on foot if they needed that. They were more agile and flexible".
The full set of a warrior armor of pre-Turkic time is surprisingly well-preserved. It was discovered by archaeologists in Ongudaysky District of Altai Republic. The detailed analysis of the armor metal and the production technique could tell a lot about nations that left no written records at all.
These technologies only recently became available to archaeologists. Unfortunately, many recognized artifacts in Siberian museums were not subjected to re-examination.
Nikolay Seregin, lead researcher, Laboratory of Archaeology, Altai State University: "The presidential grant doesn't cover excavations, it's all about a desk job, it means participation in different conferences, processing and analysis of these materials, and also dealing with timeline issues, these are our internal issues and questions, the questions of how to date the artifacts".
It's the third time archaeologist Nikolay Seregin receives a presidential grant. In 2012, he began studying various aspects of nations who lived in the Asian part of modern Russia during the Migration Period. During the excavations, the archaeologists had a chance to study about 800 items and found a great number of artifacts that could provide great knowledge, simply by analyzing them with technologies available today. The presidential grant provided Siberian historians with financial backing for this kind of job.
Dmitry Klishin, Ilya Alymov, Lev Turin, Vesti, Altai Republic