Sarmatian burial mound excavated in Russia’s
Sarmatian burial mound excavated in Russia’s Southern Ural steppes has yielded a magnificent treasure which might be key in understanding more on teh Sarmates, and a little-known period of their nomadic culture that flourished on the Eurasian steppe in the 1st millennium BC. The archaeological study of this remarkable ancient tomb, or kurgan, was carried out by the expedition of the Institute of Archaeology (Russian Academy of Sciences), led by Professor Leonid T. Yablonsky. The nomadic peoples such as the Sarmates had no written language therefore scientists can only learn about their cultures and traditions through archaeological data. The kurgans which are scattered across the steppes contain many Scythian and Sarmatian relics and while the nomads successfully interacted with the Persian Achaemenid and Greek civilizations, they still preserved a unique culture of their own.