Berel Kurgan 11-- Another Yuezhi-Chinese Link: Part I
The Yuezhi burial grounds at Berel contain about 70 kurgans. Most are medium-sized, and aligned in rows extending from the southeast toward the northwest. Possibly, these alignments represent clans or families. The kurgans are located on both sides of the Bukhtarma River in what is now Kazakhstan's Katon-Karagay National Park.
Berel is about 40 kilometers west of the "Ice Maiden's" Kurgan on the Ukok Plateau. All of these sites, including Pazyryk, are located in the southern Altai and contain barrows of the Yuezhi elite. Each country-- Russia, Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan-- wanted a "piece" of the Altai, and we see national borders intersecting directly on this mountain chain. Why was the Altai important to the Yuezhi?-- and why is it so important today?
The Katon-Karagay is one of the most beautiful and fertile regions in the Altai, just as it was in the first millennium BC when the Yuezhi consecrated their dead. The Altai also contains roughly 70 minerals, including gold, tin, copper, and iron. Ancient iron-smelting locations dot the landscape.
The larger monuments were robbed shortly after they were constructed; but although robbed, Berel Kurgan 11 surprised archaeologists by a wealth of artifacts still intact. The burial included a Europoid male about 40 years of age and an Asiatic female described as "an old woman." Both were mummified, Pazyryk-style. Due to her advanced age (about 70 years old), initial newspaper reports claimed the woman was the "prince's mother" (sort of like sleeping forever with Mummy-Dearest). The excavation team knew better, and believed she was his wife... interred about 30 years after the man died. Obviously, she never remarried. Shown in the (above) photo, the larch coffin lies on the left. To the right of the sarcophagus, we see what looks like a large pile of "something" hidden beneath shreds of burlap.
The real treasure of Berel Kurgan 11 turned out to be 13 fully caparisoned horses, stacked in two tiers under the burlap. Each horse was fully harnessed and saddled. The harness medallions and cheek pieces were executed in gold. Kurgan 11 has been dated between 225 and 200 BC, only a couple of decades prior to the Yuezhi migration. The horse gear becomes important, not because it's gold, but through its direct connection to contemporaneous Chinese horse-gear of the Qin Dynasty.
Please stay tuned for Part two. Thank you.
The Yuezhi burial grounds at Berel contain about 70 kurgans. Most are medium-sized, and aligned in rows extending from the southeast toward the northwest. Possibly, these alignments represent clans or families. The kurgans are located on both sides of the Bukhtarma River in what is now Kazakhstan's Katon-Karagay National Park.
Berel is about 40 kilometers west of the "Ice Maiden's" Kurgan on the Ukok Plateau. All of these sites, including Pazyryk, are located in the southern Altai and contain barrows of the Yuezhi elite. Each country-- Russia, Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan-- wanted a "piece" of the Altai, and we see national borders intersecting directly on this mountain chain. Why was the Altai important to the Yuezhi?-- and why is it so important today?
The Katon-Karagay is one of the most beautiful and fertile regions in the Altai, just as it was in the first millennium BC when the Yuezhi consecrated their dead. The Altai also contains roughly 70 minerals, including gold, tin, copper, and iron. Ancient iron-smelting locations dot the landscape.
The larger monuments were robbed shortly after they were constructed; but although robbed, Berel Kurgan 11 surprised archaeologists by a wealth of artifacts still intact. The burial included a Europoid male about 40 years of age and an Asiatic female described as "an old woman." Both were mummified, Pazyryk-style. Due to her advanced age (about 70 years old), initial newspaper reports claimed the woman was the "prince's mother" (sort of like sleeping forever with Mummy-Dearest). The excavation team knew better, and believed she was his wife... interred about 30 years after the man died. Obviously, she never remarried. Shown in the (above) photo, the larch coffin lies on the left. To the right of the sarcophagus, we see what looks like a large pile of "something" hidden beneath shreds of burlap.
The real treasure of Berel Kurgan 11 turned out to be 13 fully caparisoned horses, stacked in two tiers under the burlap. Each horse was fully harnessed and saddled. The harness medallions and cheek pieces were executed in gold. Kurgan 11 has been dated between 225 and 200 BC, only a couple of decades prior to the Yuezhi migration. The horse gear becomes important, not because it's gold, but through its direct connection to contemporaneous Chinese horse-gear of the Qin Dynasty.
Please stay tuned for Part two. Thank you.
Alan J. Campbell
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
