🇲🇳 Mongolia · Tumulus
Gol Mod 2 Xiongnu Royal Necropolis
Early Iron Age, Xiongnu (Hunnu) Empire period · Xiongnu (Hunnu) imperial confederacy
80×80 m trapezoidal Xiongnu royal mausoleum (1st c. BCE) with Han lacquer and 400 satellite shaft tombs.
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Archaeological wonder
Noin-Ula Kurgans
Xiongnu Empire (~200 BCE – 100 CE) · Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu nomadic empire)
Forested ridge north of Ulaanbaatar concealing over 200 deep shaft-tombs (6–18 m deep) of the Xiongnu steppe empire that confronted Han China.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Tumulus
Chilikty Royal Kurgan
Early Iron Age, Early Saka / Arzhan-Chemurchek transition · Early Saka (Sakae) pastoralists
730 BCE Early Saka royal kurgan (100 m) with 500+ gold appliques and 17 horses, earliest monumental Saka tomb in East Kazakhstan.
🇷🇺 Russia · Archaeological wonder
Pazyryk Kurgans
Scythian Iron Age (~600–250 BCE; main Pazyryk phase 300 BCE) · Pazyryk (Scythian/Altaic nomadic)
Five large larch-log chamber tombs in the dry Ukok and Ulagan valleys where permafrost preserved tattooed chieftains, silk from China, Persian pile carpets (the oldest extant, 5th century BCE) and 10…
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Tumulus
Duurlig Nars Xiongnu Cemetery – Khentii
Late Iron Age, Xiongnu Empire · Xiongnu (Hunnu) northern imperial elite
Xiongnu elite shaft tombs in Khentii pine forest—Han silk 'Chanyu servant' inscription and lapis 4,000 km trade chain.
🇷🇺 Russia · Kurgan
Khokhlach Kurgan (Sarmatian Novocherkassk Hoard)
Early Iron Age; Sarmatian (Middle Sarmatian) Alanic · Scythian → Sarmatian (Sirachi/Alanic)
1st c. CE Sarmatian elite kurgan with Novocherkassk gold hoard — catacomb chamber, gold diadem, Parthian silver and Bosporan imports, Azov Sarmatian apogee.
🇷🇺 Russia · Kurgan
Novosvobodnaya (Maïkop Dolmens)
Early Bronze Age; Late Maikop → Novosvobodnaya → Dolmen culture · Maikop → Novosvobodnaya (dolmen phase) → Yamnaya fringe
Late Maïkop–Novosvobodnaya dolmen kurgans (3300–2600 BCE) under kurgan mounds — 5 m slab dolmen with Mesopotamian cylinder seal, bridging Maïkop elite to Yamnaya.
🇷🇺 Russia · Kurgan
Ostadniy Kurgan (Maykop / Maikop)
Late Chalcolithic → Early Bronze; Maikop period · Darkveti-Meshoko → Maikop (Kuban) → Late Maikop/Novosvobodnaya
Maikop Ostadniy elite kurgan (11 m high, 200 m diam., c.3500 BCE) with gold lions, Mesopotamian seals and Caucasus dolmen context — Uruk–Caucasus Early Bronze elite.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Archaeological wonder
Issyk Kurgan and the Golden Warrior
Saka (400–200 BCE) · Saka (Issyk–Tasmola, East Scythian)
Six-meter stone mound on the Talgar fan where Kemal Akishev in 1969 recovered an undisturbed side cist containing an 18-year-old Saka prince clad in 4,000 gold plaques depicting leopard, ibex and…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Tumulus
Taldy-2 Kurgan – Tasmola Culture Royal Tomb
Early Iron Age, Tasmola/Scythian-Saka (9th–5th c. BCE) · Tasmola (Saka-Scythian) steppe pastoralists
8-m-high 800 BCE Tasmola royal mound (70 m wide) with 4,500 golds and 30 satellite 'moustache' stone alignments.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Tumulus
Baykara Kurgan
Early Iron Age Early Saka 670 BCE plus Sarmatian reuse · Early Saka western + Sarmatian intrusive
110-m giant Early Saka kurgan (670 BCE) at Baykara on Tobol terrace, westernmost Saka royal mound with Sarmatian reuse.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Tumulus
Eleke Sazy Royal Kurgan
Early Iron Age, Early Saka 8th-5th c. BCE · Early Saka Tarbagatai
680 BCE Early Saka golden warrior kurgan (4,300 golds) in ranked 280-mound cemetery at Eleke Sazy, Tarbagatai.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Arzhan 2 Royal Kurgan
Early Iron Age, pre-Scythian/Al dy-Bel (8th–7th c. BCE) · Aldy-Bel (early Scythian) steppe nomads
Intact 670 BCE Scythian royal grave in Tuva—9,000 gold pieces and 14 horses in a larch chamber.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Shalobolino Kurgans
Early Iron Age Tagar culture 700-400 BCE · Tagar (Minusinsk Basin)
700 BCE Tagar royal kurgans (8 mounds, 40-85 m) on Yenisei terrace co-located with 3,000-panel rock-art cliff at Shalobolino.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Kostromskaya Kurgan – Maikop Iron Canopy Grave
Early Iron Age, Early Scythian (Kuban group) · Early Scythian (Kubano–Chernogorovka) proto-Scythian elite
7th-c. BCE 30-m Maikop-Mounded Scythian tent-canopy grave with iron-shod poles and 22 horse sacrifice.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan · Tumulus
Tillya Tepe – Hill of Gold
Late Hellenistic to early Kushan (1st c. BCE–CE) · Yuezhi nomadic confederacy transitional to Kushan
Six 1st-c. nomadic royal graves (Yuezhi) with 21,000 gold pieces—Silk Road fusion before the Kushan empire.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Tuekta Kurgans – Pazyryk Culture Royal Necropolis
Early Iron Age, Scytho-Siberian Pazyryk · Pazyryk (Scytho-Siberian) culture
600–400 BCE Pazyryk royal barrows (early plateau ancestors)—8 horses and earliest Altai felt art.
🇩🇰 Denmark · Megalith
Jelling Stones
Viking Age (Jelling dynasty) · Viking Age Danes / Jelling dynasty
UNESCO Viking royal complex at Jelling — two mounds, Gorm and Harald Bluetooth runestones (965 CE) and ship outline.
🇷🇺 Russia · Archaeological wonder
Arzhan Royal Kurgan
Early Scythian (~900–700 BCE) · Aldy-Bel / Arzhan (early Scythian–Siberian)
Enormous 120-m stone platform kurgan in the Uyuk depression, where archaeologists led by Gryaznov and later Chugunov uncovered a radial larch log mortuary house with central royal double burial and…
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Archaeological wonder
Berel Kurgans
Scythian Pazyryk phase (~400–250 BCE) · Saka/Pazyryk (East Kazakh nomadic)
Seventy burial mounds in the Bukhtarma valley of the Altai where Canadian–Kazakh teams uncovered horse sacrifices wearing antlered ibex-horn masks transforming them into griffins.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Megalith
Anundshög & Anundshög Ship Setting
Bronze Age to Viking Age · Mälaren Iron Age
Anundshög & Anundshög Ship Setting in Västmanland, Sweden is a Bronze Age to Viking Age megalithic attributed to Mälaren Iron Age culture.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria · Archaeological wonder
Varna Necropolis – Chalcolithic Gold Cemetery
Chalcolithic (Copper Age Gumelniţa/Kodzhadermen–Gumelnitsa–Karanovo VI) · Varna culture (Late Copper Age Balkan)
4600 BCE cemetery with 6.5 kg gold—world's earliest large stratified gold treasure (Grave 43 penis sheath).
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Philippovka Kurgans – Sarmatian Gold Necropolis
Iron Age Sarmatian (Prokhorovka culture) · Early Sarmatian (Sauromatian–Prokhorovka)
29 Sarmatian chief mounds (400–300 BCE)—26,000 gold appliqués and scale-armored elite on the Ural steppe.
🇷🇺 Russia · Kurgan
Sukhaya Termista — Catacomb Culture Kurgan Field
Late Yamnaya → Catacomb → Srubnaya · Yamnaya → Catacomb Grave culture → Srubnaya (Timber Grave)
Kalmyk steppe Catacomb Grave kurgans (2800–2200 BCE) with shaft-and-niche chambers cut into Yamnaya mounds — post-Yamnaya chariot horizon and ‘caterpillar’ pottery.