🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Karakol Kurgans
Early Bronze Age, Karakol culture 2500-1800 BCE · Karakol culture (Altai Early Bronze)
Early Bronze stone-slab cist kurgans (2500-1800 BCE) at Karakol with tri-color polychrome slab paintings, pre-Pazyryk Altai.
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15 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Early Bronze Age, Karakol culture 2500-1800 BCE · Karakol culture (Altai Early Bronze)
Early Bronze stone-slab cist kurgans (2500-1800 BCE) at Karakol with tri-color polychrome slab paintings, pre-Pazyryk Altai.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Early Iron Age (Tagar, Scythian-type) · Tagar (Scythian-Siberian)
Thousand-strong Tagar kurgan field (800 BCE–100 CE) — Khakas-Minusinsk Scythian-Style horizon.
🇷🇺 Russia · Archaeological wonder
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…
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Early Scythian (pre-Kelermes to Kelermes phase, 8th–7th c BCE aftermath of Near Eastern campaign) · North Caucasian Scythian–Meotian (Cimmerian substrate + returning Scythian)
Adygean Scythian–Cimmerian kurgans (670–640 BCE) with Assyrian mirror and earliest gold-scabbard akinakes.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
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.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Late Sarmatian (1st c BCE–1st c CE, Prokhorovka to Alan transition) · Late Sarmatian (Bashkir Prokhorovka–Alan transition)
Bashkir steppe Sarmatian chieftain mound (30 BCE–60 CE) 42 m with scale-armour horse and Parthian faience.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Early Bronze to Early Saka, Afanasievo to Saka · Afanasievo to Early Saka Altai
Kalbak-Tash multi-period kurgan field (2800-600 BCE) of 22 cromlechs co-located with 500-panel rock-art gorge on Chuya River.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
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
Tagar (Scythian-type Early Iron Age) · Tagar
18 Tagar satellite kurgans (700–300 BCE) on Salbyk terrace — hierarchy around Great Salbyk mega-mound.
🇷🇺 Russia · Archaeological wonder
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…
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Early Iron Age, Aldy-Bel to Sagly · Aldy-Bel to Sagly Saka, Tuva
15 Saka kurgans (750-500 BCE) in Uyuk Valley elite line with rank-size hierarchy and Chu silk, satellite to Arzhan royals.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Middle Bronze Age (Sintashta–Petrovka) · Sintashta (Country of Towns)
40+ Sintashta chariot kurgans (2050–1800 BCE) — earliest spoke-wheeled chariot graves, Indo-Iranian horizon.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
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
Early Iron Age (Sauromatian to Early Sarmatian) · Sauromatian / Early Sarmatian (Prokhorovka)
40+ Sauromatian–Early Sarmatian kurgans (600–200 BCE) — 'Amazon' female warrior necropolis on Ilek River.
🇷🇺 Russia · Tumulus
Maikop to Sarmatian (3600 BCE–300 CE) · Maikop / Yamnaya / Catacomb / Sarmatian
Stratified Maikop–Catacomb–Sarmatian kurgan cemetery (3600 BCE–300 CE) — Caucasus-steppe anchor.