The Pazyryk kurgans
Permafrost kept the Altai nomads' carpets, felts and tattoos
The nomads of the Pazyryk culture buried their elite in kurgans in the high Altai, where water seeped into the graves and froze. The permafrost preserved felt rugs, clothing, saddles, horse harness and tattooed bodies. The oldest known pile carpet, now in the Hermitage, comes from here.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 4th century BC
Alive at the time
- Socrates (aged 70)
- Plato (aged 28)
- Hippocrates (aged 60)
- Aspasia (aged 70)