T H E PA Z Y R Y K C A R P E T, 6 0 Y E A R S O N Leigh Mackay – TAASA Review December 2009

O ne ancient summer in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, a band of iron-age horsemen gouged a deep chamber in the earth and buried an aristocratic couple equipped with various items for the afterlife.

The mourners then covered the tomb with heavy layers of logs and soil, topped it with a broad mound of stones, and rode away.

This alpine cemetery, slightly northeast of the junction of Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia, was later called Pazyryk -local Turkic dialect for Valley of the Dead. Robbers soon looted the tomb of any precious objects...