Scythian mummy found in Mongolia - dates back 2,500 years

[Chariovalda]

Thanks for the link Theo!
500 BC - when did these folks get to be horse-warriors? A bit before that, right? If really a Scythian, he was indeed buried far more to the east than is usual. And if burials indeed are closely connected to land ties and territorial claims.. hock:

This may open a political can of worms, because 'Scythian' usually means 'European', and the Chinese won't be very happy with that! This man isn't exhibited in Germany for no reason! I'm not going to open the cesspit of migration/invasion discussions here, but I bet there will be some scientific bitching ahead of us about whether the artefacts of this burial should also mean fair skin and an Indo-European language.. :roll: After all, we've ben there before with an earlier 'ice mummy'.

I take it you are referring to the "ice princess"?
Well, I don't know whether the Chinese will be bothered much by whether the body was biologically "western Eurasian" or not, but it may discomfort the Mongols a bit. Another "Scythian" body of about the same age, found at Kizil, Altai Republic, on the "Russian" side of the Altai proved to be linked by DNA to western Eurasian populations (specifically eastern Europe, India and Iran).

Then again, so what? Analysis of bodies found in the Egyin Gol necropolis in northern Mongolia that were several centuries younger indicated a population genetically very similar to the modern one, albeit with evidence of admixture (10% or so) with Europeans/western Eurasians. Mongolia, or at least parts of it, seems to have been a place where "Scythian" and "Altaic" peoples met and mingled, and common cultural traits were spread all over the Eurasian steppe zone.

I think an ancient Scythian or Hun would probably laugh at our concepts of race and nation... 8)