Tunnug 1 (Arzhan 0) — Frozen Royal Kurgan, Uyuk Valley Tuva
Туннуг 1 · Arzhan 0 · Uyuk Valley Valley of the Kings — Tunnug 1
Early Scythian (Arzhan horizon, early Saka, Aldy-Bel–Mongun-Taiga precursor)·Early Scythian (Aldy-Bel / Arzhan, Proto-Saka–Mongun-Taiga)·🇷🇺 Tuva Republic, Piy-Khem District, Uyuk Valley (Siberian Valley of the Kings), Uyuk River swamp, Russia
About
About Tunnug 1 (Arzhan 0) — Frozen Royal Kurgan, Uyuk Valley Tuva
8 ha (140 x 130 m) stone mound encircling a swamp-embedded timber mortuary house with permafrost-preserved organics, 6 miles southwest of Arzhan 1. Gino Caspari (Bern/ RAS) 2017–2022 Russian–Swiss excavation revealed a radial timber architecture mirroring Arzhan 1 but 50–100 years earlier (late 9th c BCE), with sacrificial deposit of 18 horses and one human at the periphery (2023 Antiquity spectral horse sacrifice study) and peripheral burials radiocarbon-anchored 860–1000 CE parallels.
Construction in a swamp ensures ice lenses seal the central larch-log chamber (12 x 10 m). If central burial is intact, it would be the oldest frozen Scythian tomb predating Pazyryk by 500 years.
Why it mattersRewrites Scythian chronology — pushes frozen kurgan tradition back to late 9th c BCE, 50–100 yr before Arzhan 1.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Central burial ice preservation
Theories
- 01Uyuk as Scythian origin centre
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.820 – 800 BCE (late 9th c BCE)
- Period
- Early Scythian (Arzhan horizon, early Saka, Aldy-Bel–Mongun-Taiga precursor)
- Culture
- Early Scythian (Aldy-Bel / Arzhan, Proto-Saka–Mongun-Taiga)
- Builders
- Early Scythian/Saka royal pastoral elite (Uyuk chiefdom)
- Purpose
- Royal funerary monument with horse sacrifice and horizon founding
- Abandoned
- c.800 BCE after burial; periphery to 900 CE
- Rediscovered
- 2017 G. Caspari satellite discovery; 2018–2022 RSF–Swiss excavation
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
830 BCE
Timber felling date dendro
2018
Caspari RSF–Swiss excavation opens swamp mound
2023
Antiquity 18-horse spectral cavalcade publication
On the ground
Structures & features
52.0592° N · 93.6054° E · 910 m · 2 mapped features
Central Timber Mortuary House (12 x 10 m)
mortuary houseLarch-log radial house under ice lens in swamp mound centre
52.0592° N · 93.6054° EPeripheral Horse Sacrifice Ring (18 horses)
burialRing of 18 horse skeletons + 1 human 30 m from centre
52.0590° N · 93.6030° E