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Trevor Wallace

A partial view of the Tunnug 1 cemetery on the Siberian steppe. Archaeologists worked through autumn 2019 with the hope that frozen groundwater would make excavations easier. Instead, they had to pump frigid water from beneath a thick layer of ice in order to dig the site.

A Tuva shaman makes offerings and asks for assistance from ancestors at the opening of the excavation season at Tunnug 1 in 2019. Local Tuvinians generally have a mix of animist and Buddhist beliefs.

Five iron arrowheads from Burial 33 in the Tunnug 1 graveyard. They were likely stored in a quiver that has since decomposed over the millennia.

Archaeologists noted a diamond-shaped injury—likely from an arrowhead—on the skull of a young male buried at Tunnug 1 in Siberia some 2,000 years ago. Researchers believe the physical injuries seen at the Tunnug 1 cemetery may reflect internal chaos on the steppe following the collapse of the Xiongnu empire.

A middle-aged man was buried at Tunnug 1 between A.D. 100 and 300. Later investigation determined he had chop marks on his vertebrae. An iron vessel and ceramic pot buried beside him would have contained food offerings for the afterlife.