Archeologists hail extraordinary find of suspected ‘Hun woman’ with a jet gemstone buckle on her beaded belt. After a fall in the water level, the well-preserved mummy was found this week on the shore of a giant reservoir on the Yenisei River upstream of the vast Sayano-Shushenskaya dam, which powers the largest power plant in Russia and ninth biggest hydroelectric plant in the world.
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The ancient woman was ʙᴜʀɪᴇᴅ wearing a silk skirt with a funeral meal – and she took a pouch of pine nuts with her to the afterlife. In her birch bark make-up box, she had a Chinese mirror. Near her remains – accidentally ᴍᴜᴍᴍɪғɪᴇᴅ – was a Hun-style vase.
A team of archeologists from St Petersburg’s Institute of History of Material Culture (Russian Academy of Sciences) working on the shoreline in Tyva Republic spotted a rectangle-shaped stone construction which looked like a burial. ‘The mummy was in quite a good condition, with soft tissues, skin, clothing and belongings intact,’ said a scientist.
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Natalya Solovieva, the institute’s deputy director, said: ‘On the mummy are what we believe to be silk clothes, a beaded belt with a jet buckle, apparently with a pattern. Archeologist Dr Marina Kilunovskaya said: ‘During excavations, the mummy of a young woman was found on the shore of the reservoir. ‘The lower part of the body was especially well preserved …
‘This is not a classic mummy – in this case, the burial was tightly closed with a stone lid, enabling a process of natural mummification.’ She was ʙᴜʀɪᴇᴅ around 1,900 to 2,000 years ago, scientists believe ahead of exhaustive tests.
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Astonishingly, the remains were preserved even though they have been underwater for periods since the dam became operational between 1978-85. Dr Solovieva said: ‘Near the head was found a round wooden box covered with birch-bark in which lay a Chinese mirror in a felt case.’ Near the young woman were two vessels, one a Hun-type vase.
‘There was a funeral meal in the vessels, and on her chest a pouch with pine nuts.’ Restoration experts have started working on the mummy.Analysis of the find is expected to yield a wealth of information on her life and time.Scientists received a grant from the Russian Geographical society to rescue the unique archeological finds in flooded areas.