thumb|Horseman, Pazyryk felt artifact, c.300 BC. For hoell felt artifact, see [[:Image:Hermitageswan.jpg|here.]]
The '''Pazyryk''' () is the name of an ancient nomadic people who lived in the Altai Mountains lying in Siberian Russia south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, near the borders of China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.<ref name="nova">{{cite web
|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2517siberian.html
|title=Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden
|publisher=PBS - NOVA
|accessdate=2007-07-31
}}
</ref>  In this part of the barrow-like tomb mounds of larch logs covered over by large Turkic origin, is generally used to describe such log-barrow burials. This archaeological site on the Ukok Plateau  is included in the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/768
|title=Golden Mountains of Altai
|publisher=UNESCO
|accessdate=2007-07-31
}}
</ref>

The Pazyryks were horse-riding pastoral nomads of the steppe and some may have accumulated great wealth through horse-trading with merchants in Persia, India and China.<ref name="atlas">{{cite book
| first=Paul G.
| last= Bahn
| year=2000 
| title=The Atlas of World Geology 
| edition= 
| publisher=Checkmark Books
| location=New York
| pages= p 128
| id=  ISBN 0-8160-4051-6}}</ref>  
== Discoveries ==
thumb|A gilded wooden figurine of a deer from the Pazyryk burials, 5th century BC
The first tombs were excavated by the archaeologist Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko beginning in the 1920s. While many of the tombs had already been looted in earlier times,  Rudenko unearthed buried horses, and with them immaculately preserved cloth saddles, felt and woolen rugs including the world's oldest pile carpet, a [http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_7e.html 3-metre-high four-wheel funeral chariot] from the 5th century BC and other splendid objects that had escaped the ravages of time. These finds are now exhibited at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. 
===Pazyryk chief===
Rudenko's most striking discovery was the body of a tattooed Pazyryk chief: a thick-set, powerfully built man who had died when he was about 50. Parts of the body had deteriorated, but much of the tattooing was still clearly visible (see image). Subsequent investigation using reflected infrared photography revealed that all five bodies discovered in the Pazyryk kurgans were tattooed.<ref>Findings published in Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia in spring of 2005.</ref> No instruments specifically designed for tattooing were found, but the Pazyryks had extremely fine needles with which they did miniature embroidery, and these were probably used for tattooing.
 
The chief was elaborately decorated with an interlocking series of designs representing a variety of fantastic beasts. The best preserved mountain ram, two highly stylized deer with long antlers and an imaginary carnivore on the right arm. Two monsters resembling griffins decorate the chest, and on the left arm are three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a mountain goat. On the front of the right leg a fish extends from the foot to the knee. A monster crawls over the right foot, and on the inside of the shin is a series of four running rams which touch each other to form a single design. The left leg also bears tattoos, but these designs could not be clearly distinguished. In addition, the chief's back is tattooed with a series of small circles in line with the vertebral column.  This tattooing was probably done for therapeutic reasons. Contemporary Siberian tribesmen still practice tattooing of this kind to relieve back pain.
===Ice Maiden===
thumb|The Ice Maiden - 5th century BC
The most famous undisturbed Pazyryk burial so far recovered is the "Ice Maiden" found by archaeologist Natalia Polosmak in 1993, a rare example of a single woman given a full ceremonial wooden chamber-tomb in the 5th century BC, accompanied by six horses. It had been buried over 2,400 years ago in a casket fashioned from the hollowed-out trunk of a larch tree. On the outside of the casket were stylized images of deer and snow leopards carved in leather. Shortly after burial the grave had apparently been flooded by freezing rain and the entire contents of the burial chamber had remained frozen in permafrost. Six horses wearing elaborate harnesses had been sacrificed and lay on the logs which formed the roof of the burial chamber. The maiden's well-preserved body, carefully embalmed with peat and bark, was arranged to lie on her side as if asleep. She was young; her hair was still blonde; she had been 5 feet 6 inches tall. Even the animal style tattoos were preserved on her pale skin: creatures with horns that develop into flowered forms. Her coffin was made large enough to accommodate the high felt headdress she was wearing, which had 15 gilded wooden birds sewn to it. On a gold buckle retrieved from another tomb, a similar woman's headdress intertwined with branches of the tree of life are depicted. Her blouse was originally thought to be made of wild "tussah" silk but closer examination of the fibers indicate the material is not Chinese but came from somewhere else, perhaps India.<ref name="atlas"/> She was clad in a long crimson woolen skirt and white felt stockings. Near her coffin was a vessel made of yak horn, and dishes containing gifts of coriander seeds:  all of which suggest that the Pazyryk trade routes stretched across vast areas of Asia. Similar dishes in other tombs was thought to have held ''Cannabis sativa'',  confirming a practice described by Herodotus <ref name="nova"/> but after tests the mixture was found to be coriander seeds, probably used to disguise the smell of the body.

Two years after the discovery of the "Ice Maiden" Dr. Polosmak's husband, Vyacheslav Molodin, found a frozen man, elaborately tattooed with an elk, with two long braids that reached to his waist, buried with his weapons.
thumb|One of the most ancient pile carpets in the world. (ca. 400 BC, Pazyryk).

===Other findings===
Other undisturbed kurgans have been found to contain remarkably well-preserved remains, comparable to the earlier mummification techniques and were also naturally frozen in solid ice from water seeping into the tombs.  They were encased in coffins made from hollowed trunks of larch (which may have had sacral significance) and sometimes accompanied by sacrificed concubines and horses.  The clustering of tombs in a single area implies that it had particular ritual significance for these people, who were likely to have been willing to transport their deceased leaders great distances for burial.

As recently as January 2007, tombs are still discovered at various locations, such as the timber tomb of a blond chieftain warrior that was unearthed in the permafrost of the Altai mountains region close to the Mongolian border.<ref></ref> The body of the presumed Pazyryk chieftain is tattooed; his sable coat is well-preserved, as are some other objects, including what looks like scissors. A local archaeologist, Aleksei Tishkin, complained that the indigenous population of the region strongly disapproves of archaeological digs, prompting the scientists to move their activities across the border to Mongolia.<ref></ref>

==Nomadic culture==
Rudenko initially assigned the neutral label Pazyryk culture for these nomads and dated them to the 5th century BC. The Pazyryk culture has since been connected to the Scythians whose similar tombs have been found across the steppes.  The Siberian animal style tattooing is characteristic of the Scythians. Trading routes between Central Asia, China and the Near East passed through the oases on the plateau and these ancient Altai nomads profited from the rich trade and culture passing through.<ref name="nomads">{{cite web
|url=http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_7.html
|title=Early Nomads of the Altaic Region
|publisher=The Hermitage
|accessdate=2007-07-31
}}</ref> There is evidence that Pazyryk trade routes were vast and connected with large areas of Asia including India, perhaps Pazyryk merchants largely trading in high quality horses.<ref name="nova"/>

It has been suggested that Pazyryk was a homeland for these tribes before they migrated west.  There is also the possibility that the current inhabitants of the  Altai region are descendants of the Pazyryk culture, a continuity that would accord with current ethnic politics: DNA is now being used to study the Pazyryk mummies.
<!-- ==DNA and anthropogenetic findings==

Structure of the control region of the mtDNA isolated form three representatives of Pazyryk Culture of Gorny Altai (IV-II century BC), one of the central cultures in the Scythian-Siberian world, was analyzed by molecular genetic techniques.

thumbnail|240px|right|パジリク5号墳出土の壁面覆いに見られる「乗馬する男」

'''パジリク（Pazyrik）遺跡'''（パジリクいせき）ないし、'''パジリク古墳群'''（パジリクこふんぐん）とは、ロシア連邦、南シベリアのアルタイ地方中央付近、アルタイ共和国の標高1600mのパジリク河岸にある大型円墳5基、小型円墳9基からなる墳墓（クルガン）群。
1929年にM.P.グリャズノフとS.I.ルデンコ、47-49年にS.I.ルデンコによって大型円墳5基を含む8基の墳墓が発掘調査された。

==概要==
年代については、発掘担当者は、紀元前5世紀と考えたが、紀元前3、同2世紀のものと考える研究者もいて論争があり、年輪年代法で検証したところ、大形墳5基は、前後48年という短期間に構築されたことが判明していることからこの古墳群の年代は紀元前3世紀前半頃と考えられる。

大型墳は、墳丘の直径24〜47m、高さは2〜4mの積石塚でその地下に深さ4〜5mで広さ50㎡ほどの長方形の墓壙を掘り、内部に1.2〜1.5ｍ、広さ8〜18㎡の墓室を造っている。墓室は白樺樹皮、潅木の枝、丸太が敷かれ、土を被せて石が積まれているという構造である。高地で寒冷な気候とクルガンの特別な構造、つまり、流れ込んだ雨水が墳丘の奥深くしみこんで冬の間に凍結したものが、墳墓の盛り土に石が積まれているために夏は熱せられるのを防いでいたことによって、盗掘を受けてはいたものの、造営直後から永久凍土中に、棺内の遺体をはじめ他の条件では腐敗しやすい馬の遺体、あるいはフェルト、織物、皮革、木などの有機物を材料とする遺物が氷づけの状態になって良好に保存されていた。

遺物には、土器や金属製品、木、織物、皮革などを材料とする衣服、生活用具、装身具などがみられた。遺物に用いられる紋様で特に多いのはスキト・シベリア様式というスキタイ独特の動物意匠の紋様で各種の植物をモチーフにした紋様も多く見られる。この遺物に見られる文化の担い手については、議論があり、ルデンコ、M.I.アルタモノフは、イラン系のサカ族で、中国史料でいう月氏であるとしているが、江上波夫らは月氏にしては、北方でありすぎるとしてこれを認めていない。実際の被葬者は、東枕で、墳墓中に男女一組の合葬とするのを原則としたこと、男性は170cm以上、女性は150cm以上と長身で、短頭、毛髪は剛直毛ではなくやわらかで栗色やブロンドがあり、人類学の分類でコーカソイド（ヨーロッパ人種）に属すると思われるが、モンゴロイドの混血がある可能性もあると考えられている。遺体は、脳と内臓、筋肉を除去してミイラとして納めている。男子のうち２号墳で発見された１体には、両手と胸背部及び右足に四足獣や怪獣、魚などを表現した黒色の刺青がある。副葬品には、現存最古と考えられる西アジア産のコリアンダーの種子、西アジアの中でもペルシャ産の精巧な毛織物や絨毯、エジプトからの宝飾品やビーズ、インド洋岸産の子安貝、中国産の青銅鏡、絹織物が、西方のスキタイ文化の系譜に連なる動物文様で飾った遺物に加えて出土し、当時の東西交流の盛んな実態を示す貴重な資料となっている。