During excavations in one of the villages located in the habitat of an ancient Arctic civilization, scientists discovered the remains of a mummy wrapped in a birch bark cocoon.
The research was carried out in the Tyumen region in the Salekhard region, where the mummy was found. According to archaeologists, most likely the remains belong to a child or teenager and date back to the 13th century.
The excavation site is located about twenty kilometers south of the North Polar District, in a place called Zeleny Yar. It is considered a kind of medieval necropolis, where the bodies of several dozen people are buried. Moreover, the method of burying bodies has some specific features that were not previously observed by scientists in other graves found in this region.
So, in the course of examining the cocoons, archaeologists found that the bodies were wrapped in birch bark about 30 centimeters wide and about one and a half meters long. Removing a layer of bark, the scientists found sheets of copper that covered the face and other organs.
Experts believe that such a burial ritual made it possible to stop the process of tissue decay, and, in combination with permafrost, contributed to the natural mummification of bodies.
In total, the researchers found 34 graves in the burial, where bodies with broken skulls of various degrees of preservation lay. Of these, five mummies were not only covered with sheets of copper, but also covered with dressed hides of deer, wolverine and beaver. One of the bodies belonged to a female child, three more belonged to male babies. All these mummies had copper masks on their faces.
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But most of all, scientists were interested in the remains of a red-haired man, who was completely covered with copper plates. An iron ax and a bronze buckle with the image of a bear's head were also found in his grave.
Many objects discovered by archaeologists in the necropolis, including bronze bowls, testify to the presence of a mysterious connection between the inhabitants of the polar district and Persia, which was located at a distance of almost seven thousand from the Arctic. However, DNA studies of mummies have shown that they correspond to the DNA of modern northern peoples inhabiting Western Siberia.