A child who died at around one year old was buried in an elite Iron Age kurgan in what is now eastern Kazakhstan. After death, an opening was made in the child's skull, part of a funerary practice thought to have helped preserve elite bodies before burial.
Known as postmortem trepanation, the treatment appears almost exclusively in elaborate Scythian graves containing gold objects, horses, and monumental tombs. Because the child died before he could have gained prestige through warfare, leadership, or wealth, his burial points to a status inherited at birth. Genetic analysis linked him to an elite family whose members received high-status burials across at least three generations.
A genome-wide study published in Science Advances traced biological relationships among Iron Age Scythians buried across Kazakhstan and Russia. The results connected elite relatives across multiple kurgans and separate cemeteries and showed that high-status individuals were more related to one another than to lower-status people buried nearby and included the first genome-wide analysis of Kazakhstan’s famous Golden Man.
“We did not expect to find that social status was passed down from generation to generation, but it was clear that high-status individuals were more related to each other, even when buried at different archaeological sites, than to people of lower status who were buried at the same sites with the elites,” said senior author Ainash Childebayeva in a press release.
Read More: Iron Age Celtic Grave Reveals Gold, Weapons, and a Two-Wheeled Chariot
Scythian Elite Relatives Were Buried Miles Apart
The researchers analyzed DNA from 85 people who lived between roughly 900 and 200 B.C.E., including 38 individuals from elite burials and 47 from less elaborate graves.
The one-year-old child, cataloged as KSH001, was genetically identified as the grandchild of an elite man known as AKB001. The older man was buried with gold objects and also showed evidence of postmortem trepanation. DNA linked him to an elite brother and another grandchild buried elsewhere.
Members of this family were buried in cemeteries located 31 to 87 miles apart, yet their high-status graves spanned at least three generations. Researchers also identified more distant biological connections among elite men and women at other sites, showing that the family links extended across several Scythian burial grounds rather than remaining within a single cemetery.
Elite Status Followed Family Lines
Two elite individuals were about 11 times more likely to share a genetic connection than two non-elites. High-status people were also more likely to be related to elites buried at distant sites than to lower-status individuals buried beside them.
(Image Courtesy of © Gulmira Mukhtarova)
Several elite individuals appeared to be the children of unions between relatives, including first and second cousins, as well as between an aunt or uncle and a niece or nephew. The elite group also carried longer stretches of matching DNA inherited from both parents.
The genetic pattern indicates that Scythian elites formed a relatively restricted group in which family connections helped preserve status across generations.
The Golden Man and Elite Women
The Golden Man was uncovered during excavations that began near Issyk, Kazakhstan, in 1969. The fourth- to third-century B.C.E. burial contained more than 4,000 gold ornaments and later became a national symbol of Kazakhstan.
The analysis placed the Golden Man within the genetic variation of other Iron Age Saka people and found that the individual was most likely male, adding genetic evidence to a long-running debate over biological sex.
Women made up 16 of the 38 elite individuals, or 42 percent, showing that high status was not limited to men. The researchers found no consistent patrilocal or matrilocal pattern, nor evidence that status passed exclusively through either the maternal or paternal line.
Instead, the DNA linked elite men and women across several generations and burial grounds separated by dozens of miles.
Read More: Scottish Burial Site Suggests an Iron Age Woman’s Brain Was Removed and Bones Carved After Death
Article Sources
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- This article references information from a study published in Science Advances: Ancient DNA reveals elite dynastic rule among Iron Age Eurasian Steppe nomads
