Archaeologists Discover Human Sacrifice Used in ‘Display of Extreme Power’ | Evidence of a “unique” human and horse sacrifice ritual has been uncovered at a huge prehistoric burial mound in Siberia.

From the article: Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a “unique” human and horse sacrifice ritual at a huge prehistoric burial mound in southern Siberia.

The evidence came to light during excavations at the site of Tunnug 1 in Tuva, Russia, a study published in the journal Antiquity reports. The Iron Age site features a royal burial mound dated to the late 9th century, one of the earliest and largest in the Eurasian steppes.

The excavations revealed the fragmented remains of at least 18 horses and one human on the mound, with the evidence suggesting that they were sacrificed in honor of the elite individual who was buried inside.

The remains were found in association with “Scythian-style” artifacts and horse-riding equipment. [These findings](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/spectral-cavalcade-early-iron-age-horse-sacrifice-at-a-royal-tomb-in-southern-siberia/80E0B627528E00EA7C2AE4456F182DAC) indicate that the burial is an early example of the horse-focused funerary rituals of the later Scythians, described in Classical European texts. The Scythians were an Iron Age people of the Eurasian Steppe, known for their horse-focused culture and distinctive “animal-style” art.

“We discovered a unique burial ritual long thought to be an exaggeration of the Greek historian Herodotus aimed at making the steppe nomads look more barbaric,” Gino Caspari, senior author of the study with the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern, Switzerland, told Newsweek. “The archaeology allowed us to bring together written sources and material remains thousands of kilometers across the Eurasian steppes.”

“People created a tableau [of] dead humans and of the most valuable domestic animals—it is a display of extreme power,” he said. “While we can’t be sure about detailed meaning for the people involved, imagine riding across the steppes and stumbling upon such an arrangement of rotting corpses. Few things will tell you so clearly that the people of these lands are not to be messed with.”